Utah Jazz Blog

It may have been the best all-around game for the Jazz this season despite a horrible opening 5 minutes to the game.  Utah played inspired defense that limited Houston to just under 35% shooting which translated into energy on the offensive end and a solid home victory over the hot Rockets.

• Player of the game was Ronnie Brewer. Ronnie had 17 points on only 7 shots from the field and played with an enormous amount of energy that was contagious to the rest of the team.  Gotta love Ronnie’s second half reverse dunk as well, kinda reminded me of Dwight Howard’s “Superman” dunk, how he really threw it in rather than dunking it.
• If not for hot three point shooting by the Rockets, this would have been a blowout.  Houston was 10 of 26 from downtown, 38.5% which was actually better than their overall percentage of 34.8%.  They really found their groove at the end of the second quarter and carried it into the early third quarter to come back on the Jazz and even take a brief lead (see game flow above)
• The Jazz bench has got to look scary to opponents with Andrei Kirilenko, Kyle Korver and Paul Millsap.  Really the Jazz have 8 starters right now as all three of those guys could be on the floor in crunch time.  Think about it, it is perfectly reasonable to see a lineup of AK47, Korver, Millsap and Deron Williams along with either Boozer or Okur at the end of a big game.  Deron is really the only player that has got to be in there, the other “pieces” are quick interchangeable and Sloan can throw many different effective lineups out there. Kyle Korver was +16 and Millsap was +12 against Houston.  
• If the Jazz happen to draw Houston in the first round for the third straight year, I think that Jazz players and fans would feel quite confident even if Houston had the home court advantage again.  If I were a Houston fan, I would be routing for just about any other 1st round match-up, it would be demoralizing to lose to Utah for the 3rd straight season.
• Pretty sure the Jazz are now 6-0 on national TV this season, but I am guessing that all of those games were played in Utah.  The Jazz have another national TV game tonight in Phoenix on ESPN to make an attempt at 7-0.  This very well could be the first time that the Jazz have played on national TV on back to back nights.
• After years of lobbying, the Jazz have been selected to play in Europe this upcoming preseason.  Utah will take on the Chicago Bulls in London on October 6 and will play at least one more game in a yet to be named city as part of NBA Europe Live 2009.  Jazz players and management have been trying to play in Europe ever since their scheduled preseason trip to Russia was cancelled in the wake of a terrorist attack at a school in 2005. 
• At halftime, Charles Barkley was complaining that Karl Malone set an illegal pick on the Stockton shot that won the 1997 Western Conference Finals. I have seen that play hundreds and hundreds of times and I still get goosebumps from that play.  I have seen that play hundreds and hundreds of times and I have never heard anybody mention Malone’s screen.

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