Utah head coach Will Hardy called his shot Tuesday night.
He believed that rookie guard Darryn Peterson would make up for an up-and-down first preseason game on Sunday.
In that game, he scored 3 points, shot 1-for-5 from the field and missed some looks he makes in his sleep. More importantly, he never looked comfortable.
Hardy wasn’t exactly worried.
“I think Darryn wasn’t himself in the first game,” Hardy said pregame. “That’s not the Darryn we’ve seen during camp. I think he was caught in between; sometimes, when you’re trying to be perfect on every play and you don’t want to screw up, you can be a little frozen. I feel like we’ve seen him play much more freely in practice today. I felt like in the game, he was really trying to be maybe overly precise.
“I do think he made good decisions and just missed some shots on the offensive side. But Darryn is a competitor. He wants to win. … I feel like tonight we’ll see a Darryn that’s a little more settled in.”
Consider him settled.
Peterson gave Utah fans a preview of what he could become Tuesday against Denver.
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The Jazz lost to the Nuggets 117-106 in a preseason matchup at the Delta Center, but that result didn’t matter.
What did matter was Peterson. Want to see why the Jazz picked Peterson second overall? Just take a look at the first half Tuesday.
That was his domain.
Most rookies take some time to figure out how to play the game at their own pace. Peterson might have only needed one game. There were moments when Peterson looked fully in control.
He was decisive and got to his spots without forcing anything.
By halftime, he had 12 points, two rebounds and three assists.
The start of the third quarter wasn’t as kind to Peterson. He had a stretch where he missed a 3-pointer, turned the ball over on an inbounds pass and then committed an offensive foul.
For some younger players, that could have unraveled a great day. That wasn’t the case for Peterson. In the latter half of the third quarter, he caught fire, scoring 9 points in the quarter’s final minutes.
“I feel a little more adjusted,” he said. Second game, but nothing really felt different.”
How did he adjust? Well, Peterson said the game slowed down for him compared to the first game.
That was reflected in his numbers.
He finished with 23 points, three rebounds and three assists in 30 minutes and shot 10-for-18 from the field. He didn’t play in the fourth quarter.
One good preseason game doesn’t mean much. It doesn’t guarantee Peterson becomes a star. Still, it was a building block. And Hardy liked what he saw from the rookie for the most part.
“Darryn is a really talented offensive player,” Hardy said. “He’s pretty sophisticated for his game in terms of pace and footwork. He understands how to use his body to create separation. He’s still adjusting to the length as it relates to closeouts.”
Hardy said that Peterson shot-faked a few 3-pointers Tuesday that he thinks the rookie could have gotten off. Small stuff on a mostly great night for the guard.
“His ball-handling ability to use his body to create space is going to be a weapon for him going forward. It was nice to see him create some of those shots.”
Somehow, Peterson gave Jazz fans a reason to remember a random preseason game in early October.
Call that the Peterson effect.
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