https://www.sltrib.com/home/3717617-155/monson-for-utah-jazz-the-chase
y Gordon Monson Tribune Columnist
Published: March 29, 2016 07:36PM | Updated: March 29, 2016 06:23PM
This is a whole new deal for the Jazz, and with eight games left and their record level at 37, they now stand in the seventh slot in positioning for the playoffs. No matter who says otherwise, players are eyeing those standings after every result.
What they’re seeing is opportunity, some of it created by them, some by the struggles of others.
They beat the Lakers on Monday night, so … what did the Mavs do?
Dallas beat Denver. Heading into Tuesday night’s games, the Jazz were ahead of the Rockets and the Mavs by one game and behind Portland by a game-and-a-half.
It’s going to be tight straight on through to the end, a race with a reward many of them have never earned — the postseason. And while competing in the playoffs is seen as a natural step, a growth experience for an ascending young club, the ongoing game-by-game challenge of qualification is equally as important. Quin Snyder has said that, again and again. And he’s right. It almost certainly is lasting longer than whatever it is that comes next. With Golden State or San Antonio as a likely first-round playoff foe, that’s a given: Adios, Auf Wiedersehen, au revoir, in quick order.
Which is to say, as far as the long-term education of the Jazz goes, the play-in is as significant as the playoff, the race as important as that reward, with meaning attached to every outcome.
“Definitely,” Trevor Booker said. “Every game is important, especially when you’re in the situation we’re in — a developing team. You have to learn from each game. We’ve had streaks of losing and we’ve had winning streaks. You have to learn from your mistakes. You just have to get better as you go.”
You have to learn to handle the pressure.
Psychologists and physiologists say the body responds differently when it is operating with an increased measure of importance assigned to performance. That’s why athletes — and teams — sometimes choke. Without getting too clinical, it starts in the adrenal glands, includes the sympathetic nervous system, with sympathetic discharges originating in the brain, nerve messages cascading down the spinal cord and into muscles and organs throughout the body and, in the case of a team, bodies. That, generally, has to be trained/learned/experienced/controlled to be mastered.
And Booker believes his younger teammates are getting that by way of this past few weeks, a stretch during which the Jazz have had to win to give themselves their playoff shot. They’ve won eight of their past 10.
Did Rodney Hood look especially tense or skittish Monday night against the Lakers? Did any of the Jazz? No, he hit 11 of 13 shots, eight of them from deep, for 30 points — in the first half — and overall, they dusted 46 of 89 attempts to win by 48 points, the worst loss of Kobe Bryant’s career.
“I’m seeing a lot of growth from the younger guys,” Booker said. “Everybody is learning from playing with the pressure. We’re building a great chemistry, just getting better. And everybody’s pretty calm. We’ve played a lot of games together now, guys aren’t too nervous. They might have some butterflies, but we know what we have to do. We’re playing well. And we’re looking to continue that.”
Booker underscored, though, the difficulty in finishing strong, considering that there are top-drawer teams remaining on the Jazz’s schedule, beginning with Golden State on Wednesday night and including the Spurs and Clippers next week, as well as weaker teams — the Timberwolves (twice), the Suns, the Nuggets, the Lakers — that he characterized as menacing, dwelling as they do at the other end of the spectrum from where the Jazz are now living and learning — in a kind of play-without-a-care-in-the-world mode.
“They’re dangerous because they have nothing to lose,” he said.
A good example of that was last year’s Jazz, a team that had no aspirations of making the playoffs, and played like world-beaters down the stretch, taking 19 of their final 29 games.
This time around, in spite of all their early injuries and adversity, the Jazz do have something to lose, they are carrying that extra burden, and carrying it well: “We’re confident,” Booker said.
Trey Lyles, a 19-year-old rookie, is even more emphatic about the transformation under pressure.
“We’re responding great,” he said. “Your mindset changes, you get more aggressive. The way you think about each game changes. We’re just taking every game for what it’s worth, like a playoff game. We’re going out there, competing and playing as a team.
“We know what’s at stake. We’re not really nervous, but we know the games are important now. Some of these games already have been a playoff-like atmosphere, so that definitely helps us out for our future. We just have to keep playing together.”
