So can I officially coin the phrase Mansap Crush?  What more could a Jazz fan want in a player?  Points?  20.  Rebounds?  14.  And most of those came in just the first quarter when he had 13 & 8.  Is there anything he can’t do?  When the Spurs employed a half-court press, Paul was able to break it down and get the assist.  He grabs any board that’s within 84123 zip code.  I also had the pleasure of speaking with his mother and uncle (agent) after the game.  He loves it in Utah and probably more importantly, his mother does as well.  Also, we need to come up with a valid nickname for Millsap.  I haven’t heard any and I think this needs to happen soon. 

Enough of my gushing.  Here are some notes from the game:

• Brewer didn’t dress again.  Looks like he’ll have to win the SG position come training camp.  Please win the position Ronnie.  Also found out from Millsap’s mom that he hangs out a lot with them.
• Mike Brown is huge.  He’s coaching for the NBDL and scouting.  Check out the Flickr stream.  It really doesn’t do him justice though.
• Kee-Kee played about 10 minutes and got some early work in.
• Hoffa had huge bulges in his shorts.  Couldn’t figure out what it was until later when I saw him shoving ice on to his thighs.  Apparently he had an MRI on his groin.
• We finally got to see the first winner of the Utah Flash tickets by completing a lay-up, free-throw, and three pointer.  Man he really flashed some skill with with the last three.  It’s a good thing I didn’t take a picture and have my flash blind him.  He also won a 2 GB flash drive, a classic Flash comic book, and a flashlight.  Sadly he was arrested outside the arena later for flashing.  Okay, I’m done.
• The press was giving the Jazz fits all night.  It’s probably the biggest reason for their 195 turnovers.
• I guess all of the fans forgot about the playoffs because there were no boos with intros or at any other time really during the game.  The only anger was directed at the refs.  That and there were no players from the Spurs team that were on the summer league squad.  But still, it’s the Spurs for crying out loud.
• Dee’s little boy Darrian was in attendance.  Cute little kid.  He has a nice “Lil D” shaved in the back of his head.  I couldn’t get a good picture of it.  The one I did take of him surprised him because I had forgotten to take the flash off. 
• The coaches wardrobe really looks like they just get handed a new package every game.  If they were the same ones they would have had to have been washed, right?  These didn’t look washed.  Maybe I’ll squirt some mustard on Layden tonight to see.
• Best name of the Revue, #22 for the Spurs, Pooh Jeter.  But Jeter is pronounced Jetter.  Maybe he likes the Jet sounding name because it makes him sound fast.  Bonus note: Lojeski covered him for the latter part of the game and contained him pretty well.  That’s something we haven’t seen from a SG for a while.  And Jeter was smaller and faster.
• The refs hate Ukrainians.  Fes was called for about 4 fouls where he either didn’t touch the guy or he looked at him wrong.
• Finally, the Jazz five of Fes, Lojeski, John Millsap, Kendall, and Gil made a nice comeback.  They were pumped, but then they were all subbed for for Almond, Mansap, Brown, etc.  I’m all for more Mansap, but at this point the coaching had probably given up on the game and were letting lesser players get minutes.  I think the group that got them this far should have been left in to finish.  They should have been rewarded for their play.  And they were playing well together.  I don’t think there should have been any subs unless they were tired.  But I don’t think any of them had played enough minutes where they would have been tired.  Had they still been down by 10 or so with 6 minutes left, we would have never seen the starters back in.

I’ll get the audio put up later and attach the links to this post.

Flickr Photos