Good to see another win. Sadly, it was just the preseason. Don’t get me wrong. If this was the regular season, I’d take it. All this “beating them at their best” is utter crap… a win is a win, no matter who is hurt. But in the preseason, you want to play teams at full strength… to be able to compare if nothing else. That didn’t work out so well last night, with 4 of the 5 probable Blazer starters out.
The only guy playing… Greg Oden. Obviously, he’s a nobody. Because that’s the only reason that the game wasn’t on TV anywhere (!), right? Not Portland, not Utah. Ouch. So the Jazz fans don’t get to watch Oden against the Jazz. Oh well, he didn’t really impress (stat sheet wise) anyways. But there is still stuff to mention.
- Stat-wise, the Jazz hit their FTs (23-25) and long shots (4-6), controlled the boards, and out-shot the Blazers.
- It was back to the 6th-man role for AK, and it ended fairly well. He went 7-10 from the field to finish with 15 points, and added 5 assists and 3 boards. And he supposedly played well with Fesenko. (Again, I didn’t get to watch the game… most of this is coming from Siler.)
- Speaking of Siler, his recap has things to note. Amongst them: J-Slow wasn’t happy with CJ launching 2 jumpers to begin the 2nd half; he’s considering starting Korver should CJ not improve… The Jazz got into foul trouble early again. This is going to be a problem… Mo Almond didn’t get into the game until near the end; this probably stems from J-Slow hating on him after the Phoenix game… Kosta Koufos seemed to forget how to pass the ball; it could be the NBDL for him very soon… And there’s a ton on AK to the bench. A great idea, in my opinion.
Yeah… I really don’t have much to say about a game that I couldn’t even watch. I like the AK to the bench move… I’m afraid Korver starting could really impact the defense early in games… especially inside, where AK is a presence on help-D. We’ll have to see though. The next game is Wednesday at Denver as the preseason continues against another Northwest Division foe.
Filed under: Andrei Kirilenko, CJ Miles, Game Recap, Jerry Sloan, Kosta Koufos, Kyle Korver, Kyrylo Fesenko, Morris Almond, POR Blazers
