Big time hit for the Rockets.  Rafer Alston won’t return to the game.  It sounds like he did something to his ankle.  You hate for them to lose a key player especially since you don’t want to hear from the Rockets fans if they lose.  But Houston actually went on their run to overcome a 19 point lead without Rafer.

• McGrady has 28.  How are they going to handle him in the second half?  I don’t think you can just count on him cooling down.
• Boozer came out with both guns blaring.  He was taking it to the rim and got Mutombo in foul trouble.  With Mt M. out, the Jazz went on their run.
• Okur took it to the rim and got a dunk.  And everyone has been driving.
• The first quarter and starting the second, the Jazz played great D and had quite a few steals.  They started relaxing on D and that’s when Houston got back into it.
• The Jazz had almost as many points in the first as they did in the first half of game five.
• McGrady dribbles the ball of his foot on a break and the ref calls a foul on Harp.  Out of position again.  The refs have been okay though other than that.
• I like KK posting up on Head.  Great adjustment from the coaches.

Well, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out what the Jazz have to do in the second half.  Play D, rebound, and keep taking it to the basket.  Now that Alston is out, they need to start throwing another man at McGrady.  The Jazz did what they needed to in the first, but couldn’t keep it up in the second.  Is it the rotation and the five on the floor that’s the problem?  Korver has been good, but we need some more Brewer.

Let’s get this done.

That first quarter may be too much to overcome.  Too many missed layups.  Korver is off.  Memo is still sick (he is 3-5 though).  The Jazz are down only 15 at the half.  It could have been much, much more.

The Lakers are shooting an unacceptable 60% from the field.  It goes without saying that there’s no way the Jazz can come back if they keep letting LA shoot like that.  They’re going to have to hold them to a couple of 20 point quarters in the second half to have a shot.

I don’t know why it took a whole quarter for them to settle down.  Seems to be that national game curse the Jazz enjoy.

What more can you ask for?  77-54 at half time.  23 points!  Shooting 64%.  8-9 from three?  About 20 dunks/layups?  Memo with 18?  Crymelo with three fouls?  And a T?  They have two Ts and a flagrant.  Not far off of my over/under prediction.

And you feel like they could have scored more because they had a few missed dunks and layups.  Incredible.

Did Memo switch drinks?  Did he dump Dimes?  No, looks like it’s still on his website.  I don’t know what’s gotten into him, but lets hope it doesn’t go away.

And remember, this comes against one of the supposedly best Ds in the league.

Let’s hope this if over after the third.

Wow.  You expected the Jazz to run with GS, but like this?  77-64 at the half.  For perspective, Detroit and Cleveland scored 84 points in their respective games tonight.

You knew that GS didn’t play defense, but this is ridiculous.  Deron already had 17 & 7.  Utah is shooting 68%.  Those are crazy video game numbers.  The Jazz played some better D in the second quarter and some great D in the last two minutes.  They’re going to have to keep that up to keep the Warriors at bay.

Other first-half notes:

• The Warriors are getting a lot of bounces going their way.
• The refs are once again horrible on both ends.  Okur got called for a foul on Ellis after the ball had rolled off the rim.  and Harrington gave KK a great elbow to level him and there was no call.  There were some bogus calls for GS as well, but I’m not going to defend them.
•  Korver had a new hair do and he goes out and hits 3-5 from deep.
• I wish Sloan would buck his rotation when players are tearing it up.  Deron and Boozer are both eating the Warriors alive.  They’re young.  One game won’t hurt.
• Locke had a great comment on Korver and Williams.  He said that Deron now has to decide when to get Korver the ball because he shoots almost every time he gets it.  He should be used to that though with Harpring.
• I don’t think this pace will keep up, but the Jazz could score 130 easily.  The Warriors of course would have 120+.  Not good.

