The Utah Jazz | as seen by Basketball John

The Jazz are 1-1 since the last post and 2-2 for the season. In their win, the Jazz had only a 38-30 edge on the boards as there weren’t that many to be had. Utah shot a blistering 63% from the field, including 12-16 from the arc. Williams abused Baron Davis to the tune of 30 points while Okur added 28 with 21 of those coming from downtown. The Warriors have to be worried about giving up 123 points a game so far this season. 123? It’s a small sample size of three games, but wow. I wrote that they haven’t learned their lesson from the playoff series with the Jazz from last year. Amazingly, it doesn’t seem that the Jazz have learned from last season yet either.

They still can’t defend a shooting guard. Granted, they’ve gone against two of the best in McGrady and Kobe. Kobe scored a relatively low 33, but they gave up 19 to Fisher on 3-11 shooting. Wait, what? Oh that’s right, he went to the line 14 times. Fisher suddenly remembered that he too was burned last year in part to the Jazz having no interior defense. Brewer still has a long way to go of course, but at this rate, he’s more likely to get help from Michael Brown. Something has to change soon though because Greg Ostertag isn’t walking through that door.

Sometimes I fantasize think that maybe Boozer or Okur would read my blog criticizing their defense and then I would have an email exchange similar to this classic scene from Airplane:

Joey: I think you’re the greatest, but my dad says you don’t work hard enough on defense. And he says that lots of times, you don’t even run down court. And that you don’t really try… except during the playoffs.
Roger Murdock: The hell I don’t. LISTEN KID. I’ve been hearing that crap ever since I was at UCLA. I’m out there busting my buns every night. Tell your old man to drag Walton and Lanier up and down the court for 48 minutes.

So what’s the over/under set to for LeBron on Wednesday night? I’d set it at about 42 even though I know nothing about gambling, lines, spreads, etc.

Other notes:

• Hapringsucks.com broke me in gently
• Video of the Baron Davis flop. Not seen, Collins with the slow clap on the bench.
• Hart, Collins, Price. - Kill me now.
• This could almost be a post by itself. Jerry describes his wife as a hard worker. Here’s the interview:

Other things in Jerry’s life that are hard workers: his tractor, his dog, his milkman, and the sun.