Bojan Bogdanovic fights through ankle injury to spark Utah Jazz in season opener

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SALT LAKE CITY — Bojan Bogdanovic was mad.

It was the second quarter of his first regular-season home game with his new team, the atmosphere electric, and he was playing pretty dang well, having scored seven early points.

But all he could feel was the pain in his ankle and he feared his night was going to be over.

He had just landed on someone’s foot — maybe it was Danilo Gallinari’s, maybe it was someone else’s — and that impact had rolled his ankle.

He felt pain, he felt anger, he felt frustration.

“With this great atmosphere we had today, I wanted to stay, I wanted to play more game,” Bogdanovic said.

Bogdanovic tried to walk it off but soon was in the locker room getting treatment. The Jazz officially listed him as questionable to return and he tried to move around to keep it warm. He told the medical staff that he was going to try to play the first couple of minutes of the second half to see if he could handle the pain.

Turns out he could.

Maybe he was buoyed by the crowd, maybe it was the adrenaline rush of the season starting, maybe it was just pure toughness and grit, but Bogdanovic didn’t just play, he played a key role in Utah beating Oklahoma City on Wednesday.

Bogdanovic scored nine second-half points, including a frenzy early in the fourth quarter, that helped push the Jazz past the Thunder.

With 8:11 left in the game, Bogdanovic stole the ball and maneuvered his way down the court on a one-man fastbreak for a layup that cut OKC’s lead to four. His ankle didn't appear to bother as he cut his way through the Thunder defense.

Two possessions later, he dribbled in, took a step back, and calmly drilled a mid-range jumper to cut the deficit to two. And with 5:25 left, the man they call Bogey drilled a corner 3-pointer that capped off a 17-4 run and gave the Jazz a five-point lead.

“I was sick to my stomach when he went down but he's been playing this game a long time and he's played in so many big games,” Jazz coach Quin Snyder said. “He's a clutch player, he's a confident player. And those are some of the things that we liked about him. He's a competitor — a tremendous competitor.

“To me as significant as some of the buckets that he got in the second half — which were big buckets — was the fact that he came out ready to go in the third quarter. Obviously, he wasn't 100% and that's a competitor.”

Before the game, Snyder answered a question about Bogdanovic’s preseason struggles with an admittedly tongue-in-cheek response.

“I don't know the exact numbers, but his clutch numbers are through the roof,” said Snyder dryly. “So, you know, we'll take that over the preseason.”

Bogdanovic came through just like Snyder thought he would.

But the Croatian forward paid no mind to the shots he made, he focused more on the ones he didn’t. Especially the wide-open 3-pointer he had late in the fourth quarter that he missed.

“I don’t know how clutch I was. I missed the wide-open 3 — that would be clutch,” Bogdanovic said. “But like I said, I just tried to stay aggressive.”

Even on a bum ankle, he was aggressive. And he ended up making a pretty good impression with his new home fans because of it.

“A great, great atmosphere, it got me into the game,” said Bogdanovic.

He admitted that his ankle was sore following the game, but the experience of playing in his new home on the first night of the season was well worth it.

“It's home opener; maybe if this happening like in game six or seven, I might stay in the locker room,” Bogdanovic joked.