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Game Thread Utah Jazz vs New Zealand Breakers - Oct 4th 7:00 PM (MT) (Preseason)

Added to Calendar: 10-04-24

Re-post, as per request.

New Zealand Breakers plays in the Australian NBL. The team is coached by the Finnish former all-time-great player Petteri Koponen (former team-mate of Lauri in the Finnish national team).

NZB is not the most skilled team, not by NBA or even by NBL standards. The team has this season however been doing well in the first matches of the season (extremely well actually, considering they were not given a farts chance in a sand-storm this season). Koponen wants NZB to play similar high-intensity game as he got used to with the Finnish national team (which also was/is not very skilled); on offense the players and the ball moves constantly, on defense the pressure on the ball-handler is nearly suicidal. The team is apparently physically in very good shape, and they can keep on running until doomsday. Depending on how stiff the legs of the Jazz players are from the training-camp, the Jazz guards especially might get a full run for the money.

For the three matches vs the NBA teams, NZB has hired the gargantuan giant Tacko Fall. Tacko Fall is one of the humans who can dunk without jumping. He fits the NZB mold in the sense that he is not very skilled, but he has never been known as much of a runner; how he will be integrated to the team for these three matches is surely a question mark. Tacko Fall has spent the past couple seasons in China, but he was with the Cleveland organization in 2021-2022, so at least Lauri and Sexton should recognise him.
 
Is this like how Kansas City is actually in Missouri?
NBL has nine teams from Australia, plus NZB from New Zealand. Apart from the distance (while New Zealand is technically a neighbour of Australia, they are not exactly adjacent to each other), it is something you see in some sports in Europe (where you can accidently cross the border from one country to another and then on to a third one, if you happen to be a bit absentminded during your afternoon stroll). That is, a sports has not that many players in their own country, so they slap together one team, and applies to join a league in another country.
 
NBL has nine teams from Australia, plus NZB from New Zealand. Apart from the distance (while New Zealand is technically a neighbour of Australia, they are not exactly adjacent to each other), it is something you see in some sports in Europe (where you can accidently cross the border from one country to another and then on to a third one, if you happen to be a bit absentminded during your afternoon stroll). That is, a sports has not that many players in their own country, so they slap together one team, and applies to join a league in another country.
I would assume the Australians are no strangers to fairly hefty distances without including neighboring countries
 
Can't wait!

Not seeing a time in the OP though, hopefully I will be able to watch.

Sent from my OPD2203 using Tapatalk
 
Can't wait!

Not seeing a time in the OP though, hopefully I will be able to watch.

Sent from my OPD2203 using Tapatalk
I added it. Hopefully its right

Picked it from Jazz twitter, but NBA.com says 4 AM EET which converts to 8 PM MT but summertime conversions make stuff fishy atm.
 
Probably the most interesting thing will be who is in the starting lineup, specifically at the second guard position and second forward position. I'm pretty sure the second guard will be Sexton, but the second Forward position is a tossup for me.

The next most interesting thing will be how Hendricks and Keyonte look. I think those two are our biggest wild cards for being competitive this year or not.

I expect all of the Rookies to look a little lost. I expect all of our vets to dominate vs inferior competition.
 
Karim Lopez is a Mexican player who is draft eligible in the 2026 draft and is considered by many to be the 3rd best prospect behind Boozer and Dybantsa
 
KJZZ TV schedule has it at 7pm MT.

View attachment 17315
Awesome. I love KJZZ. Haven't used my antenna since last season which means I have to go through a bit of a process to get it going but its well worth it. I enjoy watching games on KJZZ (plus I have a thing that lets me record, pause, rewind etc) way more than some questionable stream I find online.
 
The plus side of having so many prospects is that there wont be very many boring pre-season minutes where it's just scrubs who arent long-term prospects.
 
Awesome. I love KJZZ. Haven't used my antenna since last season which means I have to go through a bit of a process to get it going but its well worth it. I enjoy watching games on KJZZ (plus I have a thing that lets me record, pause, rewind etc) way more than some questionable stream I find online.
KJZZ is amazing.

I got rid of cable after the Jazz moved their coverage to KJZZ, and I'm never going back.
 
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