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.

Great time  to be a Jazz fan.

Other blogs

• Clips Nation
• Biased Fan
• 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

• Amazing stat of the night goes to Corey Maggette going to the line 19 times.  He scored 16 of his 28 points from the line.  And take a look at his shot chart,

He had one made jumper.  The rest were layups and foul shots.

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,
  

Other recaps:

• Ross Siler
• No one else has anything up yet

So I have to take back a little bit about what I’ve stated about the All-Star game.  I still think the Deron got snubbed, do doubt about it.  But really, the All-Star weekend turned out as well as you could expect for a Jazz fan.

First of all, we were pretty well represented.  Fesenko and Almond were in the D-League All-Star game.  Brewer and Millsap were on the Soph team that beat the Rookies.  Millsap didn’t have a great game, but he did have the block of the game.  Brewer played well and had a ferocious windmill dunk.  But the biggest non-story that made headlines was him wearing a headband.  Steve Luhm went off about how him wearing a headband disrespected Sloan as Sloan doesn’t allow them.  Why is he trying to make this into something that it isn’t?  Even Sloan didn’t seem to care,

I don’t have any control over that, if he wants to wear a headband when he’s there, I guess he can go ahead and do it. Nobody telling him he couldn’t

Why is he trying to create news?  Like one commenter said, if the headband had said “Sloan Sucks,” then you have an issue.  There are a lot of things players wear that don’t make a difference in their shot, but they wear them for fashion or whatever.  I thought it was funny though that Millsap wouldn’t wear one because he was scared of Sloan.  And Brewer though that he was going to get fined.

We didn’t have anyone in the slam-dunk contest or the three-point shootout.  I though KK could have been in the 3P contest, but they were showing stats and guys were shooting 46% from 3 but were only 7th in the league.  K3 is below that so it’s hard to make a case for him.  Brewer could have been in the dunk contest, but when they only have a field of four, it makes it tough.  I love how Malone was one of the judges though.  He absolutely didn’t want to be there.  He never wanted to be at any of the All-Star games when he was a player.  And they thought he would want to be there for this?  The best part is when he went after Barkley for making fun of his draft-day suit.

And of course Deron was in the PS3 skills challenge.  He squeaked into the the finals when defending champ Wade put on an embarrassing show by losing a dribble out of bounds, missing shots, and then showing that he really didn’t care by missing 2 lay-ups at the end.  He even went as far as just chucking up the last two balls from the jump-shooting portion just so he could go on to the next station.  He didn’t want to be there at all.  And Kidd couldn’t hit a jump-shot to save his life.

That left Williams v. Paul for the final.  And once again we learn that 8>3.  And not only did Deron win it, he posted the event-record, 25.5 seconds.  It was great to hear the media spin on this.  The announcers basically stated that Paul was amazing and it took a record time to beat him.  Not that Deron won, but that Paul only lost because Williams pulled a miracle out of his butt.  Unbelievable.  I also like the following quotes,

Not moving at full speed, Williams clocked 31.2 seconds in the first round

And then for Paul,

Paul, the All-Star point guard of the host New Orleans Hornets, posted a strong final-round time of 31.2.

Paul’s 31.2 was clearly superior.

And finally, Boozer got to play in the All-Star game after missing last year’s with injury.  He posted 14 points & 10 boards in only 18 minutes.  He was part of the West’s comeback, but was taken out after they had tied it up.

So as I was saying, we got to see 5 Jazz players participate in the All-Star festivities.  No one got hurt.  Williams didn’t feel totally left out.  And although he’s stated that he’s over the snub, you know he’s going to use it as fuel for the rest of the season.  And that’s a good thing.

So let’s get ready for the second half of the season with GS tonight.

