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SALT LAKE CITY — Give the Utah Jazz credit for continuing to say all the right things over the last few weeks even if the evidence contradicts their assessments.
Dating back to March 11, the Jazz stumbled along to an 8-9 record. The team fell flat of coach Quin Snyder's oft-stated goal of playing its best basketball approaching the playoffs.
The last two weeks were marred by three brutal collapses that resulted in losses despite holding double-digit leads in each game. One game after Snyder went to great lengths to defend his team in a nearly 20-minute pregame discourse to the local media, the Jazz couldn't hold a 17-point lead in the fourth quarter at home against a Phoenix Suns team that had long since clinched the overall No. 1 seed throughout the playoffs.
Needing overtime to beat the Memphis Grizzlies, who were without leading scorers Ja Morant and Dillon Brooks, and downing the severely watered-down Portland Trail Blazers doesn't exactly ring of a team rolling at the right time. But don't bother telling the Jazz, who open the playoffs Saturday against the Dallas Mavericks.
"I love where we are," center Rudy Gobert said after the final game of the regular season.
One year ago, the Jazz entered the playoffs with homecourt advantage throughout the playoffs by virtue of earning the No. 1 seed. The bitter exit in the second round led to the team taking a big-picture approach to this season, placing a higher emphasis on rounding into form going into the playoffs.
Tripping down the stretch, now it's all about postseason. If nothing else, the Jazz have adapted to the changing storylines as necessary.
The team this year, players and coaches believe, is in a better position to compete in the playoffs. Last season the starting backcourt of Mike Conley and Donovan Mitchell weren't fully healthy in the playoffs.
Snyder even went back to two years ago, pointing out that Bojan Bogdanovic didn't play in the first-round loss to the Denver Nuggets. Let's hope this year the Jazz win or lose without any qualifiers.
"There's been a lot of dialogue about this team over the course of the regular season, which is to be expected, but we haven't been healthy. We're healthy now; we haven't had that in a couple of years," Snyder said before reciting all the playoff ailments.
"Some of that stuff you can't control, but I feel good about the fact of where we our right now.
"Everybody's got their own expectations about how far we need to go, who we need to beat," he added. "We're going to continue to hear all that stuff. It really doesn't matter, just like the regular season doesn't matter. It's about being in the moment. That's where I want to stay, I think that's where we are. It's been challenging to do that at various times this year, but I do believe we've been able to do it. I think our team's better right now than a month ago."
Great news, then. All those late-game collapses don't matter much now.
In a different twist, Gobert thinks those struggles benefit the Jazz. Last year, he pointed out, the team didn't react well to postseason struggles.
"I thought this year was a great learning experience for all of us. I think all of those challenges we faced made us better," he said.
"We were just cruising through the season. When we faced adversity in the playoffs, it's kind of like we weren't really prepared for that. This year I feel different. I feel like we're more mature."
Snyder concurred, saying all the trials have "seasoned us in some ways."
More seasoning or maturity aside, all the chatter is nothing more than talk until the games commence. Results are all that matter once the playoffs start.
"Everybody will have their opinions about everything," Snyder said. "We just got to go perform and compete."
