Houston • The sample size is small for the Utah Jazz, just four games.
But in those four games, there is reason to be concerned with how Utah’s playing on the road. Away from the friendly confines of Vivint Smart Home Arena, the Jazz are 0-4 early in the season, including Sunday’s 137-110 beatdown at the hands of the Houston Rockets.
The Jazz so far look like a different team on the road. They have been confident and sure of themselves at home. They’ve struggled on both ends away from home. Some of that is to be expected. NBA teams typically look better at home. But NBA playoff teams usually find ways to win on the road, and the Jazz haven’t yet done this.
“Anytime you get beat the way we did tonight, there’s a lot to fix,” Jazz coach Quin Snyder said. “We didn’t play like this in losses to the [Los Angeles] Clippers or the [Phoenix] Suns. This was different. We are a better team than we showed tonight.”
More alarming than the road record is the Jazz haven’t been competitive on the road, save for a loss at the Minnesota Timberwolves. That was the one road game they had an opportunity to win, and probably would’ve had Minnesota guard Jamal Crawford not hit a few heroic fourth-quarter shots. The Jazz didn’t give themselves a chance in their three other road defeats.
As of Sunday night, Utah and the Dallas Mavericks are the only two Western Conference teams without a road victory. The Brooklyn Nets are the only Eastern Conference team without a road win.
“I think it’s too small a sample size,” Jazz guard Rodney Hood said. “We’re going to have games where we play well at home and on the road. Right now, we have a few home games coming up and we have to focus on Philly. We really need that win. This is an easy game to bounce back from because we feel like we got embarrassed. We have to fight and get back to what we’re really about.”
Homecoming
Houston native and Jazz rookie Royce O’Neale played 12 minutes Sunday night. He scored a career-high six points and grabbed three rebounds. O’Neale was signed by the Jazz over the summer. He played collegiately at Baylor.
Emptying the bench
Snyder played his entire roster against the Rockets. Everyone played at least five minutes, and everyone scored outside of rookie center Tony Bradley. Utah placed six players in double-digit scoring.