Other AS notes

• Kobe playing only two minutes so as to not get penalized for not playing is ridiculous.  Does the NBA not have anyone in charge of common sense?  It’s like suspending the Suns players last year for leaving the bench and going back.  How does him playing make sense?
• Does anyone at Getty check for errors with captions? - This isn’t the first time.  Do they have editors that know sports?
• Brewer and Millsap pics from the R/S game
• What’s Malone eating?  The boy next to him looks like he could use a bite.
• Why was Michael Bivins a big part of the AS festivities?  Turn back the clock night to 1993?  I grew up on BBD.  It was just weird to see him again.
• Yahoo Jazz images

GS game blogs

• Biased Fan
• My Utah Jazz
• Golden State of Mind

I was spent after live-blogging the Bulls game.  I couldn’t come up with anything interesting to say about the game.  They let the Bulls hang around too long, but nothing the Bulls did made me think that they had something to pull it out.  Boozer was back to form, Deron was Deron, and we won.  Have there been any more uninteresting games?  We lost to the Kings, we played the Bulls without any of their big three, and we play the Sonics after a three-day break.  For some reason none of them have mattered to me because things don’t get serious it seems until after the All-star break now.  This Sonics game coming up to me is like my last period of high school before summer break.  You just want to get it out of the way.

The only thing that interested me in the Bulls game was the play of Ronnie Price.  He struggled early this season, but he never really got a chance to run the offense in a game.  According to Sloan, he hustles and plays well in practice.  But Jerry had gone with Hart a while ago.  So now that Price has had the opportunity to show what he can do, he’s grabbed the #2 job right out of Hart’s hands.  Even Hart said he hasn’t played well and at Price deserves it.  Let’s hope to see Price on the floor in Seattle.

Anyway, I had to get something up and not take my own mid-season vacation like the NBA does.  Did the rest of the Jazz players though ask Deron and Boozer if it was okay to make vacation plans this early?

Why do reporters make stuff up?  There’s no way in Hades that the Jazz trade AK for Wallace.  Big Ben and his contract are a millstone around the neck of the Bulls.  He’s seven years older than AK.  He is having a career-low in blocks.  He would be one of the worst players to play for Sloan.  How long before he would be in the doghouse?  Then we’d have all that money sitting on the bench.  Besides the fact that AK can actually, you know, play offense.  The list goes on and on.  The Jazz would only have one thing to gain and that’s one less year on his contract.  I don’t think even Isiah would do this one if he were Jazz GM.  I can’t believe people get paid for writing this type of thing.  And remember, I don’t get paid ;).  Luhmy has a pretty good response to this.  But would we even have a spot for Hinrich?  It drives me crazy to see stuff like this.  Was this guy paid by the Bulls to float this? 

And my last rambling of the day is about the traitors Pace Mannion and Thurl Bailey.  Before the Bulls game, the pre-game had an interview with Byron Russell on Jordan’s shot in the 1998 Finals.  First of all, great way to bring back pain to the Jazz fans 10 years later.  My wife told me to turn it off until they stopped showing Jordan’s shot.  The interviewer asked Russ if he thought it should have been called a push-off on Jordan.  He didn’t mix any words and basically said, “Hell yes!” 

So they kick it back to the KJZZ booth where DJ asks Pace and Thurl if a call should have been made.  And both of them said no.  “It’s not popular to say” said Thurl, but it was right.  But they make no other statements as to why there shouldn’t have been a call except that they should just let them play when the game is on the line.  BS.  He got the call because his name is MJ.  And former ref Mike Mathis agrees,

Remember when Jordan hit that winning shot? I’m going to give you exactly what the commentators said: ‘What a great move by Michael.’ Was that a great move or was that an offensive foul? There was no question it was a push-off. No buts about it. The only buts you can have is, ‘Well, it was Michael Jordan.’ That was a defining moment.

Here’s something else that I’ve never thought about the foul.  A lot of people will say that Russell’s momentum carried him and he would have been out of position anyway.  That may be true (it’s arguable).  But I think the biggest advantage for Jordan was that he was able to stop himself and his own momentum by pushing off on Russ.  It put him in a rhythm that he otherwise may not have had.  Either way you look at it, Russ and the Jazz got hosed.  And saying contrary (unless you’re a Bulls fan of course) is traitorous.

And finally, some links to tide you over until tomorrow’s game.

