Utah Jazz Blog

The Lakers were expected to win games 1 & 2 at home and that’s exactly what they did by downing the Jazz on Tuesday night. It was one of those games that it seems everything is going against the Jazz, yet somehow they stayed in this game far longer than they should have.

The Lakers shot 60% including 55% from downtown, yet they could not put away the Jazz like they should have done under those circumstances.

If not for a brutal opening quarter that saw L.A. dump in 41 points, the Jazz played the Lakers even.  But the stretch that lost the game for Utah was not in that miserable 1st quarter, it came in the second half of the second quarter when the Jazz were outscored 17-3 over a four and a half minute span. The Lakers lead ballooned from six to twenty and the relatively good play of the Jazz for the rest of the game would go for not.

• Deron was spectacular despite the seven turnovers that he committed, finishing with 35 points and 9 assists to go along with 4 steals and 2 blocks.  D-will was deadly from outside, dropping in 6 of 11 three’s and also hitting a number of other long two’s.
• Utah “contained” Kobe relatively well again but did send him to the line ten times, he converted on nine of them. Bryant has really not forced his offense in the first quarter of the first two games and the Lakers have outscored the Jazz 71-48 in the combined first quarters.  Kobe has done most of his damage in quarter 2 through 4 and the Jazz are playing the Lakers even over those periods. Perhaps the Jazz should make Kobe do it himself by not dropping off other defenders to help (usually resulting in open Laker three’s).
• That deserves another mention… if you take out the first quarters, the Jazz have played the Lakers EVEN. This is why the Jazz have struggled so mightily on the road, they fall behind early and run out of time at the end. Whereas at home, the Jazz usually come out and get off to a decent start, playing relatively even or as front-runners rather than playing catch-up.

The series doesn’t really start until the home team loses a game, right?

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It was a second half to build upon. It was a first half to forget.

After the Jazz started the opening few minutes strong, the Lakers imposed their will on the visiting 8th seed and built a 22 point halftime lead. In the second half, the Jazz fought back to narrow the margin to as few as 9 on multiple occasions but in the end game 1 was all L.A..

Wide Open Threes

The Lakers made 7 three’s (3 for Trevor Ariza and Shannon Brown, 1 for Luke Walton) and I’m pretty sure that every one of those makes was a WIDE-open look.  The Jazz must not allow the Laker role players to get such open looks because they can win the game with those looks just as much as Kobe Bryant can. This was something that killed the Jazz in the series against L.A. last year where Farmar, Fisher, Vujacic and Radmanovic put the dagger in the side of Jerry Sloan’s team.

Shannon Brown killed the Jazz with his play in game 1.  The Lakers were +20 in his 22 minutes in the game and were -8 with Derek Fisher running the point.

Boozer/Williams

Boozer had a season-high 27 points (yep, it hasn’t been a great season) to go along with 9 boards and a couple of steals.  It was perhaps Boozer’s best offensive game that we have seen all year, yet Booze was burned on countless occasions on defense and the words “Boozer with a very poor show [on pick-and-roll D]” continue to echo in my head.  But a Boozer with offense yet no defense is better than a Boozer with no offense and no defense so I will take this game as encouragement and hope that he can finally start to find his offensive game on a consistent basis.

Deron Williams had an interesting game. He piled up 17 assists to go with 16 points but had a rough game shooting the ball (4-14).  Deron seems to be effective breaking down the Lakers defense to a degree so if he can find his shot there is hope that he can lead the Jazz to a few W’s. Deron only had 3 TO’s to go with his 17 assist and two of those were in the final minutes.  It might not be a bad idea to play Deron for all 48 minutes during the rest of this series as Brevin Knight has not been playing well and the Jazz lost 5 points in his 3 minutes taking Deron’s place.

AK Steals the Ball!

