THE CARAVAN WILL BEGIN DEPARTING the Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake City at 5:30 p.m. and pull into the loading dock in the bowels of Vivint Smart Home Arena soon after. One by one, they'll disembark into the NBA's loudest concrete bunker where, a few hours later, 19,000 fans will scream for their extinction, like Romans at the Colosseum.
Chris Paul, the best player on the floor tonight and the league's most discerning film critic, will screen clips of the Jazz on a tablet. J.J. Redick will glide through a warm-up routine that would have America's high school basketball coaches swooning.