Utah Jazz: Players ready for 'real' season

PORTLAND, Ore. — After today, when they face the Trail Blazers in Portland, it's three down and four to go for the Jazz in the 2008-09 NBA preseason.

If some from Utah had their way, that would be three down and none to go before the regular season gets under way.

"I think a lot of the guys on the team are anxious to get the season started," starting shooting guard Ronnie Brewer said. "Preseason games are pretty good because you get to play against (other) guys instead of beating up on your teammates, but you definitely want the games to start counting."

"We'd like to get the season crackin' right away," All-Star power forward Carlos Boozer added, "to where every game counts to your record."

Boozer and others say what they do in large part because continuity rules in the land of the Jazz, where 13 of 15 players with guaranteed contracts are returnees from last season.

"I think we're farther along right now at this point than we were last year," said Boozer, who actually will be playing his first preseason game today after missing Utah's first two with soreness in his mildly strained left hamstring. "Chemistry's not going to be an issue. We've built that up over the last couple seasons."

"I think it's night and day, just because we have pretty much the same team back," point guard Deron Williams added. "There's not much teaching going on. We know the offense. We're just trying to sharpen things up."

Not all with the Jazz, however, are quite so anxious to pass go without stopping or collecting cash.

Predictably, coaching staff and management alike see the benefits of a seven-game exhibition schedule — and it's not just because of the financial benefit that extra pay dates on the calendar provide.

"You just can't go out and go from 0 to 60," Jazz general manager Kevin O'Connor said.

With an Oct. 29 regular-season opener against Denver now about two-and-a-half weeks away, O'Connor and Jazz coach Jerry Sloan see similar gains to be had in mid-October.

Objectives in the preseason, Sloan said, are to "hopefully get everybody to understand what we're doing, and hopefully get a better focus on what we need to do."

"You build up your time on the court," O'Connor added. "You want to be in a situation where you evaluate some of the offenses and some of the defenses that you think might work that maybe don't."

So Sloan toys, trying usual starting small forward Andrei Kirilenko both off the bench and at power forward, starting usual reserve swingman C.J. Miles at small forward, playing combo guard Ronnie Price next to new point Brevin Knight.

He uses regulars like Williams for no more than two quarters early on, and saves the Jazz's last two preseason games for getting a long look at what is likely to be his actual starting lineup and regular rotation.

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