With the Jazz down 11 with just under 4 minutes left in the game the Jazz needed a near flawless finish and catch a few breaks along the way.  Andrei Kirilenko played some fantastic one-on-one defense on Kobe on the perimeter and stripped the ball for a steal.  Bryant was back-peddling and AK had the chance to take it right at Bryant, probably resulting in a a dunk or foul. But instead AK threw a horrible pass into the 5th row at the Staples Center.  When AK’s pass landed in the rows occupied by C-list celebrities, so did the Jazz hopes of coming back to win game 1.  In addition, Deron was trailing AK and a simple pass back to D-will would have given the Jazz an easy 2.  Let’s go to Twitter for the reaction:

1. phoenixstan Wow. AK47 a the steal and then the bail. Cry me a river
2. 3QCMagic Ladies and gents, that’s Andrei Kirilenko’s post-Boozer-arrival career in a nutshell. Gah.
3. talkhoops Kirilenko passing up that dunk perfectly summed up this day for the Jazz
4. macmissionary Now why doesn’t AK dunk over Kobe.
5. HPbasketball Bryant got insanely high on that. AK still could have dunked on him if AK wasn’t AK.
6. 1280TheZone wow. Ak pick pockets kobe drawing aahs from crowd & then throws it away on break. not his day
7. HPbasketball Aaaaand that’s AK.

It’s not all AK’s fault but the Jazz were -21 in the 26 minutes that he was on the court

Jarron Collins Came to Play

Speaking of +/-, Jarron Collins was the only Jazz player in the positive for the game at +2.  Jarron stepped in to start in place of the injured Memo Okur and had 7 point and 7 rebounds in 15 minutes.  Jarron brought energy and some decent defense in his best performance in some time… unfortunately it was wasted in a loss.

Lack of D

Utah did a relatively good job of containing Kobe Bryant, holding him to “just” 24 points on 17 shots.  A good sign is that Kobe only went to the line 7 times (Kobe shot 96 FTs in the 6 game series last year). The Jazz had ZERO blocks to the Lakers NINE on the Jazz. I look for that stat and the defense to pick up some when the series moves to SLC where the Jazz play with more energy but the Jazz cannot win when they give up 110+ points to the Lakers. The Lakers ended the game shooting 55.6% from the field.

Game 2 -Tuesday at 8:30 Mountain Time on TNT

I would not count on Memo making a return for the Jazz in game 2 so the Jazz need to find someone that can hit outside shots. Ideally, Deron will find his shot, making him even deadlier attacking the Lakers defense.  The Jazz played a pretty good second half, outscoring L.A. by nine… but the Jazz cannot afford to fall behind and play catchup again.

Lakers 1-0

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It’s true, the Lakers may get by the Utah Jazz in the first round of the 2009 NBA Playoffs. They may even get through the entire Western Conference and go on to win the NBA title. But, it is anything but guaranteed.  

If you flip on SportsCenter or read articles and blogs around the web without knowing any better, you would probably think the the Lakers have already swept their way through the West.  That is disrespecting the talent level of not only the Utah Jazz but also the Nuggets, Spurs, Blazers, Rockets, Mavericks and Hornets.

The L.A. Times thinks that the Lakers have a pretty good shot at getting to the Finals:

Meanwhile, the odds in the Western draw can be summed up as follows:

Lakers, 1-5.

Portland, 5-1.

Five other teams, 20-1.

Utah, 100-1.

The West isn’t what it was, but no one made the playoffs with fewer than 48 wins, which would have been No. 4 in the East.

If Utah looks overmatched against the Lakers, with Jazz Coach Jerry Sloan, of all people, calling its outlook “bleak,” there are Western teams that pose a threat.

We just don’t know who they are now . . . aside from Portland, with a rising, young team that won 54 games, finished 19-5, and has an eight-game winning streak over the Lakers in the Rose Garden, going back four years.

[Source: Los Angeles Times - NBA playoffs: Lakers have to keep eye on Trail Blazers]

If asked who I would take to get out of the West between the Lakers and the field… I take the field. 

“Now if you wanna crown ‘em, then crown their ass”:

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The 2009 NBA Playoffs are finally here… but about a month too late if you ask Jazz fans.  

But, this is not a dire situation.  I have overheard many Jazz fans say that they would rather have missed out on the playoffs all together rather than face these Lakers. Yes, the Lakers are a quality team but they are not yet NBA champions.  

Yes, the Jazz have a chance to win this series. I may be an optimist but I fully believe the Jazz can win all three home games of this series and thus send it to a seventh game and have a shot to take down the mightly Lakers.  And yes, the Jazz were terrible on the road this season, but weren’t they pretty terrible the last 2 seasons as well yet went on to win road games in Houston (3 times) and Golden State (Jazz were given little chance in that game).

