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Phoenix • Jeff Hornacek enjoyed the chance to catch up.
After Friday night's game in Salt Lake City, the Suns coach made his way to his old offices inside EnergySolutions Arena to talk with Ty Corbin and the rest of the Utah Jazz coaching staff.
"I [wasn't] telling them what we're doing tonight and they're not telling me either," Hornacek said with a laugh. "They're friends of mine."
But as the teams prepared to face off for the second time in two nights, Hornacek wasn't about to do much chatting before Saturday's game.
"I try to tell our players it semi-drives me nuts when guys are out there B.S.-ing with their buddies while they're warming up for the games," he said. "Maybe I'm just old school, but you usually don't talk to guys beforehand. After the competition, you go say hello."
Get out and run
John Stockton might not recognize the first step of the fast-break offense Hornacek wants his new team to run.
"For us, we just say get it out to the first guy," the Suns coach and former Jazzman said. "I've always been of the belief that you can't always look for the point guard. If you've got a great one like when I played with John, yeah you can get it to him and everyone takes off and eventually he hits a guy for a shot. But there aren't many guys like that."
Leaving Arizona
Unless the last-place Jazz find a way to make the playoffs, they won't be making another trip to the Valley of the Sun this season. The calendar didn't even say December yet, and Utah had played Phoenix three times — twice in Arizona.
It has been a "bizarre" schedule, Hornacek said. But one that has advantages for young teams.
"They can kind of get in a little groove of [knowing] what another team does," Hornacek said.
Jazz point guard Trey Burke agreed.
"Coming off that loss [Friday] and knowing what they do good and they don't do good, we'll definitely have an opportunity to come out and exploit their weak areas," the rookie said.
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