{"id":636161,"date":"2026-03-03T07:50:47","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T07:50:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/636161\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T07:50:47","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T07:50:47","slug":"jazz-thinking-about-the-future-in-loss-to-nuggets-deseret-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/636161\/","title":{"rendered":"Jazz thinking about the future in loss to Nuggets \u2013 Deseret News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Utah Jazz head coach Will Hardy is excited when the team is able to put together a game where it plays above its current station, as was the case on Monday night in a 128-125 loss to the Denver Nuggets.<\/p>\n

\u201cCoach Will even said it when he came in the locker room,\u201d Kyle Filipowski said. \u201cIf we keep playing hard like this, keep playing together, then we\u2019re gonna get where we want to in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are glimpses of what is possible when Filipowski shows his strength and his versatility; when Keyonte George continues to prove that he is one of the up-and-coming guards of the NBA; and when Ace Bailey shows that he isn\u2019t afraid of the moment when the game is on the line.<\/p>\n

Those are the things the Jazz can point to and get excited about.<\/p>\n

And, to be perfectly honest, Monday\u2019s result was the perfect outcome for all involved, even when the two teams have such different goals and approaches to the rest of the 2025-26 campaign.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Photo Gallery: 1 of 37<\/p>\n

Utah Jazz guard Keyonte George (3) dunks over Denver Nuggets guard Christian Braun (0) during the second half of the game at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Monday, March 2, 2026. | Rio Giancarlo, Deseret News \"\"<\/p>\n

Photo Gallery: 2 of 37<\/p>\n

Utah Jazz guard Elijah Harkless (16) reacts after drawing an offensive foul on Denver Nuggets center Nikola Joki\u0107 (15) during the second half of the game at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Monday, March 2, 2026. | Rio Giancarlo, Deseret News \"\"<\/p>\n

Photo Gallery: 3 of 37<\/p>\n

Denver Nuggets center Nikola Joki\u0107 (15) gathers a pass ahead of Utah Jazz guard Elijah Harkless (16) during the second half of the game at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Monday, March 2, 2026. | Rio Giancarlo, Deseret News \"\"<\/p>\n

Photo Gallery: 4 of 37<\/p>\n

Utah Jazz guard Keyonte George (3) celebrates toward Dwayne Wade after scoring a 3-pointer during the second half of the game against the Denver Nuggets at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Monday, March 2, 2026. | Rio Giancarlo, Deseret News \"\"<\/p>\n

Photo Gallery: 5 of 37<\/p>\n

Denver Nuggets center Nikola Joki\u0107 (15) catches a pass ahead of Utah Jazz guard John Konchar (55) during the second half of the game at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Monday, March 2, 2026. | Rio Giancarlo, Deseret News \"\"<\/p>\n

Photo Gallery: 6 of 37<\/p>\n

Denver Nuggets head coach David Adelman looks on during the second half of the game against the Utah Jazz at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Monday, March 2, 2026. | Rio Giancarlo, Deseret News \"\"<\/p>\n

Photo Gallery: 7 of 37<\/p>\n

Referee Andy Nagy, left, and Mitchell Ervin, center, talk as they review Denver Nuggets’ center Nikola Joki\u0107’s (15) sixth foul during the fourth quarter of the game against the Utah Jazz at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Monday, March 2, 2026. The call was overturned and Joki\u0107 stayed in the game. | Rio Giancarlo, Deseret News \"\"<\/p>\n

Photo Gallery: 8 of 37<\/p>\n

Denver Nuggets center Nikola Joki\u0107 (15) looks on as he waits to see if his sixth foul will be overturned during the second half of the game against the Utah Jazz at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Monday, March 2, 2026. | Rio Giancarlo, Deseret News \"\"<\/p>\n

Photo Gallery: 9 of 37<\/p>\n

Denver Nuggets center Nikola Joki\u0107 (15) wipes sweat from his face during the second half of the game against the Utah Jazz at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Monday, March 2, 2026. | Rio Giancarlo, Deseret News \"\"<\/p>\n

Photo Gallery: 10 of 37<\/p>\n

Denver Nuggets guard Jamal Murray (27) reacts after being fouled during the second half of the game against the Utah Jazz at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Monday, March 2, 2026. | Rio Giancarlo, Deseret News \"\"<\/p>\n

Photo Gallery: 11 of 37<\/p>\n

Denver Nuggets guard Jamal Murray (27) shoots over Utah Jazz guard Ace Bailey (19) during the second half of the game at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Monday, March 2, 2026. | Rio Giancarlo, Deseret News \"\"<\/p>\n

Photo Gallery: 12 of 37<\/p>\n

Utah Jazz guard Svi Mykhailiuk (10) looks to pass around Denver Nuggets guard Jamal Murray (27) during the second half of the game at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Monday, March 2, 2026. | Rio Giancarlo, Deseret News \"\"<\/p>\n

