SALT LAKE CITY — Thursday at Vivint Arena, the memories came sailing back. The battles. The boisterousness. And yes, The Beard.
The outcome, though, was entirely different. This time there was much of the heat left over from last spring’s playoffs, but none of the glamour. This was two teams just trying to fight their way out of the basement. Utah came into the game against Houston in 12th place in the Western Conference, just two percentage points ahead of the Rockets.
The Jazz walked out with a ridiculously easy 118-91 win.
How did this happen?