David Locke has  a great breakdown of the series:

Rest is Underrated

The Jazz will have had some much needed rest when they take the court in L.A. today: 

The Jazz will have at least one advantage this year against the Lakers compared to last year’s series. They had to turn around barely 48 hours after closing out Houston in the first round last May and open their conference semifinals series in Los Angeles.

    This year, the Jazz will have had four days to prepare for the Lakers, time for two full practices and a shootaround. It’s as much practice time as they’ve had in the last three weeks combined thanks to a crazy closing schedule.

    “I think more than anything it’s three days to recover a little bit,” Sloan said. “We’ve been in this situation before. The year that we went to the [Western Conference] finals, we had a terrible finish. It wasn’t a great finish. Everybody panicked with the way the season went.

    “That seems to be the way it is now. But our players, I think, will come together and give us a good effort, and that’s how you have a chance to win.”

Source: Salt Lake Tribune Jazz Blog]

I think that much of the Jazz problems down the stretch of the season could have been solved with some rest.  The team had a brutal schedule sending them out on the road for most of the last month. Once it began to unravel, there was never any time to take a break and work it out.  With this extended rest heading into the Laker series, the Jazz will have at least had time to prepare and gather themselves. 

Keep Kobe Off the Line

In the six game series last season between the Lakers and Jazz, Kobe went to the free-throw line 96 times.  In game one alone Kobe hit 21 of 23 free throws.  

Ronnie Brewer and Andrei Kirilenko need to stay in front of Kobe without fouling him. Of course, much easier said than done, but the foul-happy Jazz need to keep Bryant from getting free opportunities from the line.

Are all 7 Games in L.A.?

Has everyone forgotten that the Jazz are really good at home?

Yes, the Jazz lost at home to the Warriors and T-wolves at the end of the season but before that they were riding a 15-game home winning streak and their problems were mainly confined to the road. Despite those loses, ESA is a different animal when it is playoff atmosphere making it difficult for any opposing team to come away with a victory. 

The Jazz won games 3 and 4 last year at home to the Lakers and really should have had game 6 if not for a miserable first quarter which they nearly recovered from.

Memo’s Hammy

Memo Okur is looking doubtful for game one in L.A. and could be out even longer with his hamstring injury.  The Jazz must get Memo back by game 3 at home to really have a chance in this series.

Previews, Previews, Previews

Jazz-Lakers series page at ESPN.com

Scouts, Inc. breakdown of Jazz-Lakers by position, etc.

Luke Walton NBA Blog Squad preview

SLC Dunk: 3 Reasons with the L.A. Times

True Blue Jazz: Optimist vs. Pessimist Breakdown

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 Game 1: Jazz at Lakers - SUN 4/19 – 3:00 PM ET on ABC

Game 2: Jazz at Lakers - TUE 4/21 - 10:30 PM ET on TNT

Game 3: Lakers at Jazz - THU 4/23 - 10:30 PM ET on TNT

Game 4: Lakers at Jazz - SAT 4/25 - 9:00 PM ET on ESPN

*Game 5: Jazz at Lakers - MON 4/27 - TBD

*Game 6: Lakers at Jazz - THU 4/30 - TBD

*Game 7: Jazz at Lakers - SAT 5/2 - TBD on TNT

* if necessary

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The seemingly inevitable fate of facing the Los Angeles Lakers in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs is now reality for the Utah Jazz.  You can blame the circumstances on this road loss coming on a back to back (really the Jazz had no shot given their record in this situation against a good team) but really it came down to the two inexcusable loses at home to Golden State and Minnesota.

The Jazz stuck with the Lakers until the wheels fell off near the end of the 3rd quarter and suddenly the Jazz deficit grew to 20+.  The Jazz had no answer for the Lakers offense which torched Utah inside and out. 

Looking back on this game now, there is little need to dissect it deeply.  The intensity will be much greater when game 1 tips off on Saturday or Sunday in L.A…. The Jazz will hopefully have both Memo Okur and C.J. Miles back in the lineup and the Lakers will surely have much more to play for than they did on Tuesday night.  

On the bright side, Deron Williams was able to penetrate against the Laker defense and get to the hoop at will. The Jazz shot a ridiculous 29 free throws in the first half and another 18 in the second half. Deron had 10 of those attempts on his way to 25 pts/13 ast and one nasty throw down. Boozer played relatively well throughout on offense but couldn’t keep Bynum and Gasol out of the paint on the other end. Ronnie Brewer was all over the place early on his way to 5 steals.