Photo Gallery: 13 of 37<\/p>\n

Denver Nuggets center Nikola Joki\u0107 (15) is fouled while grabbing a rebound during the second half of the game against the Utah Jazz at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Monday, March 2, 2026. | Rio Giancarlo, Deseret News \"\"<\/p>\n

Photo Gallery: 14 of 37<\/p>\n

Utah Jazz guard Keyonte George (3) drives past Denver Nuggets guard Julian Strawther (3) during the second half of the game at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Monday, March 2, 2026. | Rio Giancarlo, Deseret News \"\"<\/p>\n

Photo Gallery: 15 of 37<\/p>\n

Denver Nuggets guard Bruce Brown (11) passes between Utah Jazz guard Keyonte George (3) and forward Kyle Filipowski (22) during the first half of the game at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Monday, March 2, 2026. | Rio Giancarlo, Deseret News \"\"<\/p>\n

Photo Gallery: 16 of 37<\/p>\n

The Utah Jazz and Denver Nuggets play at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Monday, March 2, 2026. | Rio Giancarlo, Deseret News \"\"<\/p>\n

Photo Gallery: 17 of 37<\/p>\n

Utah Jazz guard Keyonte George (3) drives to the basket for a layup during the second half of the game against the Denver Nuggets at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Monday, March 2, 2026. | Rio Giancarlo, Deseret News \"\"<\/p>\n

Photo Gallery: 18 of 37<\/p>\n

Denver Nuggets guard Jamal Murray (27) shoots a 3-pointer during the first half of the game against the Utah Jazz at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Monday, March 2, 2026. | Rio Giancarlo, Deseret News \"\"<\/p>\n

Photo Gallery: 19 of 37<\/p>\n

Utah Jazz guard Ace Bailey (19) makes a pass during the first half of the game against the Denver Nuggets at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Monday, March 2, 2026. | Rio Giancarlo, Deseret News \"\"<\/p>\n

Photo Gallery: 20 of 37<\/p>\n

Utah Jazz forward Jaren Jackson Jr. cheers on his teammates from the bench during the first half of the game against the Denver Nuggets at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Monday, March 2, 2026. | Rio Giancarlo, Deseret News \"\"<\/p>\n

Photo Gallery: 21 of 37<\/p>\n

Utah Jazz guard Keyonte George (3) collects himself after Denver Nuggets center Nikola Joki\u0107 (15) fell on him during the first half of the game at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Monday, March 2, 2026. | Rio Giancarlo, Deseret News \"\"<\/p>\n

Photo Gallery: 22 of 37<\/p>\n

Utah Jazz center Oscar Tshiebwe (34) shoots over Denver Nuggets center Nikola Joki\u0107 (15) during the first half of the game at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Monday, March 2, 2026. | Rio Giancarlo, Deseret News \"\"<\/p>\n

Photo Gallery: 23 of 37<\/p>\n

Denver Nuggets center Jonas Valan\u010di\u016bnas (17) drives to the basket for a layup against Utah Jazz forward Kyle Filipowski (22) during the first half of the game at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Monday, March 2, 2026. | Rio Giancarlo, Deseret News \"\"<\/p>\n

Photo Gallery: 24 of 37<\/p>\n

New York Giants and former Corner Canyon quarterback Jaxson Dart looks at his phone as he attends a NBA game between the Utah Jazz and the Denver Nuggets at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Monday, March 2, 2026. | Rio Giancarlo, Deseret News \"\"<\/p>\n

Photo Gallery: 25 of 37<\/p>\n

Utah Jazz forward Kyle Filipowski (22) is introduced before the game against the Denver Nuggets at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Monday, March 2, 2026. | Rio Giancarlo, Deseret News \"\"<\/p>\n

Photo Gallery: 26 of 37<\/p>\n

Utah Jazz head coach Will Hardy looks on during the first half of the game against the Denver Nuggets at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Monday, March 2, 2026. | Rio Giancarlo, Deseret News \"\"<\/p>\n

Photo Gallery: 27 of 37<\/p>\n

Denver Nuggets guard Christian Braun (0) drives past Utah Jazz guard John Konchar (55) during the first half of the game at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Monday, March 2, 2026. | Rio Giancarlo, Deseret News \"\"<\/p>\n

Photo Gallery: 28 of 37<\/p>\n

Utah Jazz guard Keyonte George (3) reacts after making a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to take a 67-66 lead into halftime against the Denver Nuggets at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Monday, March 2, 2026. | Rio Giancarlo, Deseret News \"\"<\/p>\n

