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About three minutes into his first game action in nearly a month, Derrick Favors' hands were on his knees and he was breathing heavy through his mouth. By the time the Utah Jazz forward found his second wind, his mouth was gaping wide as he roared following a monstrous two-handed dunk.
"Just happy to be back," Favors said afterward.
And, boy, were the Jazz happy to have him.
In his first game since his team's preseason opener, Favors came off the bench to score 15 points and grab 11 rebounds in a 96-89 win over the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday at Vivint Smart Home Arena.
"He was determined," Jazz coach Quin Snyder said. "I think you [see] a hunger in him that's probably gone back to all the work that he's put in, beginning in May and June."
Favors played a preseason game on Oct. 3 but began feeling a pain in his knee afterward. The diagnosis, Iliotibial Band Syndrome, kept him from playing or practicing until Thursday of this week.
Favors was limited to 20 minutes of game time Friday, though Snyder said he had been tempted to let him go longer.
"The way he was playing, there were times you wanted to get him back in there," Snyder said, calling Favors' reintegration into the lineup "seamless."
The coach said there is "no formula" for deciding when or how Favors' minutes will be ramped up in the coming days, but the forward said his body felt good after Friday's game.
"I think I'm good physically," he said.
A back injury robbed Favors of 20 games last season and, even after his return he wasn't playing at 100 percent. So to see the work Favors had put in during the summer to get healthy and then go down with an injury, Snyder said, "You felt for him."
Back on the court Friday, Favors made sure the Lakers felt him. The 6-10 forward scored his first points of the season on a reverse layup. He blocked a pair of shots. And after missing at the hoop, Favors battled for a rebound, rose up through traffic to smash home a dunk, slapping the backboard and screaming to cap off the play.
"I would't call it frustration, but I would call it appreciation," Snyder said. "I think he really, really enjoyed being out there and he was going to make the most of every second, and that's what we saw."
Twitter: @aaronfalk