Who who really need to step it up is Korver and Millsap. They’re likely to get the minutes from the three starters’ absences.
But most of all, let’s hope we get some D tonight. The Jazz gave up 67 points in the second half of yesterday’s game at MIN. If the Jazz can play any kind of D, they win games.
Can we just start the playoffs? I’m tired of watching the Jazz lose to non-playoff teams. I don’t even want to go over their loss to Minnesota yesterday.
Maybe making the playoffs is a little presumptuous. They have the next two at home against the Wizards tonight and the Timberwolves again on Wednesday. And if Okur, AK, and Brewer are out again, those aren’t gimmees.
Then comes the brutal last six games starting with San Antonio on Friday. Isn’t it wrong that I’m more concerned about the Wiz & TWolves games than I am about the Spurs?
Denver is 8-2 in their last 10 and stand only 2 1/2 games behind the Jazz. That’s 2 1/2 games out of last place. I remember last year at about this time the Jazz were only a couple games behind SA for second or third in the conference. They went on to crap the rest of the regular season and lost home-court to the Rockets.
That game against the Nuggets is looking a lot more important now than it did last month when the Jazz blew out Denver at home. I didn’t even think that it was going to be relevant.
And maybe I’m just freaking out. It’s all about matchups in the NBA and for whatever reason, the Timberwolves give us fits. But it seems like most sub-.500 teams on the road gives Utah problems. It’s really amazing when you think about it.
So the “cup is half full” goal for the team is to overcome the 1 1/2 games between them and PHX or Houston for home court advantage. Or with two games left against SA, could we gain on them? The “cup is half empty” goal now is to just make the playoffs. Can we stay above GS, Denver, and Dallas? We have games against Dallas and Denver left.
We have 5 home games left as well as 3 on the road. So that’s a bit in our favor. Even if you give Utah 4-1 at home, that means they have to go 2-1 on the road to fend off Denver. Dallas and GS have been slipping as of late.
So I don’t think we’re out of the playoffs. But home court looks like a pipe dream without a 7-1 finish.
The Jazz are returning to the scene of this humiliating loss. They were blown out by nearly 30.
It goes without saying that they can ill afford to lose this one. We’re only two back of first place. The Rockets and Spurs are squaring off now. So we should be able to gain on one of them.
Golden State goes up against Dallas. Dallas has won their first two meetings. SO GS has to win the next two. But if they do, this could be the beginning of the end for the Mavs playoff chances.
ANd of course the big news is that Fesenko and Almond both got called up yesterday (thanks for the tip UtesFan and Danielle). That means they can’t be sent back down again. It will be good to get the some PT in preparation for the playoffs.
So let’s hope we take care of business again and keep gaining in the standings.
Well now we all know that Deron Williams reads BBJ. We saw the same angry Williams last night that we saw in late January and early February.
Deron was nearly perfect going 13-15 from the field for 32 points and causing problems for the Clippers all night. Whether he was taking it to the basket, pulling up for the J, or dishing one of his ten assists, the Clips had no one to stop him. He had one of the beset dunks of the year when after a steal, at half court, he drove the lane and threw down over Kaman. I think only his dunk over Tyson Chandler was better. And that was because it came after he made Paul look silly. And with this double-double, Deron and Paul both have 46 DDs. You won’t hear that comparison anywhere else. But you have started to see Sloan not holding back praise for Williams,
Deron sees so much out there on the floor and knows the game so well as a young player. It’s very unusual,
This coming from the same Sloan that complains about defense and lack of effort when the Jazz blow out teams.
Deron didn’t do it all by himself though. The other half of the LA-abusing duo was Carlos Boozer. He had his way with the Clippers big men, shooting 16-22 for 36 points and picked up the rebound slack with Memo out, grabbing 17. It was the same for Booze as it was for Deron. He would either knock down the 16-19 foot jumper or drive right by his defender.