Photo Gallery: 29 of 37<\/p>\n

Utah Jazz guard Keyonte George (3) dives on a loose ball during the first half of the game against the Denver Nuggets at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Monday, March 2, 2026. | Rio Giancarlo, Deseret News \"\"<\/p>\n

Photo Gallery: 30 of 37<\/p>\n

Utah Jazz guard Ace Bailey (19) is introduced before the game against the Denver Nuggets at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Monday, March 2, 2026. | Rio Giancarlo, Deseret News \"\"<\/p>\n

Photo Gallery: 31 of 37<\/p>\n

Denver Nuggets guard Bruce Brown (11) reacts after being called for a foul during the first half of the game against the Utah Jazz at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Monday, March 2, 2026. | Rio Giancarlo, Deseret News \"\"<\/p>\n

Photo Gallery: 32 of 37<\/p>\n

Players on the Denver Nuggets bench react to a made 3-pointer during the first half of the game against the Utah Jazz at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Monday, March 2, 2026. | Rio Giancarlo, Deseret News \"\"<\/p>\n

Photo Gallery: 33 of 37<\/p>\n

Former Miami Heat star and Utah Jazz minority owner Dwyane Wade looks on as he attends the game between the Utah Jazz and the Denver Nuggets at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Monday, March 2, 2026. | Rio Giancarlo, Deseret News \"\"<\/p>\n

Photo Gallery: 34 of 37<\/p>\n

Utah Jazz guard Keyonte George (3) reacts after a foul during the first half of the game against the Denver Nuggets at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Monday, March 2, 2026. | Rio Giancarlo, Deseret News \"\"<\/p>\n

Photo Gallery: 35 of 37<\/p>\n

Denver Nuggets guard Tim Hardaway Jr. (10) drives against Utah Jazz forward Kyle Filipowski (22) during the first half of the game at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Monday, March 2, 2026. | Rio Giancarlo, Deseret News \"\"<\/p>\n

Photo Gallery: 36 of 37<\/p>\n

Denver Nuggets center Nikola Joki\u0107 (15) past Utah Jazz guard John Konchar (55) during the first half of the game at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Monday, March 2, 2026. | Rio Giancarlo, Deseret News \"\"<\/p>\n

Photo Gallery: 37 of 37<\/p>\n

Denver Nuggets guard Jamal Murray (27) drives to the basket for a layup against Utah Jazz forward Cody Williams (5) during the first half of the game at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Monday, March 2, 2026. | Rio Giancarlo, Deseret News <\/p>\n

The Nuggets are trying to reintegrate all of their players and ramp up for the playoffs as the season winds down, while still maintaining a record that will keep them above the play-in tournament spots. The Jazz are trying to maintain some semblance of competition even when everyone on and around the team knows that the results don\u2019t matter.<\/p>\n

The one thing that is fighting against both teams is time.<\/p>\n

With 21 games left in the season, the Jazz are swimming in time and would probably love to speed the clock up, take away a few of those games and just get to the offseason, the lottery, the draft and then look toward the 2026-27 season \u2014 the one where they get to actually try to win games.<\/p>\n

With 20 games remaining for the Nuggets, the worry is that they are running out of time. With so many injuries to key rotational and star players on the roster, notably and most recently Nikola Jokic, they need time to prepare for what is ahead. But they don\u2019t have much.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis group this year has been really special and they\u2019ve taken on whatever I\u2019ve asked of them,\u201d head coach David Adelman said. \u201cBut my concern would be time. … When you go to the playoffs, you want to be going up, and you want to feel like you understand who you are. So we do need time, and we need those guys to come back … And you need time to go through that and see what actually fits.”<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s a good problem to have because the Jazz would love nothing more than to be in a position where they were ramping up for a postseason push.<\/p>\n

Actually, that\u2019s what George, who scored 36 points, said he tries to think about, even now, when the results are not important.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can play mind games a little bit,\u201d George said. \u201cTry to trick ourselves into thinking that these last few games we\u2019re trying to find our rhythm as a team maybe going into the postseason.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what you want to hear from George if you\u2019re a Jazz fan.<\/p>\n

Instead of going through the last stretch of games not caring, not worrying about the future because it\u2019s still so far away, the best player the Jazz have available (not on the injury report) is pretending that these games do matter.<\/p>\n

When they do, he\u2019ll be ready, and the hope is that the rest of the team will be ready too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Utah Jazz head coach Will Hardy is excited when the team is able to put together a game…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":636162,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3785],"tags":[7,423,6,1111,422,427,3972],"class_list":{"0":"post-636161","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-utah-jazz","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-jazz","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-news-feed-local","12":"tag-utah","13":"tag-utah-jazz","14":"tag-utahjazz"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116164160598882520","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=636161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636161\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/636162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=636161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=636161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=636161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}