Utah Jazz Blog

This wasn’t supposed to happen.  This game really was more important than the Portland or Denver games because a Jazz loss would mean uncertainty in the one place the Jazz were certain, Energy Solutions Arena. 

But it isn’t the end of the world either.

Minnesota did not play like the 21-54 team that they were supposed to be.  They fought behind the good play of Rodney Carney, Ryan Gomes and Sebastian Telfair.  Mike Miller was huge down the stretch. Surprisingly, Kevin Love only had 2 points and six rebounds but the Timberwolves were +16 in his 26 minutes on the floor. 

It’s really hard to see where this one went wrong by only looking at the box score, but if you saw the game you know it was the lack of Jazz defense.

Minnesota out-shot Utah 53.3% to 48.0%. And even more surprising, the Timberwolves had 5 more assists than the Jazz, 27-22.  The Jazz almost always dominate those two statistics at home.

Somehow the Jazz managed to lose despite the Timberwolves committing 13 more turnovers and despite the Jazz making 13 more free-throws. Carlos Boozer continued to struggle, shooting just 1-9 (although his one make came at an opportune time, a 19 footer that put the Jazz up 3 with 3:45 left).  

Andrei Kirilenko found his shot that was so absent in Denver and had 13 points on 6 of 7 FGs and also contributed 3 blocks.  Andrei’s jumper was flowing and he didn’t attempt a single three-pointer (AK is only shooting 25% from behind the arc this year so missing three-pointers often just ruins the confidence in his overall jump shot). 

The Jazz had the ball with 2.3 seconds left and Deron Williams had a shot to win the game. Was he fouled??? Maybe. But that really doesn’t matter because you can’t expect that to be called in that type of situation.  I couldn’t help but rewind the Tivo a few times to see if Deron had enough time to pass it to Korver in the corner.  Korver’s man had slid back a bit on Deron’s drive.  With about .8 seconds left D-will could have passed Kyle the ball for a quick but more open shot.  Was there enough time for that, I don’t know.

You also can’t help but wonder if things would have been different with Sloan at the helm, better or worse (not a knock on Phil Johnson at all).  

Sure you could write off the Jazz after this HOME loss to one of the worst teams in the league, or… you could embrace the fight for the 6th/7th/8th seed and be happy that you are not a Phoenix Suns fan on the outside looking in.

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