The Utah Jazz | as seen by Basketball John

When Memo’s heave with about 5 minutes to go went in, I thought, the Jazz have this game.  Things were finally looking like they were going Utah’s way.  But it wasn’t meant to be as Boston had their way inside all night and that Jazz couldn’t pull down defensive rebounds when they needed them most.  And with Pierce being unstoppable in the second half, the Jazz would have had to play perfect ball to some out on top.  Neither Miles, Brewer, and of course Harpring could shut him down.  And all of this came after he had 0 points and 0 boards in the first half.  I’m a big Sloan supporter, but why he left Harp on him for so long baffles me.  Would AK have made a difference here?  Probably.  But the Jazz were still only one or two stops away from winning this game.

But the back-breaker for the game was Allen’s off-balance, running three pointer as the shot clock expired.  It put the Celtics up three and the Jazz had to play catchup the rest of the way.

Probably what did the Jazz in was the sloppy beginning to the fourth quarter.  I haven’t seen so many fluffy passes, including two back-to-back by Williams.

Memo again hit some big shots, including the aforementioned desperation heave, but he was still only 4-14.  Okur is the key to getting the Jazz back winning again.

So now the Jazz sit at .500 and face a very real chance of going under that when they face Portland Monday night.  Of course Portland has owned us this year and they just wrapped up their 13th straight victory.  Facing their stifling zone may have gotten just a bit easier with Korver now being able to stretch the defense just a bit.

A win against Portland would probably do more for the Jazz psyche than a win over the Celtics would have.  They play them in two of their three next games.

So once again, who’s going to step up and lead the team out of this hole?  Is there anyone who’s going to say enough is enough, put the team on their back, and win a couple games in a row?

Other notes:

• Speaking of veteran leadership, why isn’t Harp more vocal?  He’s one of the vets that is kept around but I don’t seem to think he’s a capable leader.
• It was amusing to see the Celtics players that aren’t in the regular 6-7 man rotation act like they actually have something to contribute to the team.  They were standing and high-fiving the whole night.
• I like it when they just let them play, but what was it going to take to get an over-the-back call?
• Overall, a great offensive output against the best D in the league
• If Eddie was coaching the Celtics right now, would anyone notice?  See, having three HOFers can compensate for an incompetent coach.