Maybe it was best that Memo (stomach virus), Brewer (ditto), and AK (left in second, calf spasms) were out for this one. The rest of the team seemed a lot more focused and played within the offense. They were getting lay-ups, dunks, and open shots. And Jaron Collins didn’t suck. We also saw Hart play for 16. And he didn’t suck either. And because they were playing in the offense, they were able to get back on D. The Clips still shot 51%, but the Jazz forced 17 turnovers and out-rebounded LA, 41-29.
The Jazz did what they needed to do and took care of things at home. There wasn’t going to be lapse with this one. The lead got to 25 at one point and the closest the Clippers could get was 15. Korver helped seal the deal with a couple of threes down the stretch and finished with 17.
And the night got even better after learning that NO got blown out by Boston. The Celts really are becoming my second team to root for. It’s too bad they don’t play any more WC teams. And even bigger news is that Memphis went into LA last night and beat the Lakers, 114-111. That was despite Kobe’s 53.
So as it stands now, the Jazz are two out of first, 1 1/2 behind Houston (our latest first-round matchup), and a half game behind PHX. We’ll get the chance to overtake Houston on April 14. It will be the third and final game in the series this year. The series is split 1-1, so whoever wins will have the tiebreaker advantage. But you know how they show lead changes in a game? I’d like to see the seed position changes for the last month of the season for the WC.
So tomorrow it’s a rare Sunday game; at Minnesota of course. Then it’s return home for game against WSH, Minny (again), and the biggie next Friday against SA. There’s a good chance to move up in seeding this week.
Ross Siler (more insight into President Monson talking to Sloan & Deron with a classic quote about it)
Other notes
Sloan turned 66
President Monson (LDS Church leader) was in attendance. And according to ESPN, he stopped by the Jazz bench on his wait out from halftime and said a couple words to the team and Sloan. Probably a Happy Birthday, go get ‘em kind of talk.
The Clips have had a lot on injuries to say the least. But it looks like they could get Brand back soon. He was working out before the game. Also, if you haven’t seen Livingston’s injury, check out this link (not for the squeamish). It’s amazing that he can walk again after that.
NBA Top Ten
He had one made jumper. The rest were layups and foul shots.
On paper (that’s one of those sayings that going to carry into the digital age even though no one looks at stats on paper much any more) this game won’t even be close. And for Utah’s sake, it better not be. This needs to be a game where the Jazz take care of business.
Of course that’s how it should have been last time too. Instead they stunk up the Staples center and lost by ten. Maggette and Thornton both had 27 in that one. Add that to Kaman’s 14 and Mobley having a good night, that’s not good. You can live with Kaman and Maggette. They did get to the free throw line 41 times as well.
The Jazz shot 51% from the field that night but were a whopping 0-13 from three-point land.
My last game at the ESA was against the Clippers. Pretty boring game, but it was a win. I’d love to see another boring game tonight.
The Clips have lost 9 straight with their last win coming against guess who?
With a win tonight, we could gain a full game on San Antonio, LA, NO, and PHX if they were to lose. Both PHX and NO could go down as they play @ Boston and @ Philly respectively. We need Boston to do us the same favors they did us in Texas last week.
Could it happen again? Could the Jazz reach the Western Conference finals two years in a row? Well, if they can avoid San Antonio in the first round, it could happen.
Despite their fall from first with Wednesday’s loss to the Bobcats, the Lakers have essentially 9 of their last 10 games at home. I say essentially because one of the "away" games is against the Clippers. So I would wager that they’ll get the #1 seed.
And despite what Hollinger’s playoff odds show, I think Golden State hangs on to the number 8 seed. They still have two games left against Denver and could finish off the Nuggets’ playoff chances.
This possibility should make every Jazz fan giddy. Why? Because if these scenarios play out, which has a good chance of happening, we would be in the same position as last year.
Barring a 10-0 finish to the season (the last six games of the season make this not likely); the Jazz will end up as the fourth seed. That means a first round matchup against New Orleans (please, pretty please?), San Antonio, or Houston. But they might not have home-court advantage. Sound familiar? That’s the same setup as last year.
We could also see a repeat of last year’s eight seed beating the first seed in the playoffs. And the spoilers in the series would be none other than the Golden State Warriors. They’ve split the season series with the Lakers with each team having gone 1-1 on their home courts. And only one of those wins (LA) had a double-digit margin of victory. The Warriors could pull off another stunning upset.
