Utah Jazz Summer League 2015: Utah Jazz 100 - Boston Celtics 82 Game Recap

The Utah Jazz and the Boston Celtics tipped off their summer league tonight with an exciting game that was hotly contested, and very physical. Guys were on the floor almost every few minutes, and in the second half, especially, there were a number of hard fouls.Rodney Hood and Dante Exum led this team, as they should. Hood is trouble as he played everything from SG to PF in this game. Exum looks like a future star. They ended up scoring over 40 points together, as the Jazz won 100-82. This is pretty much going to be a stream of consciousness recap, so bear with me. Rodney Hood looks like the primary scorer here, and he was clearly the bail out guy on many plays. The Jazz were using many more two point guard sets (Bryce Cotton and Dante Exum, Bryce Cotton and Olivier Hanlan, Bryce Cotton and Jared Cunningham, Dante Exum and Jared Cunningham). Utah Bigs (Jack Cooley, Brock Motum, Grant Jerrett) all looked awful in the first quarter. Jazz offense didn't evolve much, from what little we've seen. Jazz defense can't handle dribble penetration -- it's a brave new world out there without Rudy Gobert backing everyone up. Marcus Smart has really supplemented his defensive ability and physical play with an outside shot. It's going to be a problem for other teams. The Jazz stepped it up on defense in the second, and went small. They finished the half with a line-up of Bryce Cotton, Dante Exum, Olivier Hanlan, Rodney Hood, and Brock Motum. Cotton drained a three to beat the buzzer to push the Jazz lead up to 51-40. The third quarter was on a string, Jazz pulled ahead, Boston caught up, then Jazz went ahead again. Fourth quarter was just for the record. During the game Grant Jerrett and Dante Exum both got injured. Grant has a shoulder injury. Dante rolled an ankle.

It was a very physical game, mostly because of Boston. But our guys didn't back down. Rodney Hood was really, really good. Dante Exum was aggressive. Jack Cooley played a lot and got rebounds, and was a load down low. Chris Johnson, Olivier Hanlan, and Jared Cunningham will fight for a training camp invite. Bryce Cotton is fast, but still doesn't look like he added anything over the off-season.

The Jazz play the the San Antonio Spurs tomorrow, and the Celtics and the Philadelphia 76ers go at it.