Friday’s game between the Utah Jazz and Atlanta Hawks will be a homecoming for Quin Snyder. It will be the first game in Salt Lake City for the former Jazz coach, who spent eight seasons as head coach in Utah.
Snyder holds a 1-0 record against his old team, having coached the Hawks to a 124-97 victory over the Jazz in Atlanta in late February.
During his Jazz tenure, Utah went 372-264 with six playoff appearances. He compiled the second-most wins in franchise history behind Hall of Fame coach Jerry Sloan.
Snyder’s Hawks (29-36) enter this game in the final play-in spot of the Eastern Conference. Dejounte Murray led the team with 40 points in a 106-102 loss at Portland, where Atlanta kicked off a five-game, 11-day road trip.
Injury-ravaged Atlanta was missing Saddiq Bey after he suffered a torn ACL in his left knee in Sunday’s 116-103 loss to New Orleans. Jalen Johnson, who had 22 points and 13 rebounds in the first outing this season against Utah, missed the game against the Pelicans with a sprained right ankle, and All-Star Trae Young continues to rehab after his finger surgery.
Utah enters this matchup in 12th place in the West and six games out of a spot in the play-in tournament.
The Jazz were competitive against the Boston Celtics in their most recent loss, but their chances of an upset win were squelched by the Celtics’ 20-0 run.
Utah is trying to remain optimistic as young players continue to get critical playing time. Keyonte George helped the Jazz with a quick 14 points early in the first quarter and went on to score 26 in the 123-107 defeat at home to Boston.
After the Hawks, Utah has a two-game set against Minnesota followed by a game against Oklahoma City.
The Jazz, who are on a three-game losing streak, have lost 11 of 13 games while seeing their record drop from .500 to nine games below in just over a month.