And should the Jazz make it out of the first round, they could be punching their ticket to another WCF. The Jazz have won 7 of 8 from the Warriors going back to last year’s playoffs. Facing Golden State in the second round is their dream matchup. The Jazz would want to play the Warriors as much as they don’t want to play the Spurs.
And with the bad karma from the Fisher booing earlier this year being evened out with the Lakers ending the 19-game home winning streak, maybe the Jazz can get a little help from the basketball gods again this year.
I have another post ready to go but it’s going up on HoopsVibe. So I’m just waiting for them to post it so I can link to it. If it’s not up this morning, I’ll just post it here and fix it later. And I’ll get a game thread up today. I usually have recaps, but for those that want to post during the game, I’ll have something. On to the links…
This worries me. While the Jazz should win their next four, we all know how they play against lesser teams. And with a slow week…
I know home losses hurt, but they’re going to happen. I don’t think we have to worry about it.
Can we send this statement to Deron? I need him to get pissed again. You’ll know it when you see it. UPDATE: I’m now praying for a Utah/NO first round series.
First time I’ve linked to Jazzbots in a while. Here’s some good stuff on the Jazz trainer though.
Crazy statement on why the Jazz haven’t played overseas in the pre-season, “The NBA did head to Moscow in 2006, but opted to send the Los Angeles Clippers, with the Jazz believing they were slighted in favor of a higher-profile team.” They know that AK is a national hero there and that almost every Russian is a Jazz fan, right? Same thing for Memo in Turkey.
How embarrassing of a loss would that have been? The Jazz had the game put away at the end of the third going up 92-72. But with 6:15 left, the Bobcats had cut the lead to only three, 101-98. Yikes. But as quickly as the lead evaporated the Jazz were able to build it back up again. AK missed the free throw on a Boozer-announced and-1. A quick kick-out to Korver led to a three. KK went on to hit a couple more, Deron added one, and a couple of steals led to dunks on the other end. And just like that, the Jazz had the win. (Do you you think Jazz fans like Korver?)
You didn’t ever get that feeling that they were going to lose the game. The Bobcats couldn’t stop the Jazz except for the 14-0 run that got them back in it.
And the same thing that got them the original 21-point lead won it for them, defense. AK had a couple steals, Brewer had one, and KK drew on offensive foul. The Jazz held the Bobs to only 2 field goals over the final 5:33 and a couple of free throws.
Memo carried the Jazz in the first half with 17 points. He finished the game with just 20 after that first half. He also added 10 boards for the teams’s third DD. It was good to see him back all the way from the flu or whatever he had.
In the second half, it was Boozer’s turn. He had a great block earlier in the game to go along with his 28 points and 13 rebounds. His last field goal of the game came on a dunk that I didn’t think he was going to get to the rim for. But he kept rising and rising until he flushed it home with the left hand.
Deron had an off shooting night but still finished with 14 & 15. AK and Brewer both had good nights and had 16 apiece. And Harpring and KK both ended in double digit points with 18 & 10 respectively.
Jason Richardson, Earl Boykins, and Gerald Wallace were the biggest reasons for the Bobcats’ comeback. Richardson and Wallace had 26 & 21 points. And Boykins, he of the 32% FG percentage, had 14. I’ve coveted Wallace for a long time as I imagine most teams do. But he’s got a long contract for about $10M per.
So now it’s a couple nights off before LAC comes back to town. We didn’t get any help tonight as DAL, SA, and NO all won.
Houston has an easy one tomorrow against Minny before going to SA and SAC.
SA has a couple of cupcakes this week against LAC and Minny.
PHX heads east for three before a home and home against Denver.
NO has a tough stretch coming up; @CLE, @BOS, @TOR, and @ORL.
LA has an easy schedule like the Jazz with CHA, MEM, WAS, and POR all coming to the Staples center.
So we’re not likely to gain ground on LA, but we could get one or two against those teams above us.
