The Utah Jazz (37-43) host the Dallas Mavericks (49-31) tonight at EnergySolutions arena in Salt Lake City. This will be the last home game of the 2014-2015 season for the Jazz, then they will play again on the road against the Houston Rockets (54-26) on Wednesday, April 15th.
Jazz players from the bench have continued to step up in situations where the team has not utilized certain players. On Saturday, in Portalnd versus the Trailblazers, Gordon Hayward and Derrick Favors did not play any minutes- Trevor Booker, Elijah Millsap, Bryce Cotton, Jeremy Evans, and Chris Johnson were all players that contributed on offense.
Bench points in Portland:
PF- Trevor Booker – Career High 36 points
F- Elijah Millsap – 11 points
PG- Bryce Cotton -11 points
F- Jeremy Evans – 12 points
F- Chris Johnson – 11 points
Other contributions in Portland:
Rudy Gobert – 6 points, 2 blocks, 11 rebounds
Rodney Hood- 21 points, 8 assists, 2 rebounds
Joe Ingles- 1 assist, 1 rebound
“We did a good job, we just went out and played hard. The bench came in and scored, fought hard and they were big reason why we won that game,” said Booker.
LISTEN TO TREVOR BOOKER TALK WITH THE MEDIA FOLLOWING SHOOT AROUND HERE:
Dallas Mavericks will not utilize their key players tonight- Monta Ellis, Chandler Parsons and Dirk Nowitzki.
Snyder said that he thinks this will impact the team tonight, in a similar way that a back-to-back game would affect a team’s performance also. The challenge for the Jazz has been to decipher how to approach each game- opportunities and situations are different (Snyder said that because Dirk won’t be there, it will affect their pick-n-roll coverage.)
Jazz trainer Gary Briggs who has worked closely and intently with the team will retire, and the organization will honor him tonight. Briggs has been a great resource and support to Coach Snyder. He mentioned that Briggs’s influence will continue to impact the team in the future.
“[Trainers] are instrumental. Players talk to them. It’s a unique position because there’s responsibilities obviously that they have on a professional level to the club. There’s also situations that they’re asked to manage- like assistant coaches. It’s a role that is a difficult one to identify, but on an injury level it’s incredibly important…They generally know the fabric of organization more than anyone.”
Coach Snyder expressed his gratitude for the Utah Jazz fan base and appreciation from them in Utah. The players look forward to tonight’s game- to show the fan’s their appreciation as well.
LISTEN TO COACH SNYDER TALK WITH THE MEDIA FOLLOWING SHOOT AROUND HERE:
