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

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

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”

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.

I hope you got your fill of Turkey and Booze last week, because you weren’t getting any tonight.  Okur was out with back spasms still and Booze was letting his ankle heal a little more.

No matter as Deron Williams and Andrei Kirilenko led the charge and got a revenge win over the visiting Lakers.  Deron had a career-high 35 points and became the go-to scorer for the night.  He relinquished the assist duties to AK, who had his third career triple-double with 11 assists, 11 boards, and 20 points, not to mention 4 blocks and 6 steals.  Millsap and Brewer added 20 & 14 respectively.

And with two big guys out, the Jazz had to bring up Fess from down the road.  He played in his first official NBA game and didn’t seem to show any signs of being nervous or intimidated.  He went for 6 & 7, already career highs!  If we see much more of him, the ESA is going to start chanting his name when Collins is in.

Full Box Score

The Jazz led by 19 at the break and were never seriously threatened after that.  They pushed the lead to as much as 28, but it didn’t seem to get below 17 from that point on.  The controlled the second half, holding Kobe to only 6 points.  The second half is usually when the Jazz give it up to the elite players, but not this night.  They held LA to 44% shooting and the Lakers could never get in a rhythm.

A couple of glaring stats, one good and one bad.  First the bad.  Deron had a whopping 9 turnovers.  The Jazz only had 3 the entire first half.  But the biggest stat of the night was 70 points in the paint.  I don’t know what the record is, but I don’t remember anything that high.  But an even more astounding 52 of those came in the first half out of 70 total points.  And they say our interior defense is lacking.

Kirilenko had to be salivating to be the man again.  You could see see him mentally going back to the 03-04 season.  He was the dominant AK that earned the max contract.  Although I advocated trading him for Marion before the season started, I’m glad they didn’t.  Those hindsight glasses work great.  Could Marion put on a performance and put up the number like AK did?  AK should be the backup point guard.  He also had a nice full-court football pass to Williams for a layup, reminiscent of the Stockton to Malone pass against the Bulls in the playoffs.

Let’s hope they can keep him and the other parts of the core for at least the next few years.

Overall, a win against the Lakers and shutting up their fans that attend the games at the ESA is one of the sweetest things for Jazz fans.  And it’s especially savory because Boozer and Okur weren’t playing.  We could have Knicked them.

Fesenko Interview - Apparently he didn’t even have time to pack a change of clothes
Kirilenko Interview - AK has been cut.  See, he’s human.
ESPN highlights - The Lakers have a new sensation, Jobe.

Other random notes:

• Crittenton was added to the long list of AK rejections when he tried his best Kobe “going away from the basket, hop, travel, reverse layup” move and got made a fool.  Just like they keep track of how many parks a batters hits a home run in or who they’ve hit them off of, the NBA should keep track of how many unique players have been swatted by a particular player.
• Phil Jackson will have to start earning that new $24 million extension next game.
• Fesenko was hot when he first came in and played pretty solid in the second half in limited action.  But you can one weakness is running up his foul totals quick as do most rookies.
• Millsap looks to be getting back into his 06-07 form.  He had 20 (a career high) & 9.  Maybe because his 10 & 10 are the norm now he’s not surprising anyone this year.  He wasn’t expected to do what he did last year and now we take it for granted.
• Looks like Kobe still prefers the jump shop karate chop to try to make it look like he got fouled.
• And Odom must have just wanted out of the game.  Fouling Brewer on a break-away was understandable.  But then he didn’t let go of Brewer’s arm and threw him to the ground.
• Does Williams have the best crossover in the game today?  It wasn’t fair to Radmanovic.  He got schooled twice.  Try picking on someone your own size Deron.  Oh, that’s right, he crossed up Fisher too.
• The Jazz cannot play transition or fast break D to save their lives.  One guard has got to stay back if the other’s going for the board.
• Sloan was finally forced to play Giri.  I found out what happened.  Apparently Giri was caught reading a New Holland tractor catalog.  There was a whole blue v. green argument with Sloan.  Giri was just staying loyal to his European roots.  People’s mommas came up.  Miller was trying to mediate.  Ugly, ugly.
• Weird note from Ross Siler, Sloan has Flash season tickets.  They made Sloan buy tickets?  Do they make him pay for his Skittles too?  There’s no reciprocity?
• Fisher was surprised by the boos.  Why would he be?  He’s a Laker again, probably the most hated franchise of Jazz fans.  Was he picked on a bit?  Sure.  But he acted like the fans were abusing his daughter or something.  But I thank him for last year and his 1-8 shooting tonight.

The SLTrib broke away from their black and white print and came roaring into 21st century with a moving picture camera-captured event today at media day.  Featuring Steve Luhm as “Luhmy,” Ross Siler as the “Newlywed,” and Gordon “Did I mention I was sitting next to AK when he started crying” Monson. 

AK was pretty mum about everything.  I’m sure he’s tired of talking about the whole situation, but at the same time he can’t expect everyone to drop it.  I’m starting to think now that if he is traded, it won’t be until well into the season.  If he’s playing well and happy, why trade him?  There’s not really anything to be gained on either side if that’s the case. 

Monson seems to think that Sloan was told in no uncertain terms to lighten up on him and to make some changes in his coaching style.  Yeah, I don’t see that happening.  Maybe Sloan is a little softer in his old age, but I think he’d still rather give you the bird than to do things other than his way.

Let’s please put this to rest until something happens and stop the speculation.  I realize that those that are professional journalists have to “monitor it,” but I think the Jazz collective will be better off by not dwelling on it.

Other notes and observations from the article:

• CJ Miles is back with the Jazz - Some things I’ve read state it was a four-year deal while others are saying that he just signed the QO.
• Looks like the Fess is #44.  And doesn’t AK look as tall as Kyrylo in the video?
• Deron wasn’t dressed due to having his wisdom teeth pulled.  I don’t know how he carried on a conversation.  When I had mine out, I was out of it for most of the day.  Doesn’t he know he’s not suppose to have anything done like that before picture day?
• Get ready for the Almond/Fess blogs.
• Giricek was pleased when a reporter noted Gordan’s weight loss, physique, and new haircut.  Man, what a girl.

 The deal is finally done.  Kyrylo Fesenko has signed and is probably now on a plane to the Ukraine.  So what does this mean?  First, Hoffa is officially out.  I sure hope he gets on with another team.  Like his agent said, he just needs to get some minutes.  I guess they have to be earned somehow though.  Second, do the Jazz now have the best English-mangling-quote duo in the league with Fesenko and Kirilenko?  They ought to provide plenty of great stuff this year.  Take this one from Fesenko:

Right now, we have to do all the job from the beginning, from the zero.

And to commemorate the signing, I’m officially creating the Fesenko and Fesenko quotes tags.

And finally, his nickname has to be Fezz, not Fess, right?  I know he has the jewelry, but he can afford to get a new one now.