• Getting his hopes up
• The best PF of all-time? - Duncan gets the nod of course.  What were his numbers against the Mailman though?  It seems like when he went up against the best, he didn’t have his best games.  Of course, Malone usually played Robinson.
• The coccyx is still out - I don’t think we see Ronnie play in Seattle either.  No reason to irritate it when we’ve had CJ and Price playing well.
• The KK effect
• KK on your mind
• Carlos moving up a bit in the MVP blogger vote - I would have Deron above Carlos right now.
• Pistol gives is HORSE - Best shot for HORSE?  The left-handed layup.  Nobody can do it.
• Jazz players tradeability - I agree with most of these.  Pretty good write-up.
• I’m all in
• “I’ve loved my Salt Lake experience” - Music to Jazz fan’s ears.
• The media love-fest continues - Paul goes 1-10 from the floor and still gets a write-up in the Daily Dime.

A preview of tonight King’s game coming in a bit. Here’s my latest on HoopsVibe:

In this week’s weekly conversation with Larry H Miller, local sports jockey David Locke was talking to the Jazz owner about the trade that landed Shaq in Phoenix. As you may know, there was a lot of talk before the beginning of the season to swap Andrei Kirilenko for Shawn Marion.

Miller revealed that Steve Kerr offered the same players, Marcus Banks and Marion for Kirilenko. Miller’s reason for the Jazz declining the trade surprised me a bit. Obviously, having to take on Banks and his twenty million didn’t make sense for a team that already had three point guards.

Read more…

We had no Korver, no Boozer, and no zone in the second half, but the Jazz pulled it out. This game could be the game where this young team crosses over into the veteran, championship-type team. We saw how they overcame poor night from Booze, Millsap and Okur fouling out, a hostile environment, two all-stars, and what seemed like all the calls going against them, yet still walked away from Denver with the 118-115 W.

And it was all Deron tonight. He continued his revenge tour with another 29 & 11. His biggest shot was his three in regulation to tie it up. How many of those have we seen and how many more will we see? He also played great D on AI in OT when Iverson was taking the potential game-winning shot. Williams finally seems to be stepping into and earning that leadership role. I didn’t see that early in the season, even when the Jazz started out well. Here was my comment on my halftime post. You could just see that Deron was going to take over and not let the Jazz lose this one. Him getting snubbed was the best thing that happened to this team.

We also saw why the Jazz have won 10 in a row and 16 of their last 18. Kyle Elliot Korver. He was cold in the second half, but made two huge free throws to seal it (after missing two in a row earlier). He finished with 27. A quick thought on Korver’s arrival. I wonder if his affect on the women here will result in a spike of babies come September. I guess in Utah it would have to be pretty significant to be noticed. I’ll have to find out the stats.

Boozer was atrocious to say it nicely. He missed numerous bunnies and even more jump-shots to finish 3-15 for 8 points. Memo was solid with 15 & 10. AK didn’t have his best game. He was trying to take Melo off the dribble. That’s not his game at all. And Harp had a solid game. He added 13 but his biggest contribution was getting into the heads of Melo and Martin. Why does he attract all the crazies? First Artest, and now the two Denver head cases.

How about those thugs on the other side of the ball tonight? The biggest scare came when Kenyon went head-hunting on Brewer. He had no chance at the ball. And even after he nailed him in the head, he held on to his shoulder and pulled him down. Brewer landed right on his tailbone. He returned but left a short time later. The latest is that it’s a bruised coccyx. So he might miss a couple. And hopefully Martin does too.

It was rough all night. Harp was his usual self, banging with Melo and Najera. Deron got leveled when Carter went for a head-fake and crashed into Willie. AI was hammered by on the same type of play by Millsap. The bench looked like the bench of old with 50 points compared to Denver’s 10.

It’s amazing that there’s still star treatment in the NBA. Melo and AI were pushing off or hooking their opponents all night long. It was the only way they could get separation from their defender.

The Jazz let the Nuggets back in the game in the second half by having a ton of turnovers and not running the offense. I’m not a basketball play guru by any means, but I can tell when they Jazz aren’t running their offense right. They weren’t getting cutters or layups. They also couldn’t grab a defensive board if they would have been the only ones on the court. But then there would have to be someone else to shoot it. Okay, so if there were 5 Jazz men and 1 Nugget. And what happened to the zone defense in the second half? They were shutting down the Nuggs with it and then went away from it.

