Utah Jazz 112, Golden State Warriors 104
Don Nelson is a great coach. You don’t stay in the league as long as he has if you are not great. Don Nelson is also just a little bit crazy.
As part of Nellie’s new strategy, a healthy Stephen Jackson was forced to watch in street clothes as the Jazz pushed their winning streak to 8 games. Combined with a Denver loss, Utah sits just 2 games out of the 3rd spot in the west and their own division.
Sharing the Ball
Just as was the case on Saturday when the Jazz beat the Kings, ball movement against the Warriors “Defense” was the key. As a team, the Jazz assisted on 36 of 43 made field goals, an amazing 83.7%. Deron Williams shot was not dropping so instead he started dropping dimes, 20 of them. The Warriors free-wheeling style created for many transition opportunities… Deron & Co. took advantage and found the open man. The highlight was Deron at the end of the first half – crossing over about 4 times in a row, then spinning and dishing to Memo for a rainbow shot at the buzzer. Doesn’t get much better than that.
Memo on Fire
Memo Okur continue his hot streak and in my opinion won the game for the Jazz with his 17 point first quarter. On the second game of a back-to-back, the last thing the Jazz could afford to do was fall behind early, we have all seen where that leads. Memo’s brilliant first quarter not only keep the Jazz even from the get go, but actually allowed them to escape the 1st quarter with a 5 point lead. Memo finished the night with 23 points on 7 of 11 from the field.
Korver is Back
After struggling for a few weeks, it is now safe to say that Kyle Korver has officially rediscovered his shot. Surely, some of his struggles were due to nagging injuries but it also appeared to be a lack of confidence at times. Kyle was 7 for 12 and 3 of 4 from deep doing most of his damage in the second quarter. The Jazz were +19 with Korver on the floor as opposed to -11 with the struggling C.J. Miles.
Important Stretch
The Jazz have a couple days off before a couple of huge home games against Houston and Denver before they head out East on a road trip. Houston is playing on Tuesday night at home against the Raptors and Denver will be playing back to back as well as they take on Portland at home on Thursday. The Jazz could find themselves in a far different position than their current 7th place in the West standings when they take the floor Sunday afternoon in Toronto.
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