The Utah Jazz and the Phoenix Suns tipped off the in-season tournament and the Suns raced past the Jazz to a 120-112 win.

Both teams were without important 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 nice 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 great coaching combined with some point guards in Tyus Jones and Monte Morris to help assist those stars.

For Utah, they’re on a different trajectory. Lauri Markkanen is having a bit of a head-scratching season. You can tell the Jazz are having him attempt to score in isolation in the mid-range and it’s having mixed results. It makes you wonder if the Jazz are trying some development with Markkanen knowing that the wins this season aren’t as important. The player for Utah who consistently outperforms 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 watching and might be interested in bringing on Collins. The question for Collins is what team might be willing to take that contract, but there might be a team willing if he produces like this.

Finally, the Jazz rookies and young players have been struggling so far this season. Perhaps 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 point, but it would be nice to see him start to have 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 aren’t seeing a ton from Cody Williams who has been struggling as of late. In 15 minutes Williams only had 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 nice night for Isaiah Collier and an impressive performance for Kyle Filipowski. Collier is showing flashes of nice point guard play but it’s Filipowski that is looking the most NBA-ready of the Jazz’s young rookies. In this one Filipowski scored 18 with 6 rebounds and 2 assists. He did that on 63% shooting from the field and 50% from three. Flip is looking like a big-time steal in the second round likely becomes a part of whatever the Jazz look like in the future. It’s hard to describe other than Filipowski just makes the right play a lot of the time. Yes, it’s easier for bigs to acclimate in some ways, but it’s looking like Flip is going to be a cornerstone for a long time.