The Utah Jazz | as seen by Basketball John

Maybe it’s not the road that’s bad for the Jazz.  And maybe it’s not the ESA that keeps them near-invincible at home.  Maybe it’s in the white unis.

The Jazz donned the home whites while Boston made a mistake and put on the Green and Gold.  The Jazz then went on to give the Celts a good thrashing and sent them to only their fifth loss at home.

And the Jazz were led by no other than Deron Williams.  The man scored 32 points on just 7 of 10 shots but had an insane 17-18 from the free-throw line.  And he could have had a lot more.  He was getting knocked down all night.  But the shots kept falling.  Whether it was floating a runner over KG as the Big Ticket knocked him to the ground or Rondo getting his licks in on him, Deron kept pumping them in.  And perhaps his finest series came with about 3:00 left.  He drove to the hoop and got hammered on a flagrant foul by Perkins.  He knocked down both.  Then on the other end he drew an offensive foul on Rondo.  He then came down and drilled a three right in Rondo’s mug for 103-89 lead with 2:11 left.  Game over.

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The Jazz roared out of the gates with a 10-point lead after the first quarter.  And that lead was pushed to 13 at the half.  We remember the last time these two met where Pierce and Garnett had horrible games in the first half only to have PP light us up for 24 in the second.  Well we didn’t see that tonight.  Garnett was only a little better in the second half and Pierce was never a factor.  They got to as close as 3 in the fourth.  But every time they would cut it four after that, they could never get over the hump.  Their last run ended with about 5 minutes left in the game.  They got to 91-87.  But a free-throw by Harpring and consecutive jumpers by Williams and Boozer pushed the lead to nine.  And then the rest was Deron as mentioned above.

As you may have read, Sloan’s been giving Deron some pretty high praise lately.  Williams basically has free reign with the offense.  Sloan stated,

has the tremendous luxury to run the team, probably more so than anyone I’ve ever coached.

That’s no slight against Stockton who Sloan said preferred that the coach call the plays.  He would still run them to perfection.  They’re just different kinds of players.  But the high-scoring and efficient offense of the Jazz is due in large part to Deron.  Sloan’s relationship with Deron had been a lot like a drill sergeant and a newly enlisted private.  He’s basically torn Williams down and built him back up the way he wants him to be.  Deron’s rookie year was pretty rough as far as playing time and getting in Sloan’s doghouse.  But once Deron started playing the way Sloan coached him to, he was given more and more trust until the point we’re at today.  And say what you want about Sloan, but he has to be given a lot of credit for the player Deron is today.

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We got a lot of other contributions as well.  Boozer had 17 & 12 with 15 of those points coming in the first half.  He was limited in the second with foul trouble.  Okur had a solid night with 12 & 9.  Korver had 10 and hit some big shots.  He didn’t play too well on defense tonight though.  Ronnie added 10 as well.  And you can’t leave out AK’s performance.  Offensively he was was okay.  But his biggest contribution came by making Pierce have one of his worst nights of the year.  Paul only had 8 points and had to get 6 of those at the line.  We didn’t have AK when the Celtics won at the ESA.

The Jazz remain undefeated when they hold their opponents to under 96 points.  The Jazz bent a little in the third and into fourth but didn’t break.  They’re really becoming the opposite of the team they were early in the year.  Instead of fourth quarter collapses and poor free-throw shooting, they’re really at their best now in the fourth and have been shooting 77% as a team for free-throws over the last 10 games.

So the Jekyl/Hyde syndrome continues.  Boozer, Harpring, and Millsap all admitted in their interviews that they get up for big games and tend to let the lesser ones get away from them.  It’s too bad they count the same.  So after a high-flying win tonight, their second road win in a row, they head to NJ.  I think the win carries over and they take care of business against LeBron’s future team.

Other notes

• Garnett got to extend his arms all night.  Whether he was pushing off Deron when Williams was guarding him, or putting a stiff-arm to Okur’s chest, wherever, he got away with it.

   

  

• We got to see Ms. Violet Palmer for the first time since the Suns game.  Awful as ever.
• The Celts lost Ray Allen for the game when he performed an ice dancing routine and tweaked his ankle.

  

• Jerry got a T in the third.  Boler and Booner didn’t say what it was for.  But Sloan never left the bench and looked calm.  At least get your money’s worth man.
• AK had probably the luckiest three of the year.  As the shot clock was winding down, Brewer drove and kicked it to AK.  Andrei only had half a second and barely got a catch and release for a long shot that got nothing but net.

  

• The refs really tried their hardest to give the Celts the game in the third.  I think it was about 11 minutes until the Jazz got a foul call.

Other blogs:

• Biased Fan (nothing up yet)
• My Utah Jazz (nothing up yet)
• Ross Siler
• Green Bandwagon
• Celtic’s Blog & PodCap