I didn’t look hard enough through the pictures. I wish these were geo-tagged.

Lots of pictures of NBA players with random white chicks at flickr. Williams, here though seems to prefer having a couple beers rather than a couple of roadies.

Is Cherokee Parks still considered an NBA player?

Ugh. The final score of this one, 101-90 Magic. Take away three late threes by Okur & Fisher and this game isn’t even close. Those did put them within four, but the Magic put it away after that with a couple layups. If you look at the stats, you would guess that this was a lot closer. And outside of rebounds, you would almost think they won. But the biggest thing for this game seemed to be that they couldn’t get back on defense for fast breaks.

Complete Box Score

The Jazz are off tomorrow and play again @ Philly on Saturday. They’re coming off a heart-breaker to the Bulls. The Jazz will have to put them away early as it’s a young, confident team.

Not much more to say than what Deron Williams did. I couldn’t watch the game on TV so I had to “watch” on ESPN’s gamecast. It seemed like every bucket for the Heat in the final 5 minutes were layups. Okur came put the Jazz up late with a 3, 86-85, but they couldn’t score again. I think the biggest issue, which seems to happen a lot during losses, it the bad free-throw shooting. The went 24-36 last night. I wonder how much they have to run in practice for that.

Complete Box Score

I can see tonight’s game at Orlando as a let-down game. Let’s see what they’re made of.

Utah @ Orlando preview 7 p.m. ET

It seems as likely as this article where Sloan says that he’s not going to get any more technicals for the rest of the season. What fun would that be? Even more alarming is that Kirilenko has just one in his six seasons. I can’t see AK getting that upset, he loves everyone.

In the only true power rankings, Marc Stein has the Jazz listed fourth. Hard to argue with that position with the Mavs, Spurs, and Suns above them. The good news is that the Jazz’s record against those teams is 6-2. Where’s the love?

In the much played-down competition between Deron Williams and Chris Paul, Williams came away from the game with a slight edge in overall stats with 10 pts & 13 assists. Neither shot the ball well:

Complete Box Score

But most importantly, the Jazz came away with a win, one they were expected to get. A lot of people will say that this six game win streak has been against lesser opponents, but as a championship-type team, aren’t these the ones you’re suppose to win? Losing any of these would have been huge considering the damn Spurs have one 12 straight.

This was a typical Jazz game this year as they started out slow, trailed 47-45 at the half, then pulled away in the third, and maintained the lead in the fourth.

The Jazz were led again by Okur and Boozer with 29 and 20 respectively.

Next up, a four-game eastern road swing starting Tueday @ Miami. Should be a test as they play Miami, Orlando, Philly, and wrap it up in Cleveland. Miami has been playing well despite Wade’s absence. The Jazz have also had a time with Orlando. I don’t expect them to lose this one though. After playing a resurgent Philly team, they’ll finish up at Cleveland where LeBron awaits.

Four games in five nights on the road. Tough stretch coming up.

Boozer reportedly received the call from Jerry Colangelo to play for Team USA.

“He said, ‘We want you there,’ and I told him I’d be thrilled to play,” said Boozer,

Team USA needs an inside presence like Boozer. Hopefully it doesn’t wear him out for next season, or the season after that because of the Olympics.

More @ AOL

Now’s a good as time as any to start up a blog on the Jazz. Look for more things coming…

In the midst of one of their easiest stretches, the Jazz pulled away in the fourth quarter to beat the Indiana Pacers. They did it again with a different leading scorer, Deron Williams.

Williams had 17 points & 6 assists while Carlos Boozer contributed 14 points and 16 boards. Their efforts helped offset Mehmet Okur’s off night of 1-8 shooting.

Complete Boxscore

The Pacers closed out the third with 7 straight points to cut the Jazz lead to 5, which is closer than it should have ever gotten. All of this occurred while William was on the bench. The last two losses the Jazz have suffered has been when Williams didn’t play. What is now the Nash rule for MVP, shouldn’t this put Williams up with Nowitski and Nash? I’m sure Dirk will win, but I can’t believe Deron doesn’t get much mention. He should contend as early as next year I would think. And as long as a championship comes this year, it won’t matter.

Next game:
NOOCH @ Utah, 10 March, 2007 @ 7:00 p.m.