Utah Jazz vs Phoenix Suns recap and final score: Devin Booker shines in Utah

Utah Jazz and Phoenix Suns tipped off the season tournament, and the Suns cruised past the Jazz for a 120-112 victory.

Both teams were without key players, with the Suns missing Kevin Durant and the Jazz missing Walker Kessler. For the Suns, it didn’t matter as Devin Booker had a monster night with 31 points and 4 assists. He shot 11/20 from the field and 5/9 from three for a dominant night. The Suns also got a good night from Bradley Beal, who scored 24 with 4 assists. The Suns are a much better team than last year and should definitely be considered a dark horse contender come playoff time. They have legitimate star power and good coaching combined with some point guards in Tyus Jones and Monte Morris to help those stars.

For Utah, they are on a different path. Lauri Markkanen is having a bit of a major season. You can see the Jazz make him try to score in isolation in the midrange and it produces mixed results. It makes you wonder if the Jazz are trying to evolve with Markkanen, knowing that the wins this season aren’t that important. The player for Utah who has consistently outperformed this season is John Collins. Collins was 12/19 in this one with 29 points, 11 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals. You have to wonder if there are teams looking and maybe interested in bringing in Collins. The question for Collins is what team might be willing to take that contract, but there may be a team that will if he produces like this.

Finally, Jazz rookies and young players have struggled this season. Maybe it’s the sore foot, but Keyonte George is still struggling with his shooting. That’s to be expected for a rookie guard learning to play the point, but it would be nice to see him start getting more consistent shooting. Patience is definitely the name of the game this season with this young Jazz team as they work through their inexperience.

We also don’t see a ton from Cody Williams, who has struggled of late. In 15 minutes, Williams had just 2 field goal attempts with 2 assists and 1 steal. Williams has shown flashes, but it would be nice to see him have a big night soon.

That said, we saw a good night for Isaiah Collier and an impressive performance for Kyle Filipowski. Collier shows flashes of nice point guard play, but it’s Filipowski who appears to be the most NBA-ready of the Jazz’s young rookies. In this Filipowski scored 18 with 6 rebounds and 2 assists. He did so on 63% shooting from the field and 50% from three. Flip looks like a big steal in the second round, and will likely be part of what the Jazz look like going forward. It’s hard to describe other than Filipowski makes the right play a lot of the time. Yes, it’s easier for bigs to acclimate in some ways, but it looks like Flip will be a cornerstone for a long time.