Is this the game where the Jazz go from contender to a favorite to win the West? The big knock on the Jazz has been that they can’t win away from home. The Suns’ 3-5 (now 3-6) record since the Shaq trade shouldn’t discount this win. After recent losses to the Clippers, NOLA, and Minnesota on the road, but a win in Memphis, who knew how this one would turn out.
But the Jazz showed the characteristics of a team that’s ready to make a deep run into the playoffs. They made free throws down the stretch; 16-16 in the fourth quarter. They made great defensive stops in the fourth, holding the high-scoring Suns to just 24 points. They overcame deficits of 6, 12, and 9 points. And all of this coming on the road.
Deron continued his stellar play with 25 & 15. He had the both his outside shot falling as well as being able to take it to the rim almost whenever he wanted. He challenged Shaq on a couple of occasions and won both of them. The first came when he drove and Shaq jumped in his way to take the charge. Deron plowed into him, sending Shaq to the floor. The only problem was that Williams was called for the charge while it was obvious that Shaq was in the restricted area. How can three refs miss that? They even had a little conference to discuss it and still made the wrong call. The second could probably be the play of the year. Deron drove the baseline, got bumped by Shaq, and then as he was falling down, threw up the shot for the three-point play.
Deron is averaging 19 & 12 since the Korver trade. And yet still no love on the national level.
Deron was the MVP of the game, but Memo carried them, if that makes sense. He had 25 as well, including 4-6 from beyond the arc. He led the Jazz in rebounds with 15 and they outrebounded the Suns, 42-32. It sure seemed like the Suns were getting all of the offensive boards and second chance points, but the Jazz actually led in those categories too. But whatever Memo’s been doing to improve his game, it’s working. Starting with the Detroit game, Memo has been averaging 20 & 11. When the Suns started going on runs, Memo had a big three to stop the bleeding. He’s been nothing short of spectacular the past 6 games. Let’s hope this is the Memo we see for the rest of the year and into the playoffs.
Boozer started out slow. But the main reason for the was foul trouble. The Jazz and the Suns both set franchise records for total fouls in a game with 59. I really don’t know how the score was so high as neither team could go up and down the court once without one of the refs blowing the whistle. It totally kills the flow of the game. Boozer came on strong in the second though with 19 points in the second half. And apparently banks in Phoenix are open past 9 because he had a high arcing shot in the final minutes that he had to get over Amare the dropped softly off the glass and in. But Carlos almost blew it a couple times late in the game. The first came with a four-point lead and Amare had clearly beaten him to the hoop. Instead of letting him go, Boozer put a forearm in his back for a foul and a dunk. The second came when the Jazz were just trying to run out the clock and make foul shots. They were covering Korver pretty well on an in-bound pass and the throw went to Boozer. He was alone and drove to the basket, but ran over Nash along the way. Not only did it give the ball back to PHX, but he fouled out in the process. Those things have come back to burn the Jazz in the past, but they got lucky tonight that PHX couldn’t score off of it.
The Klozer, as he’s beginning to be known, played well in the fourth including a huge three and 7 free throws. He scored all of his points in the fourth as he was in foul trouble most of the night as well. And the rest of the bench was huge as they scored 41 total to outpace the Suns’ bench who had just 18 (they only played three off the bench though).
This was a huge win. As I told you, we didn’t get any help from the Spurs last night as they fell to Denver, 109-96. We go into tonight’s game against the Nuggets with a three game lead over them. A Jazz win almost puts the division out of reach for Denver. And a loss makes things a lot more scary.
Other notes:
- Jazz with two top-ten plays
- Greg Ostertag made an appearance with Boler and Boone. He said he didn’t like the Shaq trade and gave us the quote of the night, “Look, there’s an official right there that they should get rid of.” He was speaking about Violet Palmer. And was the local jail having a night out?
- Booner also gave a good one when speaking of Jaron Collins after he took a charge (flop), “That’s what Jaron does so well.”
- Good to see Giri again. #2 had 2 fouls in about 2 seconds. No stutter travel step though tonight.
- Is it too much to ask of a professional referee to be able to call a good game? 59 total fouls? If this were a Heat/Knicks game from the 90’s, I could possibly see that. But this wasn’t a physical game. Most of the fouls, on both ends, were phantom calls. And it wasn’t just poor foul calling. Travels, no travels, you name it, they blew it. That’s a foul on you Collins:
- Raja Bell almost won the game for the Suns with his 5-9 from three.
- Amare had an amazing block on Millsap, but he returned the favor on Nash,
- Nash can’t guard Deron either. They had to put Barbosa on him most of the night.
- Amare had the quietest 37 points I’ve ever seen.
- The Jazz shot a blistering 57% from the field.
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March 8th, 2008 by 
Basketball John
4 Comments »
So apparently the NBA has extended the playoffs into March. That’s because the Jazz are on the back-end of a back-to-back against another potential playoff team in the Denver Nuggets tonight.