Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
DENVER — Utah Jazz coach Will Hardy couldn't help but laugh.
He had just been asked if Collin Sexton would be limited due to a fractured finger he sustained earlier in the week. Limit Sexton? The fireball of energy with the infectious smile? That premise alone seemed quite absurd.
"I'm just laughing at the thought of limiting Collin," he said before the game. "No, no, it's a pain tolerance thing right now; and from all accounts, Colin doesn't feel pain."
Good thing, too, because this season might get awfully painful for the Jazz.
Utah is still looking for its first win of the season after falling to the Denver Nuggets 129-103 Saturday at Ball Arena. The Jazz are now 0-6 on the season, their worst opening mark since starting 0-8 in 2013-14.
That season, the team started 1-14 and finished with the worst record in the Western Conference. And with a growing injury report, it's not hard to imagine a similar start for this year's team.
Utah was without Lauri Markkanen (lower back spasms) and Jordan Clarkson (heel) on Saturday.
Markkanen, speaking to reporters Saturday morning, said he expects to return sometime during Utah's four-game road trip. Utah next plays at Chicago on Monday; Clarkson, meanwhile, will be re-evaluated on Friday.
That meant a young Jazz team was without four rotational players (Isaiah Collier and Taylor Hendricks being the other two) against the Nuggets ... and that showed.
Nikola Jokic had 27 points, 16 rebounds and nine assists to lead the Nuggets, who shot 50% from 3-point range.
Utah kept things relatively close in the first half, even coming back from a 17-point first-quarter deficit to tie things up midway through the second; however, Denver's 9-point halftime lead quickly ballooned in the third quarter, and Jokic spent the entirety of the final frame comfortably on the bench.
Utah had 14 live-ball turnovers which helped the Nuggets break open the game late.
"The live ball turnovers is continuing to rear its head with our team," Hardy said. "We've got to do a better job handling the ball, and we have to value the ball. Some of them are passing, some of them are just dribbling into a crowd. ... We play a style where the ball moves around and everybody has to value the ball when they have it."
Walker Kessler led the Jazz with 18 points, 14 rebounds and five blocks. Keyonte George had 16 points and eight assists and John Collins added 15 points. Sexton, broken finger and all, had 10 points and four assists in 25 minutes.
"Oh no, I'll be fine," Sexton said of the fracture. "I've been here before, broke my fingers before. So just a little messed up, but I'm good to go. No excuses for me."
He'll have to have the fractured finger taped for up to eight weeks as it heals.
"I gotta keep it straight, because it was messed up, but it's all good," he said. "I'll be fine."
With all the injuries, Sexton suddenly found himself as one of the older players on the court (even at the young age of 25), and he feels an added responsibility to try and help his younger teammates through what has been a tough start.
"Sometimes it's their first time experiencing something like this; they've been winning all their life," Sexton said. "Sometimes people go years without losing five games. So right now in this tough time, just with my leadership and my background to encourage them and just continue to push them as needed."
One of the things he's trying to get his teammates to focus on is staying in the present.
"You only have the present time to go out here and give it your all," he said. "Give it 110% whenever you cross those lines; that's all we can do."
That, though, hasn't been enough to get a win — at least not yet.
When will that come? Uh ... fans might be best served to take Sexton's advice and just go game by game. Translation: If the first six games are an indicator, it could be a while.
Hopefully, Sexton isn't the only one with a high pain tolerance.