With the Jazz win and PHX’s loss tonight, the Jazz are only 2 1/2 games out of first. Who saw that coming a month and a half ago? We’ll see what happens with the arrival of Shaq in PHX. I don’t think it drops the Suns that much despite Shaq not having any legs any more. How many games can he play in though for the rest of the season? And once they get to the playoffs, will he have enough juice to be a factor?

Other notes:

• No Kleiza repeat. He finished with only 9.
• Korver didn’t seem to have any hair product in the first half. But he was all done up for the second half. Maybe it left his hands a little greasy. That would account for the two missed FTs and 0-fer from three-pint land.
• Does Harp hit from anywhere else other than 16 feet out? It’s either from the elbow or the baseline.
• Speaking of Harp. Instead of $50 for every three for Habitat for Humanity, they should give $5 for every Bolerjack football reference on Matt. New Orleans would be rebuilt by now.
• Shouldn’t we rename the ESA Coke Court? It would add to the rivalry with Denver. Although a caffeine sponsorship would only be surpassed in the amount of furor by Hillary winning Utah.
• The Jazz have been nailed for quote a few clear-path fouls this year. Yet Najera grabs AK on a sure fast-break dunk and nothing. At least the refs were consistent with the rest of the officiating.
• How much does it say that Collins stayed on the bench when Memo fouled out? Sloan went with AK in the middle. Maybe Sloan is coming around.

Other blogs

• Biased Fan
• My Utah Jazz
• Pick Axe
• NuggDoctor

Before some links for today, I just wanted to post a late follow up on the AK pictures from Masha’s blog.  Ross Siler was finally pressured into comment on the “provocative” pictures from the Kirilenko’s New Year’s party.  According to the chaperone, “all of the photos were staged.”  He also said that there were kids running around and that he had brought his mother-on-law to the party.  But as the kiddies on the internet say, “Pics or it didn’t happen.”  That may have all been true, but I’m sure they were all tucked away. 

And if an invitation to next year’s party isn’t a contest on utahjazz.com, I’ll be disappointed.  Wouldn’t a live blog of next year’s party be in order?

And on a related note, the deadspin link was to this site.  It took me down in less than five minutes.  I survived a TrueHoop link, but deadspin showed me what high traffic was.  After a few hours of back and forth with my webhost, I finally got back up.  They wouldn’t unsuspend my account until I had fixed it to not use so much CPU.  But they locked me completely out and I couldn’t fix it.  Anyway, here’s the traffic since it hit Deadspin:

The 14th probably would have been higher if not for that downtime.  Anyway, on to some links on a slow Jazz news day:

• 4%? - Isn’t Ron Paul polling better than that?
• AK and Masha visiting the Huntsman Cancer Institute - It’s amazing how much a visit from a Jazz player can boost the spirits of those that are going through something incredibly tough.  Masha’s rockin’ the
• Kemp > Malone? - The all-90’s team from a Sonics fan
• Lang’s Links - Another All-star ballot.  Is it wrong that I’m hoping Deron gets left off?  I would absolutely love to see him go on a vengeance tour for the second half of the season.
• Harpring’s series of tubes are clear to move internets around again (Reference for those that don’t get it)
• Turkey isn’t the only bird Memo likes
• He didn’t give Korver the “Hard Worker” seal of approval yet, but it looks like Jerry’s got another disciple.
• How Carlos handled Carmani’s situation
• Are Carlos and Deron taking away votes from one another?
• 8>3, Can’t wait until 2/4/08
• Super Sophs

The Nuggets went down tonight to Atlanta 104-93. That leaves the Jazz only 1 game back now with their game coming up on Thursday. This has to be one of the more important games of the year so far, if you can have an important game before the All-star break. It’s the first of four though. So no matter the outcome for either team, there’s a chance to even up the series later. And since we don’t have any more games against Portland this year, these are the only games left where the Jazz have any control.

