Utah Jazz Winners and Losers From Home Opener Win vs. Pelicans

A major bounce-back game it was for the Jazz big man, who made his presence felt on both sides of the ball en route to easily his best game since arriving in Utah this past February.

Not only did Jackson Jr. lead the Jazz in total scoring with 24 points, but he also silenced the doubters who questioned his rebounding and ability to stay out of foul trouble.

He answered the bell as Utah's starting center with 10 rebounds, and only racked up four personal fouls en route to a performance that proved exactly why the front office wanted to initially trade for him. With more games like this, more wins are also bound to keep racking up.

Ace Bailey began this game off on a high note. He was moved into the Jazz's starting lineup after initially coming off the bench in the season opener, and that seemed to hint at a sign of things to come for this starting five moving forward.

However, it wouldn't take long for Bailey to phase out of the Jazz's five-man lineup down the stretch of this game. He finished with six points on 2-8 shooting with seven rebounds and two assists.

Overall, not too bad. But it did lead to Bailey ending this game watching from the sidelines as Jaxson Hayes simply took things over in the frontcourt––to the point where Hayes might've just played his way back into the starting five for next game, while Bailey reverts back to his role as sixth man.

Hayes dispelled all of the chatter that surrounded him being a reliable rotational center for the Jazz in this game. He was completely electric coming off the bench.

Where Hayes really stood out was his ability to be a rim finisher and a lob threat. He finished with 17 points off the bench with 7-8 shooting, pairing that with a solid five rebounds and game-high +9 plus-minus.

The only part of the night in which you could consider Hayes a "loser" was when he got called for a questionable technical foul for "hanging on the rim" for too long in the fourth quarter. But if that's the only blip on the radar for Hayes, that makes up for a pretty successful performance.

It still seems as if Filipowski is working his way back from the back surgery he recovered from this offseason, as he only saw eight minutes of game time, finishing with zero points, one rebound, and a steal.

This game marks back-to-back showings for Filipowski where he was limited to less than 10 points on the night. And in games where Utah is due to be without some size in Jusuf Nurkic's extended absence, not being able to stand out for a big performance tends to be a missed opportunity.

The hope is that Filipowski can gain more traction within the rotation in the coming days before Nurkic makes his inevitable return. Because if he doesn't turn things around quickly, it might not take too long for both Hayes and Nurkic to eat into some of his minutes within the frontcourt.

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