Spenser Heaps,
SALT LAKE CITY — When the Utah Jazz open their preseason schedule Monday night against the Sydney Kings, it will not only mark their first game of the 2017-18 season, but a couple of other significant “firsts” as well.
It will mark the first-ever home game against a non-NBA foreign professional team when they play host to the Australian team (the Jazz played Real Madrid in Spain in 2009) from the National Basketball League. It will also be the first game in the refurbished Vivint Smart Home Arena (7 p.m.), which underwent $125 million in renovations during the offseason.