A few more links:

• Fesenko continues to impress - I haven’t been able to watch any Flash games this year. I’m suppose to have a correspondent :). But now that they’re showing the games online for free, I’ll have to tune in.
• #8, #3, and #7? - Roy hasn’t got mentioned yet with Deron and Paul yet for a couple reasons. First, #8 & #3 will always be forever linked because they were taken 3, 4 in the draft. Second, they’ve been doing what they’re doing for a little longer. Roy is pretty close in stats to both of them. He lags behind a bit in assists and shooting percentage. He has a great looking shot, but is only shooting 45% overall and 33% from three. Williams is shooting 51% and 40% while Paul has 48% and 37%. There’s no questioning his leadership and he’s the primary reason for the Blazer’s success this year. It should be a great debate for a while. Could he end up being the Mark Jackson of his time? And remember, 8>3 and 8>7.
• I think it has more to do with the Jazz finding their beat
• Great look at Sloan by an outsider
• Does Deron have DPS?

This was suppose to go up earlier, but I got hammered from deadspin.com.  So I finally got things worked out with my webhost and I think we’re good to go again.  Recap coming after the game.

There’s some local news here in Salt Lake that is making me sick to my stomach.  So I’m trying to fill my mind with other activities so that I don’t have to think about it.  Anyway, here’s a whole slew of Jazz links that I’ve been looking at to push out the crap.

And I could be adding more to this list as I find them.

• You’re telling me I can meet Fess and have dinner at Denny’s?  Awesome!
• Hmmmmmmm, saaaaaalt.
• No sexy on the Jazz? - I think Adam Keefe and Amaechi would have to disagree.
• Karl Malone v Carmelo Anthony - Discuss
• The Powerless Rankings - Brought to you by Amare Stoudemire on the low block
• I don’t hate Kate - “It would be nice to get 26 free throws.”  You have to try to get contact though first.
• Maybe because he doesn’t have the flint/steel wool skills? - That was a low blow to church leagues.  Does Jerry frequent them?
• A good western
• Half man, half a season - There’s some Jazz stuff in there too.  But that nickname is gold.
• “No heart feelings”

Is there a more disappointing team for the 07-08 NBA season than the Jazz? The only other teams that be compared are the Rockets and the Bulls. As it stands now, Utah is 2 games out of the playoffs and 3 1/2 behind Portland and Denver.

This was a team that was suppose to push itself into the “elite” talk of the Western Conference with San Antonio, Phoenix, and Dallas. But instead, Bill Simmon’s prediction of a 41-41 season looks like it could come to fruition.

And just when you start having hope with a couple of wins, they go and rip your heart out again with another bad loss. And the biggest heartbreakers haven’t been the losses per se, but the way in which they lose them. I don’t have the time nor patience to look up stats, but many of the losses have come with a lead in the fourth and they blow it. Either they can’t hit free throws, make a stop, or hang onto the ball. It seems like the fundamentals that Sloan pushes so much for aren’t there.

The Jazz also have the worst road record in the league amongst teams with winning records. I don’t recall the Jazz ever having stellar records on the road, but 6-14 for this team is unacceptable.

But there is hope for the Jazz and their fans. They’re home 8 of the 11 games remaining in the month. They’ve played five more road games (20 to 15) than both Portland and Denver. So those home wins should start evening things out a bit.

And we’ve seen last year that teams can go on late-season runs such as GS & Houston did. And it’s not out of the question for the Jazz. But I have yet to see the spark in the Jazz players that those other teams had. Winning begets winning, but those first two or three usually take some grinding out and someone to step up and say, “We’re not losing this game.”

But this is the time to get back on track tonight as February they hit the road again.

Pacers @ Jazz links:

• Indy Cornrows
• No AK tonight - And with no Price either, Almond gets the call back up.
• HoopsWorld

Links:

• A Jazz trade I haven’t heard yet - Would you want him?
• Your monthly Dee Brown fix
• Sloan interview with DesNews - I’m a Sloan supporter, but I’m sick of him stating that simply getting paid millions should be enough motivation for players. And I’d like once to hear him take blame for losses. It’s always the players’ fault. And it is for the most part, but I don’t recall many times where he’s stepped up to take blame for times when he’s made a bad rotation, etc.
• Who should be shooting for the Jazz?
• Wait, Boozer does play defense?
• Mid-season review
• For all your AK stalking needs
• Trade needs