Jazz lose to Suns in NBA Cup game, but here’s a suggestion to help you care about the outcome

SALT LAKE CITY – The court was different. The tournament name had even changed. However, the result was still the same for the Utah Jazz.

Devin Booker had 31 points and Bradley Beal added 24 to give the Phoenix Suns a 120-112 victory over the Utah Jazz Tuesday at the Delta Center in both teams’ first NBA Cup game. Utah has yet to win a home game this season.

Utah used an 11-2 run in the third quarter – highlighted by a pair of drives from rookie Kyle Filipowski – to cut the Suns’ lead to 6 points, although it remained within striking distance for most of the fourth quarter as the Jazz got closer never.

Booker is responsible for this. Every time the Jazz seemed to make a push, Booker had an answer; He scored 15 points in the final frame and shot 4 of 5 from 3-point range.

“I thought Devin Booker did some really difficult things,” Jazz coach Will Hardy said. “I thought Bradley Beal made some tough decisions. They are a good team.”

Regardless of the late-game heroics, Hardy said the Jazz lost the game in the first quarter when the Suns jumped out to an early 12-point lead. Utah was without Walker Kessler, who missed the game with right hip soreness, and struggled defensively in his absence.

Hardy said the team didn’t come out without enough energy or physicality and allowed the Suns to get to their spots without much resistance. And without Kessler to help clean up, the Suns shot 54% from the field and 50% from 3-point range in the first quarter to take an early lead.

Yes, despite what the Jazz said leading up to the game (Jordan Clarkson hinted that it was a playoff game), it was clear that the NBA Cup didn’t carry much, if any, more emotion than one normal NBA game.

This is the second year of the tournament, which aims to breathe new life into the often mundane start of the season. But it hasn’t really sunk in yet – to anyone.

The courses are mostly fun (Utah’s gray course was a bit poorer compared to some of the others), and the league marketed the tournament as something different. However, the players and fans still need to fully get behind the cause.

Even when the jazz made things a little more interesting late at night, the energy from the mostly full Delta Center was missing. It felt like any other November game.

So what can you do to spice things up?

Currently, the only real prize is money (each player on the winning team receives $514,000). LeBron James earns more than that every game – and he’s far from the only one.

The best players in the NBA aren’t motivated by a little more money. Heck, there’s also a bonus that comes with winning the NBA Finals; That’s not something players think about when they play in June – and certainly not a fan.

In the end, there’s only one thing the players really care about, and that’s winning the playoffs. To get full buy-in from players (and, frankly, fans), the league needs to give the tournament some playoff implications.

Our suggestion: The NBA Cup winner automatically receives seventh place in the play-in tournament; And they get it without having to forego the lottery odds.

So if a strong team – like the Jazz – wins the Cup, it would have first place in the play-in game and two chances to make the playoffs. And even if they made it to the postseason, they would still be in the lottery. It would give the rebuilding teams a chance to have their cake and eat it too, so to speak.

For teams that see themselves as contenders, the play-in spot would be a good insurance policy in case of injuries or just a few bad weeks in the season. The Western Conference is expected to have 11 teams fighting for the playoffs – securing a spot in the play-in in December is a pretty good reason to consider a tournament.

Would the price be more advantageous for the teams that want to play the lottery? Maybe, but considering they’re unlikely to win the tournament anyway, that shouldn’t be too much of a problem.

It seems like the perfect sweet spot. It would make the tournament worthwhile – for the players, for the teams and for the fans. If the NBA Cup is to be an annual tradition, the NBA should strive to do so in the next edition.