You know, if this was any other team that was heading back home with a 3-2 lead and a good chance to wrap things up, their fans would be stating that they just wanted to win it at home.  But most fans this morning and last night seem to think that the series is over and that we should start a fire sale on Boozer, Memo, and AK.

But there’s probably at least a little reason to panic.  The Jazz are coming off their worst game of the year.  Most thought that this should have been a sweep after they won the first two on the road.  And they were a blocked lay-up shy of doing that.  But I don’t think that anyone expected them to sweep before this series began.  Most had the Jazz in 6, which is where we stand now.  So no need to freak out.  But then if the Jazz somehow drop game 6, then by all means, EVERYBODY PANIC!

That said, Tom Landry stated, “Act like you’ve been there before.”  Does this team look like they’ve been in the playoffs already? From their hesitant play to their post-game interviews.  It looks like they’re still trying to adjust.  Boozer seems to know he’s talking to national media and he’s trying to make an impression.  How many times do you adjust your tie in an interview?  Maybe it’s just a nervous tic, but you don’t see other big name guys fidgeting that much.  Deron’s as calm as can be.  They were in the WCF just last year!

As I stated in my half-time notes, the Jazz have had open looks all series and just can’t knock them down.  Missed jump shots, botched lay-ups, etc.  Boozer did respond to my call to step it up in the second half, but no one else could get things going.  Why is he so intimidated by Mutombo?  He can handle Yao, but not the finger wave?  He had a couple of nice moves by Mount M, but where have those been all series?  It doesn’t matter if he’s not hitting the 15-17 footers, he should be able to post up on him all night.

The Jazz teased us with a little run to start the third that looked like they had finally figured something out.  The Rockets then promptly when on a 7-0 run to push the lead back to 17 and that did it.

The Jazz also teased fans in the beginning by hitting their first 2 three pointers of the game after going 0-65535.  But then they proceeded to miss their next 7.  I’ve never seen so many shots go in the hoop and rattle out than in this series.  And that goes for all shots and both teams.  Did they over-inflate the ball?

So now it’s back to the ESA for a deciding game 6 (for both teams).  It’s simple.  If the Jazz out-rebound and get more assists than the Rockets, they win.  Man, that sounded like John Madden.  I completely overlooked Alston’s return.  He’s supposed to be injured though, right?  He’s absolutely been the Rockets’ biggest force since his return.   

And although defense wins championships, it’s a little hard to win when you can’t put the ball in the hole.  Nobody expects them to put up their regular season average of 106, but give us something fellas.  Deron can’t go 1-on-1 all night.

Other blogs,

• My Utah Jazz
• Biased
• The Dream Shake 
• Ross Siler

That’s why I shouldn’t, and don’t usually, predict point spreads or margins of victory.  I stated in my preview that either the Jazz were going to lose or we were going to blow them out.  I then stated at the half that we would win by 15.  I was a quarter right.  We won, but that was as good as my predictions go.

It was bound to be a closer game (I now have put on my hindsight glasses).  Bobby Jackson wasn’t going to be as bad as he was in game 1.  We were still playing a team that had won 22 in a row (10 without Yao).  And were still going up against one of the best defensive teams in the league.

I was right about another thing.  The Jazz do get better as the game goes on.  They made incredibly clutch shots (on the road mind you) down the stretch.  None bigger than the shot of the year from KK.  His turnaround jumper, with about 4 seconds left on the shot clock, went off the side of the backboard.  AK got the board and passed back out to KK who caught it and shot it with 1 hand with about .5 on the shot clock.  The swish with about :20 left finished off the Rockets and gave the Jazz a 2-0 series lead.

The defensive of the Jazz was hands down the biggest reason for the W.  Bobby Jackson did score 18, but it took 7-17 to do it.  The Jazz held the Rockets to another 41% shooting game.  Houston did themselves in again making only 16 of 26 free throws and only 4-19 from the arc.

And the best defense of the game came from AK in the second half.  He was assigned to guard McGrady for most of the 3rd and 4th quarters.  It paid off as T-Mac had only 1 point in the fourth quarter and was just 9-22 overall from the field.  He filled up the stat sheet with 9 assists and 13 rebounds.  But he disappeared when the Rockets needed him the most.  I won’t go over his shortcomings, I’ll let The Dream Shake express how Rockets fans feel (PG-13).

