• Who needs Boozer and Okur when we have AK & Millsap?  Sorry, I didn’t mean to give people ideas.
• Listening to Hot Rod, he said that the Cleveland/Toronto score was 146-145, without OT.  I thought, holy crap.  Then I checked scores, and the final was 91-82, Toronto.  So I thought, he just heard wrong.  But then he repeated it and went on about it.  Maybe he should have the no alcohol rule that airline pilots have.  Of course, then he wouldn’t be Hot Rod.
• Hundley then professed his love for Kobe and stated he only had nine points, all in the first quarter.  Then right on cue, Kobe gets fouled on a three and hits two more.  He finishes the half with 22.
• Fess, 3-4, 6 points, 6 rebounds in three minutes.  Tell me why he’s not a better option than Collins?  Collins in 16: 1-3, 5 boards, 2 points.
• There has been a Giri sighting!
• Fisher with a huge flop before the half.  Apparently he channeled the ghost of Vlade, because that was a performance.  Keep shooting though, he’s 1-8.
• Deron is showing how he can be “the guy” when needed.
• 52 points in the paint?  Out of 70?  And no Boozer or Okur?  Holy cow.

Back at the end of the game.

Well, my cell phone pictures from my trip to Tucson and the UofA game are pretty disappointing. You can’t really tell if it’s her or now. Plus the original pictures don’t who her very well. Is it her? Probably not. I guess you’ll just have to take my word for what it’s worth and these grainy pics. The Loch Ness, UFO, and Big foots pics are probably more convincing.

I debated about whether to put these up at all, but since I’ve nothing today, here you go. Here are the pics from the Revue (click for larger):

And the great pics from my cell phone:

Great, huh? It could have also been one of these two and you could probably make more of an argument for this picture than the others (and they were amongst the youngest in attendance):

So there you go. One interesting thing though is I got the following in my server logs:

Someone from Turkey is looking for Dee’s girl. I thought it might be him at first. Anyway, on to the links:

• Elijah Millsap looks stronger and stronger
• Your first random blog top teams. Beware, migraine-inducing font colors.
• Random blog top teams #2 - Dark on dark
• And number three - Split into conferences.
• Williams v. Ford?
• Brewer evaluated - And other sophmores
• And #4

• Great illustration of Williams, Boozer, Okur, and AK.
• Crazy photo of Okur - Using strobes. Funny, I thought it was just a cutout they put in the lane on defense. I kid, I kid.
• Jazz beat the Warriors again - I used to work with Clay Jensen, the director of ticket sales for the Jazz. When I spoke with him at the Revue, he said it’s pretty easy when you’re winning.
• Who the hell is this? - It’s a post about Deron Williams. The author even goes on to say that he’s played for Jerry Sloan and that you have to be thick-skinned. But what looks like one long paragraph ends with a spam URL at the end. I can’t imagine someone typing all that just to be able to put in some link.  UPDATE:  Tim Legler wrote this.  Here’s the original link.  I think I’ve already linked to it.  The previous link was just some spam scraper site.
• Boozer responds to his “coasting” - I haven’t seen his reply to this before.
• The only thing than being Stockton’s nephew and playing basketball? - Being his son.
• Lamest blogger ever. - So (s)he seems one AK game this year and now he’s overrated? And would say he’s neither over nor under rated. Trade him before his stock plummets more? And if you need more proof, check out the post on the Cavs/Pistons game. (S)he goes on to rip the Cavs, but don’t play the injured card. They were without LeBron. Amazing.
• A Boozer paragraph - And a Sports Guy ripoff of the crazy, hot girlfriend.
• The best players under 25

Carlos Boozer has become so good, that some in the Jazz organization have already changed Karl Malone’s name to Carl, as evidenced by the poll on the right from utahjazz.com (shouldn’t there be a Malone/Stockon option?) So maybe we shouldn’t go that far, but barring injury and if Boozer continues his current play, we could have another power forward bronze statue in front of the ESA. That would look good with a Deron Williams monument, which should have a statue of either Vaughn or Hinrich falling down.

I even saw Booze take a charge tonight. Carlos is shooting greater than 70% the last few games, including 12-17 for tonight. And after a tweaked ankle scare, Booze taped it back up and came back and helped close out the 76ers with 12 in the fourth.

And a lot of those points came from part of Deron Williams’ 15 assists. Is there a more un-guardable shot than Deron’s cross-over, step back jumper? He left Andre Miller planted to the floor as he could only watch Williams take the easy J. Brewer had another great game with 19.

And although 5-12 doesn’t look good, Okur actually looked better in this game. Most of his shots came withing the flow of the offense. He did leave early with back spasms. I don’t know how long he had them. I didn’t hear any updates. Let’s hope that this isn’t a setback in what looked like a rebound game for Memo.

Complete Box Score

This was a good game to get a win in after having a similar situation last week in which they got blown out by Indy. A lot of the Jazz wins have come against sub-.500 teams, but isn’t that how it’s suppose to be? They have quality wins over NO, Cleveland, and Toronto. But their upcoming schedule is brutal. After two home games against the Kobes and Heat, they play9 of their next 11 on the road. Those include games at PHX, Dallas, SA, Orlando, and Miami, the start of last year’s 6 game slide. Merry Christmas Jazz!

