This season, Jerry Sloan has also made a lot of changes in order to keep the team competitive.

First, John Stockton and Jeff Hornacek, who had been in a slump of form, gradually moved into the background, one concentrating on passers and spot shooters, and the other on shooting.

Karl Malone, who is still in excellent form, has to bear all the pressure, his ball handling and singles are the Jazz's biggest reliance at the moment, so far this season, Karl Malone has averaged 25.5 points, 9.5 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game, just looking at the statistics, Karl Malone is still the top four in the league.

In addition, the young Brian Russell has also been reused, and so far this season, he has averaged a career-high 4.0 points per game, not only a fixed-point jumper that catches the ball and shoots directly, but Jerry Sloan even designed several sets of tactics for Brian Russell to block and pick up the ball and play alone.

Although the effect is average, it is better than nothing.

The Jazz also have a mediocre record at the moment, with 6 wins and 2 losses in eighth place in the West, and their playoff spot is still very secure, but if they want to make some progress in the playoffs, they will have to find a way to move up the ranking.

Fortunately, the gap between fifth and eighth in the West is not large, and the Jazz only need a wave of consecutive wins to overtake several opponents above them.

The Jazz also don't want to stay in the eighth position in the West all the time, which is a dangerous position, a wave of consecutive wins can go up the ranking, and a wave of consecutive losses will be surpassed by the Nuggets, who are currently ninth in the West.

Starting in the '94-'95 season, the Utah Twins have kept the Jazz from missing the playoffs for five seasons, and they don't want to miss the playoffs this season.

So, now the Jazz urgently need a wave of winning streaks to catch up with teams like the SuperSonics and Suns who are ahead of them.

Facing the dark horse of the Grizzlies, the Jazz will have to go all out and snatch a victory.

Before the game, Jerry Sloan was interviewed and commented on Qiao Hai, last season's old rival, Jerry Sloan: "Joe did a great job, I didn't expect him to be able to achieve such success without the Lakers, the Grizzlies are very strong, they are not dark horses, obviously they are already one of the top teams in the league......"

Finally, Jerry Sloan also said that he needs to pay great attention to Qiao Hai, and if he doesn't pay attention, the Jazz will lose badly.

Energy Solutions Arena, Grizzlies play away.

The Jazz started with point guard John Stockton, shooting guard Jeff Hornacek, small forward Bryan Russell, power forward Karl Malone and center Alden Polinis.

The Grizzlies are still regular starters, with point guard Mike Bibby, scoring guard Maddy, small forward Sean Marion, power forward Raheem and center Brad Miller.

For Rahim, this game is a test, he has to face the toughest No. 4 in the league, Karl Malone, Raheem and Karl Malone in the first two seasons, each time Raheem lost, there are one or two games with similar statistics, and the final result is also a Grizzlies loss.

The Grizzlies' lineup is one of the reasons for the loss, but more importantly, at critical moments, Karl Malone will increase the intensity, and even if Raheem gets the ball, his performance at critical moments is not as good as Karl Malone.

In this game, Qiao Hai arranged Rahim to help with supplementary defense and auxiliary defense, but most of the defense and offense still had to rely on Rahim himself.

The game started and Brad Miller jumped to win.

Mike Bibby took the ball, advanced to the front court, and handed the ball directly to Brad Miller.

Maddy fell outside the 45° three-point line on the right side, Brian Russell directly faced him, Jazz this is a change of defense, Jerry Sloan also knows very well that the Grizzlies' most threatening player is still Maddy, if the Jazz want to win, they must first limit Maddy, otherwise everything is empty talk.

As a result, Michael Jordan, who had defended the Jazz, beat the Jazz with one goal, and Brian Russell, who won the championship, faced Jordan's successor Maddie, who everyone said.

Maddie cut into the air, the Jazz helped defend, and Aldenpolinice leaned towards Maddy's side, intentionally or unintentionally.

Brad Miller didn't pass the ball, seeing that Polinis's defense was a little off, he dribbled directly and took two steps inside, forcing Polinice to lean back towards Brad Miller, taking this opportunity, Maddie rushed to the bottom corner of the side, and Brad Miller passed the ball directly.

In the small space, Maddie took the ball, Raheem stepped forward to give him a cover, Maddie slipped directly to the bottom line, Brian Russell couldn't hit Raheem's cover, and could only watch Maddie rush to the basket, a flat frame dunk, and scored 2 points in the opening game!

Maddie snapped, he waved his hand and celebrated.

The Energy Solutions arena immediately returned with boos.

Jazz offense, this game, the Grizzlies reverted to a strong-side stacked defense.

As soon as Karl Malone got the ball, the Grizzlies' defense focused on the strong side, which made Karl Malone's single very difficult, but in the opening, he did not choose to pass, but forced a single shot.

Rahim's performance was very good, although he couldn't withstand Karl Malone, he didn't directly dodge the confrontation and give Karl Malone enough space to shoot as usual, but gritted his teeth and went up.

Karl Malone hit hard, turned around, didn't have enough room to shoot, and then, there was a bang, and the jump shot missed.

Sean Marion rushed to the basket to grab the rebound and turned to push the fast break.

The Jazz's reaction was fast, the moment Karl Malone shot, John Stockton and Jeff Hornacek on the outside retreated to the backcourt, and Brian Russell also stared at Maddy, obviously, before the game, Jerry Sloan defended a Grizzlies' fast-break counterattack, although the Grizzlies pushed the counterattack for less than a month, as one of the opponents who knew Qiao Hai best, Jerry Sloan made an early defense.

This defense directly blocked the possibility of the Grizzlies scoring 2 points quickly.

Sean Marion, who was holding the ball, had to slow down, possess the ball to the front court, and give the ball to Brad Miller.

Positional warfare, or Maddy's air cut, Jazz's defense is focused on Maddie, obviously, Jerry Sloan chooses to focus on defending Maddie, even if he misses other players, he must lock Maddie to death, this is a defensive method that no coach has ever tried since Maddy's explosion in February, Jerry Sloan is taking risks, but I have to say that once successful, the Jazz will win this game with half the effort.

Maddie was hit by a key defense, Brad Miller passed the ball to the bottom corner again, this time it was Sean Marion, who singled in the bottom corner, and after a somewhat lame break, Jeff Hornacek made up for it.

Sean Marion didn't pass the ball either, he looked at the basket and shot directly.

The shooting posture has changed a lot compared to the beginning of the season, but bang, the shooting iron! Obviously, Shaun Marion will also need to adapt to his new shooting hand.

The rebound was taken by Alden Polinis, the Jazz turned to attack, Karl Malone continued to take the ball alone, advanced strongly to the basket, pushed Raheem away with his body, and turned to make a layup.

2:2, the opening is tied!