Okur was back last night getting 16 & 16.  It really didn’t seem like he was getting that many rebounds.  A very quiet 16.  Boozer, in foul trouble again, scored only two points in the first.  He came back in the second to score 11 and had some huge baskets to keep Houston at bay.  He had some great post moves and I don’t know why he hasn’t eaten Mutumbo up yet.  If he can light up Yao, Mutumbo should be a walk.

One of the most underrated players in this series has been Ronnie Price.  He filled in for Deron by hitting 2 threes in his eight minutes of relief.  One of those threes came at the end of the third when the Rockets had just gone up by one.  It sent the Jazz into the fourth on a positive note and gave them the lead.  He also had another steal with a great dunk on the other end by outracing Brooks for the flush.

Deron Williams had big shot after big shot.  And that was despite all the abuse he was taking without getting a call.  The biggest no call of course came when he was running out to challenge a three and Aaron Brooks absolutely leveled him with his shoulder.  It was a great screen except that Brooks moved at the last second to instigate contact with Deron.  That hit sent Deron onto his side and he had to go to the locker room for a bit.  It seems like Deron is the little Shaq of the league.  Shaq wouldn’t get a lot of calls when he would get hammered because he was bigger and stronger than everyone else.  Deron finished with 22 points and just 5 assists.  The Jazz as a team only had 19 assists total.  There was great D on Houston’s part as the Jazz weren’t really able to get into their offense.  They didn’t get many lay-ups or cuts to the basket.

And I’ll echo the sentiment by RRR.  The refs are plain awful.  I really can’t remember a year when the they’ve been this bad.  They missed calls, they made wrong calls, and this particular set seemed to think that the game was about them and that they’re in control.  Do you want to know how you’ve got bad refs?  When their antics resemble Enrico Pollazzo and not officials.  They’re out of position on calls and in Deron’s leveling, the ref was more worried about whether the shooter’s feet were behind the three-point line than what was going on in front of him.  And of course Rockets fans have a legitimate gripe when AK did some great acting to draw an offensive foul from Scola when Bobby Jackson had just made a game-tying three.  But there were other missed calls.  Scola and McGrady got to extend their arms all night to make room.  Price was called for a block when Jackson was spinning out of control.  Deron was called for a travel after receiving the ball in the air and coming down.  And Boozer was whacked on the head on one of his lay-ups.  Like RRR stated, can we can find competent refs amongst the population?  And whatever happened to Stern’s promise of more transparency for the refs?  There needs to be some accountability for these things.

The Jazz withstood the Rockets’ best (and the refs’ best) and now head home to the SLC to wrap things up.  Stranger things have happened but the Jazz should take care of business at home and move on.  The Lakers could as easily sweep the Nuggets so the Jazz probably won’t have time to rest.  And that’s probably a good thing.  They don’t seem to play well coming out of a long break.  So fans, relax a bit and get ready to rock the ESA on Thursday.

Other notes,

• Was anyone else waiting for Harp to miss the lay-up on his break-away?  Instead he shows that his knees have a little more mileage in them by throwing it down.
• McGrady quote, “Offense is really not an issue.”  Really?  41% from the field and 62% from the FT line isn’t an issue?  4-19 from three?
• Videos coming soon

Other blogs,

• Biased Fan
• FLA & Again
• My Utah Jazz
• Deadspin
• Ross Siler
• True Hoop
• Daily Dime

The Rockets are done.  This isn’t just an arrogant prediction after the Jazz took game from Houston, 93-82.  It’s based on Tracy McGrady’s actions at the end of the game.  With 1:05 left in the game and the Rockets down 10, McGrady checked himself out of the game, and possible his team out of the playoffs, by fouling Kirilenko.  Immediately after he fouled AK, he walked straight to the bench and sat down, covering himself with a towel.  The Rockets were in a fouling situation as they were trying to get make a last-ditch attempt to get back into the game.  But I think Tracy had given up long before that.  And I don’t buy that the game was out of reach.  Not when the Rockets have pulled off comebacks such as this.  He has no trust in any of his teammates and seems willing to throw them under the bus,

They’ve kind of taken away our first option [I guess he’s talking about himself here] and we’re a little stagnated on the offensive end and don’t know what else to do.  We’re all out of sync and we don’t have too many guys out there who can create their own shot.

This is a far cry from the McGrady interview last year when he stated “I tried” after losing game seven to the Jazz.  So Rocket fans, you can still hate the Jazz and Jazz fans.  But you should be furious with the man that wears #1 for your team.  Because if Boozer, Deron Williams, or anyone on the Jazz quit like McGrady has, I would be pissed.

Enough bandwidth wasted writing about McGrady.  Maybe that should have been a separate post.

