February 1, 2009 • 12:06 pm
Channeling the inner Jim Mora…
“Playoffs?! Don’t talk about playoffs! Are you kidding me? Playoffs?! I’m just hoping we can win a game, another game (at the end of a back-to-back)!”
No one really showed up, save for Deron. The Koof had some good stats, but was inexplicably the 3rd big off of the bench (again!). ‘Sap & Okur both finished with 5 fouls, and ‘Sap finished with only 6 shots taken. The bench was horrible, led by Korver’s 1-7 night (1-6 from downtown).
The Blazers outshot the Jazz (56% to 54%), made twice as many treys (10 to 5), owned the boards on the rare chance that they did miss… and had more assists & fewer turnovers.
Yeah, it was ugly. The Jazz are now 26-22, 5.5 games behind Denver and 1.5 games behind Portland in the Northwest. Booze & AK are nowhere to be seen (3 more weeks at the least, it seems). Changes don’t seem likely to be coming… because the Jazz prefer having crappy players on their bench. Defense is non-existent. The team can’t win on the road, and they can’t win the back half of back-to-back games. Something needs to change… sadly, I don’t see it happening.
Filed under: Andrei Kirilenko, Carlos Boozer, Deron Williams, Game Recap, Kosta Koufos, Kyle Korver, Mehmet Okur, POR Blazers, Paul Millsap
December 13, 2008 • 12:00 pm
The Jazz rebounded well from the ugliness in Minnesota, playing well & beating the Blazers at the ESA, 97-88. The Jazz had a relatively comfortable lead for most of the game (after the first quarter), sitting on top by about 14 or so points until the Blazers went on a mini-run late to cut the lead to single digits. That said, the Jazz still pulled it off, and it was never really in doubt, which is all you can really ask for when playing a division rival that is 1 game ahead of you (or was, entering the night).
Things…
Okur was solid again, going 9-14 from the field (2-4 from downtown) & 7-7 from the line to finish with 21 points. He added 10 boards (all defensive).
‘Sap was 6-12 from the field & 5-9 from the line for 17 points. He added 12 boards (7 offensive!), and was part of the ‘Sap & LaMarcus Aldridge show early in the first. His lack of defensive boards emphasizes the one thing the Jazz really miss with Booze out… a presence on the defensive boards.
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Filed under: Andrei Kirilenko, Brevin Knight, CJ Miles, Carlos Boozer, Deron Williams, Game Recap, Kosta Koufos, Kyle Korver, Mehmet Okur, POR Blazers, Paul Millsap, Ronnie Brewer, Ronnie Price
December 11, 2008 • 7:05 pm
A late game tonight, as the Jazz & Blazers tip off at 8:30 PM MST (the game’s at the ESA too). The Jazz are a game behind Portland right now (and 1.5 games behind the Nuggets). The Jazz & Blazers have already played once this season (after meeting twice in the pre-season), with the Jazz coming out on top. At that time, the Jazz were without Deron & the Blazers were without Greg Oden. Both will be playing tonight.
There was hope that Booze might return today, but that’s not likely to happen. Maybe next time.
Yeah… that’s all I’ve got. Astronomy final tomorrow, I figure I better read some before it.
Filed under: Carlos Boozer, Deron Williams, POR Blazers, Pregame Thoughts
October 24, 2008 • 9:06 pm
Ouch. The game started off horribly for the Jazz. They couldn’t stop the Blazers to save their lives (6-7 from long range in the first quarter… the 1 miss being a like 80-footer at the buzzer… and 8-11 in the first half). And these Blazers were without Brandon Roy & Greg Oden. And I don’t think Deron would’ve made a huge impact defensively with the way the Blazers were shooting. Of course, he might’ve stayed in front of his guy, which would be a start… The Blazers finished with 63 points in the first half (49 for the Jazz). Ugly.
And then something happened. J-Slo yelled. The Blazers cooled down. The Jazz took off. They not only started scoring, they really quieted the Blazers (26 points total in the 2nd half, 13 in each quarter). And just like that, the Jazz had themselves a 100-89 win to end the preseason.
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Filed under: Andrei Kirilenko, Brevin Knight, CJ Miles, Carlos Boozer, Deron Williams, Game Recap, Jerry Sloan, Kosta Koufos, Kyle Korver, Mehmet Okur, POR Blazers, Paul Millsap, Ronnie Brewer, Ronnie Price
October 13, 2008 • 8:59 pm
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.
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Filed under: Andrei Kirilenko, CJ Miles, Game Recap, Jerry Sloan, Kosta Koufos, Kyle Korver, Kyrylo Fesenko, Morris Almond, POR Blazers