Just a few notes from the first half:

• Good to see Boozer back.  He’s got 17.
• Bad news, Martin is lighting them up for 22.
• Jerry stuck to his word.  Hart didn’t lose his job to an injury.  But he’s definitely lost it to Price now.  The Jazz were down 13 before they went on a 14-2 run.  The biggest  reason was Price’s two threes and two steals.
• Harpring is guarding Miller?  Wow.  He had a sweet steal on him where he just ripped it out of his hands and went in for the dunk.
• Millsap is getting abused.  He got stitches from Moore and got hit upside the head inadvertently by Price.
• Refs are idiots.  The Kings’ Garcia was driving baseline and ran into Memo.  He got called for the turnover for stepping out of bounds.  I watched the replay on my DVR and he was a foot away from the line.

This was starting to look like a game where the Kings hit everything they threw up.  But the Jazz, behind some great D to end the 2nd quarter, got back to 1.  We’ll see how it translates to the rest of the game.

I told you, these aren’t your last month’s Jazz.  The D has only given up more than a 100 point in 6 out of their last 17 games and none in their last 6.  Over the last 6, they’ve given up only 89 points a game.  And they’ve only given 41 points in the first half to one of the highest scoring teams in the league.  They were getting beat a little early in the man-to-man but have shut down the Nuggets ever since they went to a zone.

And of course, the other big difference is Kyle Korver.  He’s already scored 15 tonight with 3 more 3s.  Karl was “a lot angry” when the Jazz got Korver.  Korver could very well be the reason the Jazz hold off the Nuggets and Blazers this year in the division.

And we haven’t heard much from Kleiza tonight.

So the Jazz take a 15-point lead into the half, 56-41.  Expect the inevitable run from the Nuggets in the third.  But if the Jazz can hold them off, we should see the dominate fourth quarter Jazz pull out the road win.

So a little slacking lately. But let’s get back to it with some halftime notes from the game.

• Flickr photos from the game
• So we hear that Nash, Marion, and Hill are out every five minutes, but no mention of AK being out? Apparently this hampers the Suns a bit. Shouldn’t they mention that we have Collins then? And no Harpring. He’s out having his second kid in a week. At least that’s how the Trib article reads. Happy Jazz fans?
• And no talk about this not being a quality win if we hang on. At this point, I would take a blowout over the Riverdale Jr. Jazz if it counted in the standings. And I don’t think we get credit for a half win if we have someone out.
• I’ve finally seen a worse inside defense than what we have. Stoudemire is atrocious. Okur is going by him like he’s stuck in the mud.
• I still love seeing Korver letting it fly even though he hasn’t been shooting that good. Can’t wait to have him get hot.
• I love the first quarter interview of Dantoni. “Coach, can you tell me tour strategy for the game? What plays are you going to call? How are you going to defend?” Reminds me of the SNL sketch during the first gulf war where reporters are asking generals where they’re going to have their forces.
• Williams/Hart on the floor at the same time, not a good combo.
• Williams was standing for a good two seconds, planted to the floor, and got leveled by Barbosa. Blocking foul of course.
• Aaaah, the zone!
• The Jazz then show they can go zone too.
• KK isn’t shy. He’ll get hot soon.
• These camera angles suck. Do I really need to see the game as if I’m hanging from the back of the backboard? And if I wanted far away camera shots, I would have paid the ten bucks for a nosebleed. Maybe we should be grateful it’s not ESPN and the 360 shot they had for football with 20 shots on one screen.
• 60% shooting in the first, crap in the second.
• The Jazz have played against zones, right? You play against them from high school. Anyone can tell you have to pass to break it. Why do we dribble so much?
• Sloan is the longest tenured NBA coach? Amazing. Can’t believe I didn’t know that.
• Great commercial from an ambulance chaser. They’re recalling heart defibrillators. That’s got to be worst recall ever.
• Take a look at this shot chart from the Jazz (you’ll have to select Jazz and 07-08 regular season). Now try to find another team within 200 attempts in the paint.
• CJ Miles with an amazing facial over Stoudemire. Left handed dunks are the best.
• Why does Boozer put it on the floor against a zone? That’s where they get their hands on it.
• Nice oop from Williams to CJ. Great vision.
• Are the Jazz guilty of playing the same style/tempo of the team they’re playing? Similar to the GS series last year. Is that adjusting or having the game forced on them?
• Okur is looking like his Dimes commercial on the inside now. Wow.
• 1:28 and we’re not in the penalty yet? That could be the most telling stat of the night.
• Okur is actually playing pretty good D. Maybe his poor play comes from the curse of the last baby. Whoever had the last one, plays the worst. Now that Matt is having his, we can expect Okur to get better. Harpring is going to get worse?
• Bell tried the flop and didn’t get the call. That’s the first time this season I’ve seen that.
• :01 - Damnit Hart. If you can’t shoot… At least D didn’t shoot as much.
• And that took me the whole 3rd to transcribe from my hand written notes.

