It seems as if AK is day-to-day (scroll down) with a right-ankle inflammation. Hopefully that means he’ll be ready by Tuesday’s game, because the fewer semi-good (or better) players out, the better.

Yeah. In 1 word, that was fu**ing ugly! One day after blowing out the Kings (in the 2nd half) and getting plenty of rest for their “starters”, the Jazz laid an egg (at home!) against the Nets. Just ugly. Proving that the Jazz will have issues against teams that play defense… aka the playoff teams for sure, and then some.

8 things…

1. Devin Harris absolutely owned the game, doing whatever he wanted whenever he wanted. Drive in for 2? Got it. Settle for the jumper. Done. Drive in and kick it out or draw a foul. Easy as pie. 34 points, 6 assists, 13-17 shooting (plus 8-13 from the line). Total domination against the “defense” of the Jazz. That Jason Kidd trade is looking fairly good for them.
2. Okur picked a bad day to have an off-night. After dominating in the first 2 games with Deron back, Okur went 3-13 last night (0-3 from long range). While he did get his double-double (10 & 11), his off-night offensively didn’t help. Nor did the 4 TOs. Yeah, we can’t be getting nights like this from Okur.
   

Update: Deron will go today.

The Nets have had a couple of days off after beating the Kings in Sacramento, and today head in to the ESA looking to improve on their 7-7 record.

Stuff…

1. Josh Boone most definitely won’t be joining the Nets tonight. He’s been sent back to New Jersey to get an MRI on his ankle. He hasn’t played in a while for them.
2. On the other hand, Stromile Swift could be back… he’s been rehabbing his back and hasn’t played yet this season.
3. Also, the Nets will be without Eduardo Najera.
4. Continuing with the Nets injuries (because I don’t want to talk about the Jazz-ster’s ones), Vince Carter will most likely play tonight. Which is unfortunate, because Vinsanity tends to go insane on the Jazz.
   

For the first 2 quarters, the game was relatively close, up right through the half-time buzzer, at which point the Kings had evened the game up at 50. This was a huge disappointment to most Jazz fans, because it wasn’t expected to be this close. The Kings had been struggling all season, and were still without their star player. The Jazz had their key player back (even with 1 guy still out), and are supposed to be championship contenders. These are the type of games you’re supposed to win with relative ease, aren’t they?

Fortunately, there was still a half left to play. Well, fortunately for the Jazz, at least. The Jazz absolutely exploded in the 3rd quarter (you know, the quarter that has been killing them for most of the season), rolling up a 44-17 (!!!) advantage in the quarter and rolling to a 26 point win (120-94). Yeah… I’m not quite sure what happened during halftime, but it worked well. Hopefully (for the players sake) J-Slo didn’t pull a Mike Singletary.

Player Notes (& More) Below

The Kings, coming off of a loss to the Nets at home, visit the ESA tonight.

Stuff…

1. Just about 1 year ago (December 4th, last year), the Kings beat the Jazz behind a huge game from John Salmons. Of course, that also took huge games from Ron Artest & Kevin Martin… neither of whom will be playing tonight. Artest is out in Houston, Martin is still out. The Jazz can’t allow that this year, even if the game is in a different locale.
2. Korver should be back tonight… Booze is still out. As is Flop.
3. Again, the game isn’t on KJZZ. If you only have local TV in Utah, you’re lucky enough to be getting Cinderella Man, The Polar Express, The Incredibles (was on last night too) & School of Rock. KJZZ gives you the normal trio of Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy, & Dr. Phil.
   

Finally! The Jazz welcomed Deron back with open arms, after he had missed most of the season to date, and promptly exploded on the Memphis Grizzlies, sending the Grizz out of town with a 117-100 loss. The Jazz were actually ahead by 14 after 1, and 24 after 3 before the Grizzlies made a minor run in the 4th to make it look semi-respectable. Minor run in the sense that J-Slo brought the starters back in.

The Jazz were led by the double-double trio of Deron (11 and 15 assists), Memo (21 and 10 boards) & ‘Sap (24 and 16 boards, including 7 on the offensive end). Ronnie Brewer was also in form, finishing with 21 points, 5 boards & 5 assists.CJ (13) and AK (17 points, 3 rebounds, 4 assists) also hit double-figures. Also nice are the shooting stats. Brewer was 8-13. Okur was 7-9. ‘Sap was 11-17, with 5 jams. Deron was 4-9 (eh). AK was 5-10.

Yeah, the Jazz host the Grizzlies tonight at the ESA.

Eight things…

1. Deron should be back today. Finally! Hopefully he isn’t trying to rush back again though. We need him… healthy. Interesting though, that he picked the Grizzlies as the team to return against. Because Manu Ginobili did the same thing on Monday, and it worked out well for the Spurs.
2. The game is not on KJZZ. Obviously. I mean, why would the Jazz ever put their games on local TV?
3. The Jazz beat the same Grizzlies team just 4 days ago, 103-94 in Memphis. And that was without Deron & Booze.

They always said in statistics class that you needed a relatively large sample size, because having a small sample size could skew things in either direction. In the case of NBA players stats, it could be skewed by a couple of good games or a couple of bad games.

Normally, 1 month is a fine sample size (I guess). Unless, of course, one of the guys being compared has only played in 2 games!!!. Of course, “the Sports Guy” over at the wwl couldn’t give a damn about sample sizes as he comes up with this argument…

I argued before the season, passionately, that Paul was in a different league and earned myself a few death threats from the Salt Lake City area. (You stay classy, Utah.) Check out their 2009 stats through four weeks:

• Paul: 20.5 PPG, 12.2 APG, 2.9 steals, 52.3% FG, 85.6% FT.
• Williams: 7.5 PPG, 8.0 APG, 0.0 steals, 26.7% FG, 66.7% FT.

I mean, that’s a landslide! Come on! Can we all agree to stop arguing about this?

Four things.

1. Andres Nocioni flops. A lot. Call the flops, not the stupid fouls! (By the way, Mr. Stern… whatever happened to fining all the floppers? Stupid liar.)
2. ‘Sap gets hacked. A ton. Call the fouls!
3. Why is it a foul if a guy runs into the lane totally out of control, and the defender backs away!? Players shouldn’t get the benefit for running into the lane like a headless chicken.
4. Larry Hughes?!?!? Seriously?!?!?

Here’s the boxscore if you’re interested. I’m not.

That went as expected, more or less. The Jazz got destroyed by the Spurs, then took their revenge by beating the Grizzlies. Of course, it took J-Slo yelling at them from the bench, telling them where to stand and all of that, for the win to come, but I guess a win is a win. Even if the coach is the 6th man of the game.

Tonight… a home date with the Bulls. The Bulls will be without Kirk Hinrich, the Jazz will be without every player of significance.

Of unrelated news… the Knicks might have interest in Booze when he becomes a FA after the season.