Utah Jazz try to recover from European journey

MADRID — Before leaving here early Thursday morning and arriving in Utah on Friday morning, the Jazz were perplexed.

Two hours?

Two days?

Two weeks?

Certainly not two months, like the last time they ventured both overseas and out of the country.

Just how long would it take their body clocks to wind back to normal, their legs to feel like they should and their minds to be back where they belong?

No one with the team that lost an NBA EuropeLive 2009 tour preseason game to Chicago on a buzzer-beater Tuesday in London and easily won an exhibition Thursday here against Spanish League power Real Madrid knew for sure.

"Everybody's different," Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said.

"Probably a couple of days — I hope," suggested center Mehmet Okur, who actually was back home in Turkey just a couple months ago — but said he felt like he was here in Europe "yesterday."

Point guard Deron Williams figures it will take at least a few days for all to be right.

"My sleep pattern's off," he said shortly before leaving Madrid. "I'm excited to get that back.

"(But) I don't think it should take that long, especially when we get back home and get in our own bed."

To ease the transition, Sloan gave his players not only Friday but also all of Saturday off from practice.

They'll be back to work this morning, will hold an open-to-the-public scrimmage Tuesday night at Energy-Solutions Arena, resume their eight-game preseason schedule Thursday at home vs. Portland and head to Los Angeles for a pair next weekend.

"We have — what? — 17 or 18 days to be able to get squared away," said Jazz general manager Kevin O'Connor, who feels his team lost more than the three days that it got in extra training camp time just for making the NBA-mandated promotional trip. "But we're all creatures of habit. I mean, when you take us out of a routine, whether it's driving the same way to work or whatever, I think it takes a while to catch up."

Utah opens the regular season on Oct. 28 vs. Denver, five nights after its final exhibition game.

"We have time," Sloan said.