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UPDATE: Welcome Dancing with the Stars fans. Although this probably isn’t the type of blog you’re into, enjoy the Hough sighting. I would have got some more pictures, but alas, I was in the nosebleeds and she had floor seats. Continue your stalking…

To reciprocate, how about clicking here to vote for Deron Williams & Carlos Boozer for the NBA All-star team

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There’s nothing like a good stomach flu to suck out your will to live. That mixed with Christmas hosting duties didn’t let me finish the lame 10 days of Christmas like I wanted to. Here are the last two. I’ll I’m going to be able to do is link to what I wrote when they happened. Those that are disappointed can apply for a refund by hitting alt-F4.

• Derek Fisher Leaving - This probably had the biggest effect on the Jazz this year.
• AK wants out - Who knew that this would turn into the biggest non-story of the year? Other related AK articles here.

So now that that’s caught up, let’s get back to recaps, videos, and other news.

Having got some tickets to the Mavs game for Christmas, I was seriously bummed at possibly not being able to go due to the aforementioned stomach flu. But I thought, if Jordan can drop 38 in 1997’s game 5 at the Delta Center, then I can certainly sit my can in section 117 for a Jazz win.

Well, as a result, the Jazz record with me in attendance got pushed to 6-0. I’m guessing it will have to get closer to about 20-0 before I start hearing offers from the Jazz to give me free season tickets.

It was without a doubt the best defensive game of the season for the Jazz. That might not be backed up statistically, but from the games I’ve seen, it was the best they’ve looked. And you can look no further than the 16-0 run to start the game. They had their hands in everything and turned it into 18 turnovers for the game.

And even though he didn’t have a good night shooting percentage-wise, Memo drained a couple shots late in the fourth to hold off the Mavs. The past ten or so games (that he’s been playing in) those haven’t been going in. And that might be the difference in holding those fourth quarter leads. Dirk was only 3-10 from three, but those all came in the fourth and kept them in it. But a couple more defensive stops put this one away for the Jazz.

Complete Box Score

We had a row of die-hard Dallas fans in front of us who couldn’t get out of there fast enough with about 1:30 left. They were pretty cordial (they had kids with) and Jazz fans didn’t have too much to say except when Nowitski had a couple late-game turnovers, a small chant of MVP! MVP! broke out. But the best part was when the Dallas couple’s 3-year old daughter started cheering for the Jazz. The wife literally had to cover the little girl’s mouth because her father was getting angry. I wish I would have had a small Jazz ball or something to give her. Tell me how you’re going to take something like that away from a little girl? Maybe that should be the new strategy. When opponent’s fans come in the door with kids, instruct the ushers at the door to give them a little Jazz memorabilia.

We also had a Julianne and Derek Hough sighting from Dancing with the Stars. How would it be to be able to score court-side tickets like that? And even though we’ll give Julianne a free pass, I guarantee Derek is not a fan. If he could name to players I would be surprised. And in the AP caption, Julianne gets mislabeled as Jennie Garth. Is that a good or bad thing?

So even with their amazingly poor play, the Jazz are still only 2 games out in the division. And it’s taken 11 wins in a row for the Trail Blazers to overtake the Jazz. The new media darlings have been impressive. I have to admit I didn’t think they would be much of a threat this year, but Roy is really having an MVP stretch. What kind of pace will they keep up? Who knows. But their zone D looks really good. So you’re going to have to beat that first if you want to beat them. It’s not going to be the walk everyone thought it was going to be.

But if you ever need to pull out a win for your team, just come down with the stomach flu and head on over to the ESA.