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 Danielle was kind enough to lend these pictures to BBJ for your entertainment. She was out stalking waiting for the players to arrive before Saturday’s game against the Sonics. She was kind enough to let me post them here. I’ll let her have the post…

So. On Saturday, my dad told us that we were going up to the SLC for Easter. The crew left, and Jac and I shortly followed. We got up to SLC around 4:30, and I told Jac we should cruise over to the Delta Center (yes, I know it is now the ESA) and see if anything was going on before the game. Sure enough, there were a few people standing over by the entrance to where the players drive in. So Jac and I parked and went over and asked them if any of the players had come. Carlos Boozer had come through just a minute before, but the security guard said that the others should be coming really soon. So, I was like, ok this could be good. But I didn’t want to look like a crazy stalker or anything. So sure enough, the players start rolling through one by one.

Ronnie Price was nice and stopped to sign a card for this little boy. Interesting enough, he still had Sacramento Kings license plate surrounds.

Memo thought he was too cool for school. Whatever, I have the same car!

No wonder Jerry loves Harpring so much. A good old truck driving boy. No glitz or glamour.

CJ is really young! Like, younger than me! He stopped and was nice to sign for this kid.

And then my dreams came true! I got to meet KK!!! He was sooo cute. Even cuter in person than I thought he’d be. From what I remember I wished him a happy Bday and good luck at the game. He said ‘Thank you’. And then Jac said, “This is my older sister, Danielle, and she is absolutely in love with you”. Great. He smiled politely and said “Nice to meet you, Danielle”. I’m sure I replied with something! Of course, Saturday morning I was up and running around studying and running errands, so I totally didn’t even put any make-up on. Hence not actually taking a picture with my love. But, I did get a signed card, thanks to the kid that was there. All in all, it was a very luxury experience. I totally didn’t want to invade any of their personal space, but the security guard assured me that people did this all of the time. So, I felt a little better about it.

Unfortunately, my favorite pic got erased off of the camera. It was Jarron Collins (the ‘wonderful’ Jazz back-up Center) getting DROPPED OFF by his wife in an old-school Escalade with the darkest tinted windows. Jarron, know one is that desperate for a picture of you. But, way to help out the environment by consolidating trips.

Jac was in charge of the recording. This isn’t very long, but it is luxury.

Also, the D. Will was throwing a bday bash for a few players with Lil’ Jon (YEEEAHHH!!) but, since none of my girl friends are 21 I couldn’t go. Mainly because, given the track record of some of the players, it wouldn’t exactly be the best decision to go by myself.

Also, we saw Donyell Marshall (a Sonics player) [editor: and former Jazz palyer] in the lobby at the Grand. I wanted to say something witty like ‘Good luck tonight’ but I didn’t want to be annoying.

Three games before the All-Star game coming up against the Kings, Bulls, and SuperSonics.  There’s a let-down game in there somewhere.  The reason I think that is because none of those teams have really ticked off Deron.  Maybe I can fabricate something about Bibby saying that Deron should have been left off the All-Star team?  Let’s hope we see some more of this against the Bulls.  And let’s not forget the last game against the SSS.

Your Jazz link fix:

• A.W.E.S.O.M.E.  - There’s been talk about this for the NBA game.  It needs to happen.
• The Collins are awesome
• No marquee star? - Maybe this is why Deron got hosed.  No recognition.
• CelticsBlog eats crow
• More KK love
• Late mid-season grades. - I never got around to doing the obligatory halfway grades things for the Jazz.  Maybe I’ll get up something during the break.
• Korver > Shaq & Gasol
• These lucky souls got some free tickets to the Hornets game.  And they got some good pics as well.
• A new Jazz blog give us his thoughts on trades

Had to get something up on the quick. Reason number #2,425 why your life is nothing like that of a professional athlete. And thanks to My Utah Jazz for the links.

December 31st. The night started out with a great win over Portland. And as we can see, the Jazz wives were getting ready to celebrate not only the win, but the New Year. After the win, it was time for the party to start at Kirilenko’s. All of the players were there. They got in some good hazing on Fess.

And then, it looks like the Vodka kicked in because things went crazy from there.

Did AK decided to use his free pass already for the year?

Apparently the girl pictured is an assistant for the Kirilenkos. She’s in all the pictures and seems to be having a good time with everyone.

I think a lot of Jazz fans would have rather won a trip to this party than the contest to go the Denver game next month.

Any chance we’ll be seeing these photos in next year’s media guide? And it’s a good thing that Dee isn’t around to be a bad influence on Deron.