Other notes:
Click on the bobcat if you don’t know what lolcats are.
Another quiet T from Sloan. Are they putting sedatives in his pre-game coffee?
Collins squared
Deron had his 45th Points/Assists DD.
Why couldn’t Jordan have been the GM of the Bulls while he was playing with Chicago? The tenth anniversary of the push off is coming up this year.
A lot of missed calls in this one. Here’s Harp with the ball in his hands with the shot clock at 0 and it still counted,
Korver had a little stare down of his defender after nailing a three,
So Danielle was kind enough to lend these pictures to BBJ for your entertainment. She was out stalking waiting for the players to arrive before Saturday’s game against the Sonics. She was kind enough to let me post them here. I’ll let her have the post…
So. On Saturday, my dad told us that we were going up to the SLC for Easter. The crew left, and Jac and I shortly followed. We got up to SLC around 4:30, and I told Jac we should cruise over to the Delta Center (yes, I know it is now the ESA) and see if anything was going on before the game. Sure enough, there were a few people standing over by the entrance to where the players drive in. So Jac and I parked and went over and asked them if any of the players had come. Carlos Boozer had come through just a minute before, but the security guard said that the others should be coming really soon. So, I was like, ok this could be good. But I didn’t want to look like a crazy stalker or anything. So sure enough, the players start rolling through one by one.
Ronnie Price was nice and stopped to sign a card for this little boy. Interesting enough, he still had Sacramento Kings license plate surrounds.
Memo thought he was too cool for school. Whatever, I have the same car!
No wonder Jerry loves Harpring so much. A good old truck driving boy. No glitz or glamour.
CJ is really young! Like, younger than me! He stopped and was nice to sign for this kid.
And then my dreams came true! I got to meet KK!!! He was sooo cute. Even cuter in person than I thought he’d be. From what I remember I wished him a happy Bday and good luck at the game. He said ‘Thank you’. And then Jac said, “This is my older sister, Danielle, and she is absolutely in love with you”. Great. He smiled politely and said “Nice to meet you, Danielle”. I’m sure I replied with something! Of course, Saturday morning I was up and running around studying and running errands, so I totally didn’t even put any make-up on. Hence not actually taking a picture with my love. But, I did get a signed card, thanks to the kid that was there. All in all, it was a very luxury experience. I totally didn’t want to invade any of their personal space, but the security guard assured me that people did this all of the time. So, I felt a little better about it.
Unfortunately, my favorite pic got erased off of the camera. It was Jarron Collins (the ‘wonderful’ Jazz back-up Center) getting DROPPED OFF by his wife in an old-school Escalade with the darkest tinted windows. Jarron, know one is that desperate for a picture of you. But, way to help out the environment by consolidating trips.
Jac was in charge of the recording. This isn’t very long, but it is luxury.
Also, the D. Will was throwing a bday bash for a few players with Lil’ Jon (YEEEAHHH!!) but, since none of my girl friends are 21 I couldn’t go. Mainly because, given the track record of some of the players, it wouldn’t exactly be the best decision to go by myself.
Also, we saw Donyell Marshall (a Sonics player) [editor: and former Jazz palyer] in the lobby at the Grand. I wanted to say something witty like ‘Good luck tonight’ but I didn’t want to be annoying.
I’ve been eagerly looking online for some kind of police reports as a result of Saturday’s party, but no luck. Haven’t even been able to find some pics yet. So if anyone knows of any or would like to have some published, let me know.
What would Sloan’s reaction have been had the Jazz not pulled out the win against the Sonics knowing that the majority of the team was heading to Deron’s party with Lil’ Jon? Would there have been reports of a John Deere on a rampage in downtown SLC? Would CJ even be alive today? We’ll never know.
Here are the standings from today,
So as it stands now, we’re likely to play Houston or SA in the first round. And of course, we won’t have home-court again unless we move up soon. Nightmares. Of course a lot could change over the next week when we should win the next five games. But you have to go 10-0 it seems like just to pick up a game on everyone.
No time to worry about the Minny loss yesterday. The Wizards of Washington come to the SLC for tonight’s game at the ESA.