I couldn’t find any stats to back it up, but it seems like the second quarter is always the worst for the Jazz.  The Jazz shooting percentage is down to 56% at the half.  The Spurs are shooting an amazingly low 39%.  But the Jazz have just a 51-50 lead, mainly in part to the Spurs going 12-13 from the stripe and making 4 more threes.  If you’re Sloan, you have to be satisfied (well, maybe Sloan is never satisfied).  Outside of the spawn of Argentina’s 20, the D is looking good.  But even that has come on 6-14 shooting.  He’s gone to the line 7 times, making them all.

So now that they’ve weathered the second quarter storm, let’s hope they can return to first quarter form for the rest of the game.

• Talk about being in the right place at the right time.  Robert Horry with 7 rings.
• 9:15 - Jacque Vaughn is having nightmares
• CJ Miles coming in early in a big game?  Has anyone taken Sloan’s temperature recently?
• 7:55 - CJ! Feeling it!
• Sloan has to be happy with the number of three pointers and jump shots that the Spurs are taking.
• The only thing keeping the Spurs close, 5-11 on three-point shots.
• 5:00 - Nothing falling for the Jazz
• 3:09 - Boozer finally gets a put-back
• Surprise stat of the night?  No flops.
• Is Sloan’s hair slicked?  Looks like he put a little something extra into it.
• 2:42 - Memo with the charge, looks like Oberto was in the circle
• Unfortunately, Manu cutting his hair hasn’t taken away his powers.
• Who else thought that last three was going in for the Spurs?
• Got to like the shot chart:

• Who needs Boozer and Okur when we have AK & Millsap?  Sorry, I didn’t mean to give people ideas.
• Listening to Hot Rod, he said that the Cleveland/Toronto score was 146-145, without OT.  I thought, holy crap.  Then I checked scores, and the final was 91-82, Toronto.  So I thought, he just heard wrong.  But then he repeated it and went on about it.  Maybe he should have the no alcohol rule that airline pilots have.  Of course, then he wouldn’t be Hot Rod.
• Hundley then professed his love for Kobe and stated he only had nine points, all in the first quarter.  Then right on cue, Kobe gets fouled on a three and hits two more.  He finishes the half with 22.
• Fess, 3-4, 6 points, 6 rebounds in three minutes.  Tell me why he’s not a better option than Collins?  Collins in 16: 1-3, 5 boards, 2 points.
• There has been a Giri sighting!
• Fisher with a huge flop before the half.  Apparently he channeled the ghost of Vlade, because that was a performance.  Keep shooting though, he’s 1-8.
• Deron is showing how he can be “the guy” when needed.
• 52 points in the paint?  Out of 70?  And no Boozer or Okur?  Holy cow.

Back at the end of the game.

Well, not much of an update as I just barely found the right channel on DISH.  Boozer is apparently okay though.  The score scares me, 52-46.  I hope the Jazz put this should-win game away in the third.  Here’s the halftime highlights:

Collins has 6 points.  Don’t give that man hope.

And as a little treat, I found this on Mark Eaton’s website, http://7foot4.com:

Just how tall does that horse have to be?  Holy cow.  I guess this answers it: http://7foot4.com/images/markwithhorse.jpg

Last time I saw Mark was a few years ago in Park City at a Bed, Bath, and Beyond or something like that.  What was weird was that I saw him again the next day in Salt Lake, filling up his Excursion at a Chevron.

And it looks like Fess is on his way to Orem finally.