The Jazz went into Houston and did exactly what they needed to do.  Nobody has given Houston a chance to win this series, but you really expected a lot more out of them.  But a win on the road for the Jazz, and especially one that delivers a pretty crushing blow to Houston’s series chances, is huge.

After Houston came back to tie the game at 57, the Jazz put on the defensive screws and held them to just 3 points over the last five minutes of the third quarter.  The Jazz pushed their lead to 8 with the help of two Kyle Korver threes and buckets by Williams and AK.  The Rockets never challenged Utah in the fourth.

Kirilenko led the way with 21 points.  He really kept the Jazz in the game early while the Jazz struggled at times to get things going.  Boozer added 20 points and won the rebound battle with Okur tonight grabbing 16 to Memo’s 8.  Memo was off tonight going just 2-8 for 4 points.  I still think that  Memo is the biggest factor for the Jazz going deep in the playoffs.  And the fact that he can have a bad night and the Jazz still win comfortably speaks volumes about the win.  And Deron turned in another “standard” performance with 20 & 10.  Price came in and played well despite only four minutes in relief of Deron.  And Korver had his 11 on 4-7 from the field.

I really thought that this series would go 6 or 7 games.  But from the body language from the Rockets players and McGrady giving up, this could be over in four.  Anything can still happen and there’s still a lot of ball left, but I don’t see this going on much longer.

Other notes,

• Having listened to most of the game on radio, I realized how much I missed Hot Rod’s calls of “belt-high dribble” and “the cow hide globe hits home.”  I really don’t think he has a face for HD though.
• Until Deron attempted two free throws late in the third, the Jazz had only taken three free throws the entire game.  The Rockets had 21 straight attempts of their own at one point.
• When it’s NBA playoffs, the local stations aren’t getting interviews with Boozer, Williams, or whoever the hero of the night was.  ESPN or TNT or the press at large get them.  That’s gotta suck.  That’s like your typical cop movie where the FBI comes in and claims jurisdiction and takes over your case.
• Here’s my HoopsVibe article with predictions for the playoffs.
• Boozer dressed the part tonight,
  
• Videos coming soon

Other blogs,

• FLA
• My Utah Jazz
• Biased
• The Dream Shake & again here.

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.

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.
• The Jazz feel real good.
• Boozer, the best of Duke ‘01. I would think he’s probably pretty happy with his decision.
• The Jazz have some hidden talents. - Finally, someone went through all the “get to know them” bios on the Jazz website.
• Boozer gets called out.  Now if he only read these things.
• Deron is now #5?
• How’s Dee doing?
• 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.
• A fans insight from the Lakers game
• “Look, if you want to make a ton of money,”
• Simmons’ take on how the west will be won.
• 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.
• Something no parent should have to go through.
• Amen
• A lucky fam gets free tickets to Leapin’ Leaners

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

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.

Other blogs:

• Biased Fan
• My Utah Jazz
• Ross Siler
• Bright Side of the Sun

That’s how it’s suppose to be done.  The Jazz led by only 6 after one, but they added another 6 in the second for a twelve-point lead.  And then the game was over a few minutes into the third when the TWolves couldn’t score until about the 7 minute mark.

You look at this game and think, “Are the Jazz that bad on the road?”  I can’t imagine how they lost to these guys last week.  They really are terrible.  They only had 15 turnovers, but it seemed double that.  In the second half it didn’t seem like they could go a possession without getting the ball stolen or deflected.  And they had the most airballs, shots that would hit the backboard and no rim, and all kinds of ugly shots.

Deron led the way again with 21 points and only 11 assists.  If you’re keeping score, that’s 50 assists over the last three games.  He nearly beat the TWolves as a team who had only 12 total.  He beat Telfair and anyone else they threw at him off the dribble all night.  At one point he had two consecutive shake and bakes that led to a lay-up and the foul.  It sure seemed like he had a personal vendetta tonight.  Maybe his pride was hurt from losing last time.  But his play reminded me of the Feb 4 game against Paul and the Hornets.  Someone needs to email him daily and tell him that [next PG opponent] is better than he is just to keep him angry.

Memo had 15 and has seemed a lot more aggressive inside lately.  I believe it was Bolerjack who has said over the past couple of telecasts that Okur has kind of taken to heart the knock on his inside game and defense.  He had a couple of great drives tonight that were reminiscent of those in the Mavs game.  Why does everyone have to play angry?

