Utah Jazz center Walker Kessler will miss the remainder of the 2025-26 season after requiring left shoulder surgery due to a ruptured labrum. This set

But, within a positive night for Utah, there was one name in the mix during that Jazz win who wound up emerging as the team's biggest X-factor in the eyes of head coach Will Hardy, and a sentiment that Kevin Love would agree with following the game: second-year big man Kyle Filipowski.

"It’s (the) fourth quarter—it’s a minute left in the game, or less, and you completely—the whole staff blows the (expletive) call," said Brown.

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That shift came within the frontcourt in the form of two notable swaps. Instead of starting the combination of Kyle Filipowski and Walker Kessler at the four and five spots, Taylor Hendricks and Jusuf Nurkic would be the starting pairing to start the night for Utah–– one move made due to injury, and the other being a coaching decision.

Elijah Harkless was an undrafted guard with stops at Cal State-Northridge and Oklahoma before finally finishing his collegiate career at UNLV in 2023. He spent the following year in the G League and played in Canada before the Los Angeles Clippers showed some interest. Ultimately they ended up waiving him, and the Jazz picked him up in January.

While the Celtics were up double-digits early, the Jazz refused to stay down. Part of that was a Boston offense that was cold throughout the night. The C’s couldn’t generate consistent or easy looks as both sides struggled with their efficiency.

Through the first few games of the new Utah Jazz season, the roster has come with a few pleasant surprises to have stood out in their initial sample size in showing off their work done from this summer.