Andrei Kirilenko had a decent game if you look at the box score: 20 pts 4 steals. But to watch his play at the end of the 3rd quarter and into the 4th was maddening at times. Andrei committed 6 turnovers in the game and a few horrible fouls.

The Jazz trailed by just one point after a Deron Williams layup with 2:58 to go in the 3rd, 75-74. The Lakers went on to score 16 points in the remaining 2:58 including one point on a completely unnecessary AK foul on Kobe Bryant with .8 seconds left. Kobe would have taken a rushed off-balanced shot (not saying he couldn’t have made it but the probability was low) but instead was bailed out by AK’s reach.  Sure Kobe missed one of the free throws but it is mental errors like this that are completely inexcusable at the professional level. Apparently the Jazz did not learn from their similar mistakes such as those in the Miami loss.  Despite the losing and poor play of late, I still stand by the Jazz chances of making a competitive playoff series against the Lakers, but mental lapses such as this make it a hard stance to defend. The Jazz lost the game and their chance to move out of the 8th spot with that 2:58 closeout of the 3rd quarter where they were outscored 16-9 and the Lakers seized all momentum.

Much more on the Jazz-Lakers first round match-up to come over the next few days.

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No doubt that poor Baron Davis had a tough night in Salt Lake City on Monday night, but maybe you need to see it in YouTube form to really get a grasp of the night that was:

It couldn’t have been much worse of a night for Baron, he finished the 106-85 loss to the Jazz with just 3 points on 1-13 shooting. 

[via Basketbawful]

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Unfortunately, I was unable to post about the last 3 Jazz games (losses at Dallas, at San Antonio and at home to Golden State). The losses at Dallas and at San Antonio can be expected by the home loss to the short-handed Warriors was perhaps the worst Jazz game of the year. After winning 15 straight home games it was their second consecutive loss to a sub-par opponent at ESA.  A loss to the lowly Clippers would have doomed the Jazz as they headed into the playoffs.  Luckily, the Jazz that we know and love showed up Monday night with energy and a bit of team chemistry to throttle the Clips. 

• It doesn’t matter that this win was against the 19-62 Clippers. This game was about the Jazz and coming together as a team.  Sure, this win is not gonna erase the dismal last 2 weeks but it was key in building some confidence and improving the body language of the players.  Not sure if I have ever seen such troublesome body language by a Jazz team as I saw during the loss to the Warriors. Tonight, there were more high-fives, was more bench cheering and more team chemistry.  
• Matt Harpring started in place of injured C.J. Miles and provided the spark that Jerry Sloan was searching for. Harpring had 6 points in the early minutes and the rest of the Jazz began to feed off his energy.  Matt also mixed it up with Baron Davis resulting in a double personal foul and also a technical on Davis.  Predictably, the ESA crowd booed Davis each and every time he touched the ball for the rest of the game. 
• Brevin Knight sparked the Jazz defensive effort with a pre-game talk. Could Knight be the experienced voice that this team desperately needs? Not sure about that but the team responded by playing their best defense in some time and holding the Clippers to 85 points on just 43.8% shooting. The Jazz were full of energy from the tip and had 21 first half deflections, a clear sign of active play.   
• Memo left just before halftime and did not return with a mild strain to his hamstring. There is a decent chance that Okur will miss the Laker game but hopefully he will be near 100% by the time the playoffs start on Saturday or Sunday.
• The Cavs clinched the best record in the NBA on Monday night meaning that the Lakers do not have anything to play for (seeding-wise) on Tuesday against the Jazz.  The Lakers can however influence how the bottom of the Western Conference playoff bracket will finish up and thus their effort on Tuesday may be partially dictated by whether or not they want to play the Jazz in the first round of the playoffs.  Although I think that the Lakers would rather not play Utah, I also don’t expect them to come out and simply roll over for a loss. 
• So, the Jazz are still alive for the 6th and 7th seeds but must take care of business against the Lakers. If the Jazz lose, they are guaranteed the 8th seed and a first-round match up with the Lakers.  If the Jazz win, they can move up to the 7th seed with either a Dallas loss at home against the Rockets or a Hornets loss at San Antonio.  The Jazz can even climb up to the 6th seed if they win and both the Mavs and Hornets lose. 

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The more things change, the more things stay the same.  Consider this 1987 interview that Karl Malone did with Los Angeles Lakers broadcaster Chick Hearn:

What a great interview.  And where can I get those retro warmup pants?