Boozer had 16 & 14.  He also had the clip of the game when the camera guy went in for a close-up following a missed lay-up (that he should have had) and a foul.  Instead of his And-1!, Aaaaah! or Get-in-There! shouts, he gave us the Christmas Story inspired, “Fuuuuuuuuudge!”  Only it wasn’t fudge.

And probably the player of the night for sheer entertainment value was Brewer.  He had dunk after dunk, not to mention 2-2 from the arc.  Who said he couldn’t shoot?  Here’s one of the aforementioned dunks:

Video Coming. YouTube was down

So the Jazz take care of business and never let this one get close.  The 17th straight home victory give the Jazz 40 wins on the year.  And now with only 20 games left, and 3.5 games back of the Spurs for first in the West, the Jazz are going to have go on quite a run to overtake them and hold off anyone else.  They’d also have to leap the Suns, the Lakers, Houston, and NO.  They’d have to finish about 17-3 to have a shot at that wouldn’t you think?  Especially with how everyone short of PHX is playing lately.

And a lot of those wins are going to have to come on the road.  The first of the those comes Friday against PHX.  They could actually pass them in the standings with a win.  And the Suns didn’t do us any favors tonight, losing to the Nuggets.  The Suns are limping now and the Jazz need to take advantage of that before they get rolling again (if they do).  And with Shaq, we’ll likely see a lot more Tree.  Could we also see a Fess call up?  But with this game on the road, I’m not very optimistic for a win.

Other blogs:

• Biased Fan (nothing yet)
• My Utah Jazz (nothing yet either)
• Frank Layden Fans
• No Siler recap yet.  Just an AP article.  Did he finally drop from exhaustion?

Other notes:

• Sorry about the outage.  Thanks to TrueHoop though for the link again
• The Suns are looking to Giricek to help out?  Now we’ll get to face him again.
• Don’t look now, but Deron’s averaging 19.1 points and 10.1 assists.  If he average 23 points a game for the last 20 games (and maintains his assist per), he would finish with 20 & 10 for the year.  A bit of a stretch, but doable.  He’s averaging almost 15 assists his last 5 games.

One thing’s for sure. Sloan doesn’t change for anyone or any thing. Little known fact, the 1 foot radius around Sloan is still on MST when everyone else switches to MDT. You could argue that he’s changed the offense because of the whole AK saga last year, but isn’t it really more Deron changing and getting AK involved? The offense hasn’t changed that I can see. It’s usually the C or double-C that gets called for the most part. This Jazz team is one of the most high-scoring in team history, but it’s still the same offense. We just have better finishers now than teams in the past.

So we’ll keep seeing Deron get pulled with 2-3 minutes left in the first. We’ll see Booze sit from about 10:00 in the second to about 5:00. It kills me because it doesn’t matter if they’re in a groove, they’ll get their breather regardless. Last night, Boozer was again killing the Warriors when he got sat. And Williams was carving them up. With the backups in, GS was able to keep it close instead of the Jazz being able to put it away earlier.

And yes, I complain even when we win. Isn’t that the mantra of Sloan and his coaches though? Sure we won 119-109, but we sucked tonight according to Jerry. And everyone asks why Sloan keeps his starters in with a huge lead late in the fourth. Most times it’s indefensible, but Sloan had a big “I told you so. My way is the right way” night when the bench let a double-digit lead dwindle to 8 with about 56 seconds in the game. It took just a little over a minute for the GS scrubs to almost caused Sloan to put back in his starters.

But the game was never really close after the half. They took a 13-point lead, 77-64 into the half. It was never single digits until the last minute of the fourth. Ellis, Davis, and Harrington came out hot and scored at will as both teams shot +60% in the first quarter. But unlike the Warriors, the Jazz actually play D and held GS to 45 points in the second half. The Jazz only scored 42 themselves, but their 41 point second quarter was enough.

Deron was in All-Star snub form with 29 points and 11 assists. AK had 18. Boozer had 16 & 12 and Memo 16 & 10. Korver was hot in the first half, but didn’t hit jack in the second. Hart, Miles, and Collins finished out the game and we saw what happened there.

The Jazz showed again that they own the Warriors. And we may not even see them in the playoffs as they currently would be out with Houston’s win. We could realistically see 2 games separate 1-9 in the west. How nuts would that be? And is the WCF champ going to have anything in the tank to take on the East champ? Do you want to play any of these teams? If the Jazz come out of the west, they’re going to have three series that will be brutal. And who is Boston or Detroit going to have to play?

This could be one of the best regular season finishes we’ve seen.

Other Blogs

• GSOM
• Biased Fan
• My Utah Jazz

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