Game Preview: San Antonio Spurs vs Utah Jazz

“Comparison is the thief of joy”, we’re told. It’s a saying of such economy and self-assuredness that it carries a unique quality of assumed truth. You know, the kind of truth that lends itself to an angsty typeset and melodramatic photo background perfect for passive-aggressively sniping at others on social media.

The thing is, there are a lot of benefits to comparison. Human beings bob about in an ocean of relativity; joy relative to every other moment of joy, pain relative to every other pain. Comparison is a part of what fills out our understanding of perspective. Like it or not, knowing who we are is at least partially tied to knowing who we’re not.

And in spite of a 1-3 record, the Spurs are definitely not the Utah Jazz.

It’s easy to make that mistake, I know. Patty Mills plays for the Jazz, and that’s confusing. The Spurs only have one win more than the Jazz, and that’s confusing too. But the reality is that these are two teams on different parts of a similar journey — The Jazz aimed head-first in one direction in search of a superstar, the Spurs on a slow incline upwards having already secured theirs.

The difference is apparent if you watch the stripped-down Jazz for a quarter or two. There’s a nonchalance on the court that’s incredibly familiar. Like the Spurs in seasons past, the Jazz can’t be too transparent, but the urgency is visibly lacking. The Spurs, on the other hand, in the midst of a rough opening schedule, look almost too urgent — both the team and the gargantuan French wunderkind nonplussed that they’re not as advanced and cohesive as they’d like to be yet.

The stats bear the difference out, even if you haven’t been keeping an eye on the Jazz.
The Spurs are 21st in FG%, 21st in Assist %, 22nd in 3pt%, 22nd in True Shooting%, and 12th in Defensive Rating. The Jazz are 30th, 27th, 29th, 30th, and 26th.

Even more telling is the disparity in Net Rating. And while the Spurs aren’t doing great at 27th, the Jazz are dead last at a jaw-dropping -17.0, almost a full 10 points worse than the Spurs, and -8.5 points worse than the 2nd-to-last Pelicans.

See, now aren’t you glad we compared the two teams? It certainly made me feel better about the Spurs’ bumpy start to the season.

There’s not a lot of incentive for the Jazz to play the Spurs hard in this one, nor to rush back their best player in Lauri Markkanen in what will almost certainly be a purposely lost year. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Jazz hold him out in this one, since back injuries are something to cautious about to begin with.

If that ends up being the case, the floodgates might open against a quietly frustrated Spurs team hunting for a win and a rhythm.

On the other hand, if the tanking Jazz do manage to beat the Spurs, well...we might have to circle back around to that whole ‘thief of joy’ thing again.

Spurs Injuries: Devin Vassell - Out (Foot), Tre Jones - Out (Ankle)

Jazz Injuries: Taylor Hendricks - Out (Leg), Isaiah Collier - Questionable (Hamstring), Lauri Markkanen - Questionable (Back)

For those who’ve been watching so far, it’s clear that Victor hasn’t quite found his rhythm yet. He had his first legitimately bad game against the Thunder last night, managing only 5 total attempts on an evening where the Thunder’s suffocating defense made points hard to come by, and gave Wemby hardly an inch of breathing room all night. Part of being a superstar in the NBA is learning how to get yours even when the opposition is throwing everything at you, and that’s clearly still a work in progress, especially with Wemby coming off of some form of illness. However, it’s been a pattern that Wembanyama comes out swinging after an off night, and the Jazz are likely to be on the receiving end of his frustrations. There is almost always a good reason to keep an eye out for a spectacular night from San Antonio’s Gallic sophomore, but he’s due a monstrous game sooner or later, and Halloween against the Jazz might end up being a fright night you’ll be sorry you missed out on. (Plus, there’s no telling what pregame costume the Slender Man will be showing up to the game in, and that’s always fun too)

For the Jazz’ fans’ perspective, visit SLC Dunk.

PtR’s Game thread will be up this evening for those who want to chat through the game. You can also follow along with the action through PtR’s Twitter feed.