That season the Jazz finished 14-27 on the road and lost to the Lakers in the epic 7-game 1988 Western Conference Semi-Finals.  It would take the Jazz another seven seasons before they corrected their road woes and posted a .500+ record away from Salt Lake City in 1994-95.  That season the Utah Jazz finished a franchise-best 27-14 on the road including a 15 game road winning streak that lasted from late November to early February.  

This season is the eighth-straight losing season on the road for the Jazz, let’s just hope its not another seven seasons before Deron Williams and the Utah Jazz can win away from Salt Lake City.

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Ever since the 2009 Hall of Fame class was announced this week, there has been much discussion by Jazz fans and others regarding John Stockton and where he ranks all-time among point guards.  On NBA.com, Andre’ Snellings shared his thoughts on the subject:

But is he really? Because there is a flip side to the coin…Stockton was only twice in his 19 seasons voted onto the All NBA 1st team, and both of those came in the early ‘90s after Magic had retired but before Gary Payton and Jason Kidd came of age. Stockton never came within shouting distance of winning an MVP, checking in at where he doesn’t even crack the top-10 among point guards despite the fact that MVP shares are cumulative and Stockton played many more seasons than most of the guys ahead of him on the list. 

There absolutely is no way that you can base John Stockton’s career on MVP voting, in fact, looking at it just a little bit shows how completely flawed the MVP vote is.  Consider one of Stockton’s better statistical years when he averaged 17.2 points, 14.2 assists, 2.9 steals and shot 50.7% in the 1990-91 season yet finished 12th in MVP voting.  As a comparison, Steve Nash had weaker numbers across the board during his first MVP season of 2004-05 averaging 15.5 points, 11.5 assists, 1.0 steals while shooting 50.2%.  

Or, consider the 1996-97 and 1997-98 seasons when the Utah Jazz finished with the best record in the Western Conference (best record in NBA in 1997-98) and earned trips to the NBA finals to play Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls. Stockton somehow finished 15th (1996-97) and 13th (1997-98) in MVP voting in those seasons.  This goes to show you that you cannot take MVP Award Share worth a grain of salt. Stockton did not play in a big market, did not make many commercials, did not lobby for himself, was not a highlight reel, etc. and therefore his MVP status always suffered despite his play on the court where it should matter.

And then, there is the qualitative argument: if Stockton is really the best point guard in history, and Karl Malone was arguably the best power forward in history when he played, then how on earth could two “greatest evers” at their positions play together on the same team for 18 years and not win at least one title? I know there were outstanding teams during that period, but if you put two position GOATS together for almost two decades and they really are the best, it’s almost inconceivable that they don’t win at least once by accident. 

This has been talked about over and over again so I will not talk about it much here.  Obviously having no championships is a ding to the resume of John Stockton but for most that watched him play on a regular basis, this is a footnote.

Stockton was very good with almost inhuman consistency…he never missed the playoffs in 19 seasons, he played all 82 games in 17 of 19 seasons, and he was always one of the better players in the league. But he was never the best, neither himself as an individual nor his team. So if you want to base your “best” on career accomplishments that may never be duplicated, then Stockton may be the one for you. But if you tell me to pick one point guard to lead my team to the Promised Land in any one season, give me Magic or Oscar or Isiah or even Chris Paul and I feel more confident than I do if you give me Stockton. And to me, that means that Stockton can’t be my greatest PG of all-time. What do you think?

The fact that Chris Paul was even mentioned in this article makes my stomach turn a little bit and shows how under-appreciated John Stockton really was.  I don’t really think that this argument of greatest point guard of all-time should be made on who you would take for one-season but John Stockton has to be there at the top, along with Magic Johnson.  The basis of Snellings’ argument is that Stockton’s longevity is what allowed him to rack of such gaudy assist and steal numbers. But Stockton’s individual seasons were amazing too, he has seven of the nine all-time 1,000 assist seasons including the top four.  John Stockton also has 4 of the all-time top 15 steals seasons, by comparison Michael Jordan has three, and Gary “the Glove” Payton has zero. 

So who would I want to point-guard my team for one season.  That really comes down to who the other players on the team are to decide whether I take Magic Johnson or John Stockton. 

One thing has become clear to me though, John Stockton may be the most under-rated, under-appreciated all-time great in the modern era.

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