The Utah Jazz | as seen by Basketball John

I didn’t really have any motivation to write recaps on either of these two games and I almost didn’t.  But I couldn’t waste that clever title.

I was glad I was out doing Christmas shopping.  It gave me an excuse to not have to write anything about the games.  I don’t what to say that hasn’t already been stated here and in other places.

It’s a shame that we hold both teams in check save for one player in each game.  We give up 37 to Manu and then a career-high of 47 to Josh Howard.  We hold the Spurs to 43% shooting and shoot 54% and lose.  Then we shoot 60% but give up 60% the the Mavs and lose again.

The Spurs go without Duncan and Nowitski has a pedestrian 16.  You’ve got to like your chances.  And Manu only shot 9-21.  You’ve go to be liking that.  But he drove the lane at will and as a result, he went to the line 19 freakin’ times.  And Howard got 17 trips.  Now I could only follow the game on my cell phone as I was out braving Utah drivers in the snow, so how Howard was able to go 14-19 from the field is amazing.  You can say, “Well, Howard had a career night.  Not much we could do to stop him.”  But the thing is is that it seems that a lot of SG/F types have their career nights against the Jazz.

And I’m not sure how you stop it with the current batch we have.  How much more defense can you teach someone?  Either they have that mindset or they don’t. 

The worst part about this whole thing is that Williams is probably playing the most dominant ball of his career right now and it’s being overshadowed by these losses.  Have you looked at his last five games?  Here you go:

31.6 PPG
58% FG, 61% on threes
41-47 from the line
8.4 assists

That’s MVP worthy.  And in my newfound quest of 8>3, here’s Paul’s stats.  Not too shabby either.  But you won’t hear any talk of Williams for MVP.  Had they been winning though, you might have heard whispers by now.

So let’s close the book on this.  I’ve written more than I thought I would.  It’s not a total shame to lose to the Spurs/Mavs, unlike losing to Minnesota.  We’ve got Portland at home on the 11th.  So let’s hope they can put a stop to the losses and gain some confidence going into a brutal next couple weeks with 6 of 7 on the road.