Kyle Korver was off tonight thank goodness. This coming after his big game against the Bucks. AI2 led Philly with 20. And the Sixers outrebounded the Jazz, 39-36, including 16 O boards. That’s not good. And Andre Miller could be the best PG you never hear from. Think Cleveland would like to have him back? Him and Kutcher could be on their way out.

Other notes:

• Game 3 of no Giricek. Just end this. If we’re not going to play him, trade him or package him with someone for a center. Regardless of your thoughts on Giri, seeing him slapped with a DNP makes no sense. Either play him or ship him out.
• Sixers blog recap (if the link doesn’t work, just go to the main blog. I guessed on the URL)
• Youtube Recap

• I forgot this one yesterday.  It’s the only video I’ve seen of Dee Brown in game action in Turkey.  Unfortunately, it’s not very good for Dee.  He gets swatted pretty good on this “one man fast break.”  Should have used the left hand.
• Thierra Henry, Deron fan - What’s the connection here?  Did they meet up because of Tony Longoria?
• Good live blog of last night’s Knick’s game from someone in attendance
• AK loves everyone again
• It’s all in the big toe - Can someone check Okur’s?
• Good write up about the Jazz from an outsider
• It’s a pick and roll world - See, everyone does it.
• The Jazz are a top 4 defense - At least according to this formula.  See, you can make numbers say anything you want.

I swear I will catch up on recaps if it kills me and bores you. So here’s a quickie on the previous two games:

• NO & UT - Williams/Paul, no story. All hail Price & Hart. Utah wins big.
• Utah & Detroit - Wait, the game is over already? It started when? Boozer does his best Yi impression and shoot as if he were being guarded by a chair. Utah wins.

Just as the Jazz have had the Pistons’ number recently, the Knicks have had Utah’s. And with those games coming on back to back nights, it’s a weird chiasmus. Or is that a parallelism?

Anyway, that was the first reason I was afraid of this game. The second and third being Marbury and Randolph. For whatever reason, they turn into NBA first teamers when they play the Jazz. Randolph goes for 25 & 14 with Marbury adding 28 & 6. And despite that, behind Boozer’s 16 in the fourth, the Jazz almost pulled it out. But with three turnovers in four possessions and no one blocking out on Crawford’s three, they weren’t able to get it done.

There was no D from the Jazz in this one as evidenced by their two blocks with ZERO coming from AK. And what’s weird is that the Jazz outrebounded the Knicks 42-32 and had 24 assists to NY’s 15. But who needs assists and rebounds when you can drive the lane and get layups and dunks?

Memo still hasn’t decided to show up. Here are his career stats:

He’s down in nearly every category. Look at that shooting percentage. Does it get more consistent than that prior to this year? And now he’s shooting 80 points lower? I’m no stat wiz, but that a significant amount. He’s also taking about three shots less per game. Is he a victim of AK getting more shots? AK is getting two more a game than last year.Speaking of which, I don’t know what’s happened to AK’s shot the past couple years, but he should not be shooting threes any more. And no way in hades should he be taking 3 in a game. I couldn’t watch so I don’t know the circumstances that he took them in, but no AK, no.

Now we’ll have to see Isiah on the sidelines for a couple more games. I was hoping this would be the final blow to his career. So now we’re off to Philly. They’re another struggling team that we should be able to dispatch should we get anything from anyone not wearing 5 or 8.

Two posts in one day?  I’m on fire.  Well, the previous post was suppose to be a recap of the Hornets and Detroit games.  But my intro morphed into a rant.  The recaps are still coming, they will just be part of the preview of the Knicks game.  But first, on to the links.

•  All things sports transactions - UtesFan89 of WoGH has a new blog.
• A little Booze never hurt - Dan Shanoff gives Booze a little love.
• No Mo Go? - Shouldn’t there be a corner of the ESA called Jerry’s doghouse?
• Memo was atrocious shooting again - I still think Memo is turing into AK2006.  He’s putting up shots he shouldn’t because he thinks he might not be getting enough.  And as a result, they’re not going down because it’s out of the offense.
• What happens in Vegas hopefully follows you.
• John Stockton sighting - And of course there’s no pics.  Has anyone been more elusive?  Perhaps it’s fitting that he lives in the Pacific NW.  I wonder if he and Bigfoot ever run into each other.
• Movin on up.
• A little late - But another preview

To all the USA readers, hope all was well with the turkey and yams.  To all of the non-US readers, you’re missing out.  Although I guess you really don’t need a date to have turkey, potatoes, stuffing, etc.  And I was a bit disappointed that we didn’t hear from Dee, with him being in the land that started this great tradition.  And no warming Thanksgiving wishes from Memo either.  Shouldn’t there have been a Jazz contest to have Memo come to your house for Thanksgiving?

