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SALT LAKE CITY — Here's a surprise from the Utah Jazz's win over the San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday: Udoka Azubuike played more than Walker Kessler.
With Lauri Markkanen and Jordan Clarkson sitting (not to mention Kelly Olynyk and Collin Sexton), it was pretty clear that Kessler was Utah's best healthy player available against the Spurs. Despite that, Azubuike, the backup center who may not have an NBA job next season, played more than he did.
Why?
"Honestly, I thought he looked a little bit tired, and that's natural," Jazz coach Will Hardy said. "He's played a ton of games this year; he's played a lot of minutes. And so that's why we went with a little bit of a different rotation in the first half and really tried to keep his minutes down in the hopes that he could maybe freshen up and have a little bit better second half."
Two days prior, Kessler talked about the challenges of an 82-game season — both physically and mentally. He's never experienced anything close to this scale — consistent travel, back-to-back games, and the sheer number of minutes played. It can take a toll on a player.
"Obviously, it's a lot longer than anything I'm used to," Kessler said. "There have been days that are harder than others for sure. But, I mean, it's gone by fast, but some days are harder than others. So it's kind of the balance of not getting caught up in how you feel some days but just focusing on doing what you do and your routine and showing up every day."
Wednesday was one of the harder days.
As the year has gone on, Kessler has taken on more and more responsibility. He's started every game he's played in since Jan. 10 and has averaged nearly 30 minutes a night in the last 20 contests. So instead of rebuking Kessler for a less-than-impactful half, Hardy let him rest.
"He and Ochai (Agbaji) have taken this big step forward in their role and their minutes; there's real fatigue with that," Hardy said. "It's mental fatigue, it's physical fatigue."
The thought was that if they could get Kessler to halftime with low minutes, he might be able to regroup a bit. It didn't hurt either that Azubuike (12 points and five rebounds) and Damian Jones (7 points and four rebounds) were doing just fine against the short-handed Spurs.
And Kessler regrouped just fine.
While his numbers don't pop off the page — 9 points and 10 rebounds — he was more active in the second half and actually finished with a team best plus-20 on the night.
"I thought later in the game he did a good job of sticking with it ... and the ball ended up finding him a few times on the offensive glass," Hardy said. "His teammates did do a better job of getting the ball moving."
The Jazz got the win and Kessler got a few extra breathers in the process.
"I was happy to get out of tonight with him only playing 20 minutes," Hardy said. "Luckily it worked out."
