NBA plans to increase dialogue to cut tension between teams and referees; Jazz guard Rodney Hood nearing return

Toronto • Starting from the tipoff, when Rudy Gobert felt that Jonas Valanciunas grabbed his arm, the Jazz had a heated dialogue with the officials on Friday night.

That continued well into the Jazz-Raptors game, reaching a crescendo with two technical fouls in the span of four minutes to Gobert and Joe Ingles. And that is normal in an NBA these days, but more and more often with more heated comments postgame.

While neither Gobert nor Ingles denounced the officiating postgame on Friday, the league has had a problem with high-profile stars criticizing officials — most notably with Golden State’s Draymond Green calling for them to be dismissed en masse. The Warriors were also at the center of another brouhaha, when both Shaun Livingston and referee Courtney Kirkland were suspended after shouting in each other’s face in a game in December.

The added tension has created a strain on referees, who are not permitted to discuss how they call games with rare exceptions.

With this problem in mind, the NBA announced Friday afternoon that it is undertaking a plan to deescalate the player-referee conflicts. Led by league officials Michelle Johnson and Monty McCutcheon, the NBA will conduct training sessions for teams to refresh on rules and reemphasize respect for officials while also schooling referees in conflict management.

The league hopes that brings players and referees to a detente. Toronto head coach Dwane Casey said he felt it was a step in the right direction.

“It’s nothing that intelligent people and professional people can’t sit down and overcome,” he said. “It’s one of those things that if there’s perceived tension, there’s tension.”

Amid the rumors that have him on the trading block, Rodney Hood has been with the Jazz on the three-game road trip despite not playing with a lower left leg contusion.

On Friday night, he made a pregame appearance: He was doing conditioning drills with athletic tape on his left shin with the team trainer. Hood also was doing conditioning Thursday after practice.

Utah’s second-leading scorer (16.7 ppg) has missed four games due to injury, during which the Jazz have gone 3-1. He’s played in 36 of Utah’s 49 games this year.

Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox briefly took over the state as Gov. Gary Herbert was undergoing a medical procedure on Friday evening. During his one-hour “reign,” Cox jokingly announced on Twitter that he was “nominating” Ingles to be his lieutenant governor. Cox’s interim role began and ended while the game was in progress.