Anyway, all along I haven’t really cared about the supposed Deron Williams/Chris Paul rivalry/comparison/MVP talk.  Both teams made out like bandits in the 2005 NBA draft when Atlanta passed over both of them.  Utah traded up, probably expecting to pick which ever one was left.  But instead, they landed the enviable position of having their choice.  They couldn’t go wrong really with either pick, although many thought they did by selecting Williams.

Where was I going with this?  Yes, I haven’t really cared.  Both are working out great for their respective teams.  And while neither team would swap one for the other, they would have been equally fine if the Jazz had picked Paul first.  But now Paul is getting talk for MVP?  He’s going as high as 3 for some.  First of all, already?  I know everyone needs something to write about, but shouldn’t there be a cutoff date, like February?  In fact, it shouldn’t be talked about until after the All-star game.  What’s the point?

Second, there are probably at least 10 other players above him right now.  Next, although Williams is a little behind stat-wise now, wouldn’t you rather have him over Paul?  Shouldn’t CP have to play for at least consecutive 20 games without sitting out for an injury?  You can’t tell me that Hornets fans don’t worry every day that Paul is going to go down? 

And some other tidbits…  Paul is 1-6 in head-to-head matchups against Deron.  NO’s record seems to be weighing a lot into their reason for Paul’s MVP status, yet the Jazz are 10-4, a slightly better record than NO’s 10-5.  Deron’s name though is nowhere to be found though.  Aren’t writers contractually obligated to mention them both in the same breath?  They do every other time.

While I’ve never had the hatred for Paul that some Jazz fans do, but I have to say that I’m going to be more vocal in proclaiming Deron’s greatness over Chris’.  There has to be some balance in the force.

We’ll lead off with Simmons’ WC preview.  He didn’t break it down into two sections like he did with the EC.  And in a surprising turnaround, he’s got the Jazz at #4.  He went back to his podcast prediction instead of his NBA Quickie Preview.  He adjusted preview gives the Jazz 9 more wins.  Glad to see he has repented.

• “He’s got a great body and he knows how to use it“
• Top 15 Cleveland villains
• Stockton may want to consider a restraining order
• Another AK trade scenario.    Have to say I haven’t heard this one.
• Analysis of one of the plays vs. the Pacers.
• Ranking the 2005 class - Guess who’s first?
• LT is 1-0 on the new Karl Malone court
• Because you can’t get enough - Will or CP3?
• Are you a true Jazz fan?
• More Ronnie Brewer lovin’
• More Jerry lovin’
• “It’s not your fault.” - I immediately thought of Good Will Hunting when I read this.
• Alan Hinckley of Jazzbots.com - He’s got his own blog with Jazz stuff.

In the last game before TurkeyFest© 2007, the Jazz dispatched the Nets by the first quarter, winning 102-75. Apparently while the Nets were watching game film from the Jazz/Pacers game, they modeled their game after Utah instead of Indiana.

And the supposed teacher/student matchup between Kidd and Williams didn’t really give us anything. Kidd was more like a late school season substitute teacher that sits in the corner and puts a movie on for the class. He shot a paltry 1-9 for 2 points. Deron on the other hand rebounded from his slump to post 20, 6, and 4. And even in limited minutes, Boozer still put up 17. It was also nice to have Okur back, going 6-10. Brewer earned his money from the line and AK has been his pre 2006-07 self.

Full Box Score

We even got to see Ronnie Price get major minutes with Hart out attending his grandmother’s funeral. And what can I say about Price? He actually played pretty well. Well, more precisely I thought, “He doesn’t suck.” I sure liked his speed and handle. But it was AK that seemed to handle the distribution while Price was playing.

I read on a jazzfanz.com message board that maybe Deron’s numbers are down because of AK. I couldn’t find the post, but know that it wasn’t my idea originally. But he made a great point. It sure seems that because of Sloan’s & Deron’s statements to get AK more involved might be hampering Williams a bit. Instead of going with the flow and letting him get the ball to the person he thinks is best, he’s having to consciously give up the ball more to AK. I even saw a couple times where AK had the ball bringing it up court and seemed to wave off Deron. I know they have set plays like this for AK, but I didn’t think they ran them that often. It seemed sometimes as though he was calling the play.

A couple other notes… Brewer has quick hands and gets a lot of steals. But it doesn’t seem like he can keep his player in front of him very well. Whether it’s from screens, or going for head-fakes, going for steals, or rushing to challenge a shot, his player often goes right around him. They’re not quicker than he is, he’s just in a bad position. Once they get by him, it’s …

Home free. Because Okur and Boozer aren’t stopping them. I was amazed at how many times both either watched them go by or even get out of the way. And the few times they would challenge, the only contact would be Okur trying to hold hands with the player as they went up for the shot. But one thing’s for sure, Okur and Boozer don’t like contact on the defensive end. Really, when’s the last time you saw either give a hard foul or take a charge?

Up next on Friday is Chris Paul and the Hornets. Shocker, but Paul has been out the past couple days with a sprained ankle. Up next is also the three days of Williams/Paul comparisons. The local media have never found a dead horse they didn’t like.