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

Yet Boozer still sat the entire fourth quarter in favor of Paul Millsap, with Jazz coach Jerry Sloan suggesting before the game that he has considered starting Millsap and bringing Boozer off the bench as he makes a slow return from knee surgery.

“Yeah, I think about it every day,” Sloan said. “We need guys, and maybe Boozer will get himself together a little bit more coming off the bench. That’s something we’re thinking about, but we’ve got to try to win the game today starting the way we are.”

Boozer was unequivocal about his preference — “I’d rather start, period,” he said — as well as his desire to be on the floor in the fourth quarter.

“It’s the worst thing in the world, especially when you’re a dude like me,” Boozer said. “But it was fun to see us play that way. We moved the ball so well, we scored, we won by a huge margin.

[Source: The Salt Lake Tribune: Boozer off the bench?]

What was shown on the Jazz postgame show was more alarming than this though as there was no “would rather”. When asked by Craig Bolerjack about coming off the bench Boozer said, “I am a starter, period.” Bolerjack said, “Period?” and Boozer replied “Period.”

The Utah Jazz were able to jump out on the Denver Nuggets by 11 in the first quarter… and then J.R. Smith started raining threes. Smith was the dagger in the side of the Jazz as he dropped 28 points on 8-13 behind the arc… but he was hardly the only problem the Jazz had in this “Monumental” game.

Carlos Boozer, Memo Okur and Andrei Kirilenko were a combined 10 of 45  (22.2%) and Deron Williams had a very marginal game as well (but his stats were somewhat padded at the end of this one).  

According to Deron, “That’s probably the worst 18 points, 10 assists I’ve ever had in my life.”

It is really amazing, actually remarkable, that the Jazz were able to have several chances to cut the lead to 4 in the final minutes of this one. 

Looking back at my preview of the Jazz-Nuggets game yesterday, I mentioned the issues the Jazz have with shot-blocking teams:

Block Party?

One concerning stat is that the Nuggets are second in the NBA with 5.9 blocks per game.  The Jazz (Carlos Boozer in particular) struggle against teams that block shots.  Utah is just 11-12 (.478)  in games versus teams in the top ten teams in blocks.  Conversely, the Jazz are 35-16 (.686) against the rest of the league.  Including the Nuggets game, five of the Jazz final eight opponents are among the top ten in blocks (@Denver, @Dallas, Golden State, L.A. Clippers, @L.A. Lakers).

Hmm… well, Chris “Birdman” Andersen finished with 8 (eight!) blocks on the Jazz and the Nuggets had 10 as a team.   More worrisome than the Nuggets stats is the fact that Carlos Boozer was blocked 6 times himself. 

Carlos seemed to have a HORRIBLE game and the Jazz seemed as though they would be better off without him but looking at the final box-score, the Jazz were +4 with Booze in the game and -22 with Millsap in the game.  Millsap (14 points on 7-10 shooting with 12 boards) along with C.J. Miles and Ronnie Brewer, seemed to be the only Jazz players that had decent games.

• The Jazz started the game very nicely with 3 made jumpers by Ronnie Brewer, a couple of jumpers by C.J. and a nice D-Will dunk. The Jazz were up 22-11 before J.R. Smith hit his first (26 foot) three pointer. 
• The Nuggets outscored the Jazz 10-2 over the last 2 minutes of the first quarter and closed the second quarter on a 19-8 run.
• Deron Williams was called for his 4th foul midway through the third quarter really killing the Jazz chances.  Jerry Sloan didn’t like the call and delivered a bit of a jab at the Nuggets after the game, “They’re cute with the way they play and that’s what happens.” It will be fun if these teams meet in the playoffs, I suspect you would definitely hear more of that quote.

61.8% (47 of 76) was also the 11th best shooting game for the Trail Blazers since the 1986-87 season (all Blazer wins).  Not since a 2003 game has Portland had a better night from the field.

It was a barrage of Portland three pointers and alley-oops with little Jazz defense mixed in.  It is of very little surprise that Jerry Sloan was ejected, in fact, it is almost a miracle that he lasted nearly until the 4th quarter. The funny (or scary) thing is, the Jazz could have been crushed much harder had Carlos Boozer not somehow found his jumper.  Booze was nearly the only offense that Utah had in the first quarter and was 10-12 with 20 points before he was inexplicably ejected along with Joel Przybilla of the Blazers.

This game was virtually over from the tip.  Immediately it was visible that the Jazz were just going to be thrashed.  In the first 4 minutes the Jazz gave up 15 points on 6-8 shooting for the Blazers.  But it wasn’t just the defense of the Jazz early that was the issue, the offense was out of sync  and were making a countless number of bad passes.

Gotta give a lot of credit to the Blazers as well. Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge were a combined 20-30 with 51 points and I thought the Steve Blake played a fantastic game against Deron Williams.  The Blazers outscored the Jazz by 35 in the 29 minutes that Blake was on the floor.

For the record, I predicted on Twitter that the Blazers would get this game from the Jazz (much to the dismay of many Jazz fans).  The Blazers have been just about as good at home (31-7) as the Jazz (32-6) this season so it is wishful thinking perhaps that the Jazz could correct their road woes in such an environment on the second night of a back to back.  Sure the Jazz didn’t show up tonight but it’s just one game, it just happens to be at an inopportune time.  A loss is a loss, just like a win is a win.  So there is no need to over-analyze what went wrong. If anything I expect this game to have a positive effect on the Jazz for their game at Denver on Thursday more than a 2 point loss would have.  

• As Sloan was clearly trying to find something that would spark the Jazz, Matt Harpring started the second half for the Jazz in place of C.J. Miles.  Matt scored a 17 foot jumper just 15 seconds into the half. It’ll be interesting to see if C.J. remains in the starting lineup or if there is a shake up.
• The highest FG% game in the NBA since the 1986-87 season was 69.3% by the Los Angeles Clippers in the 1997-98 season. 

The Jazz lead by 24 early in the third quarter and then, almost as if sensing what the fans expected but wouldn’t say, allowed the New York Knicks to come all the way back to take the lead.  Maybe they are challenging themselves. Maybe they want to keep the fans interested.  Maybe they are just toying with our emotional state.  Maybe this experience will turn out to be a positive come playoff time.

In the end, of course, the Jazz rallied down the stretch just as they had done against the Phoenix Suns on Saturday night.  Check out the gameflow from this win over New York:

Now compare it to the win over the Phoenix Suns:

Take into account that the game-flow from the Suns game included overtime so it is condensed a little more than the New York game-flow.  All in all, these two games were two games that Utah should have coasted to, but at the same time, were lucky not to lose.  But in the end all that matters is that the Jazz head to Portland with two home wins under their belt and will try to correct their road woes against the Blazers on the second night of a back to back.

• Andrei Kirilenko had to leave the game after jamming his finger in the rim, AK was in street clothes for the second half after only playing 9 minutes.  It doesn’t appear too serious but given the quick turn-around for tomorrow’s game it is any body’s guess whether Andrei will be in the lineup or not.
• Deron Williams had another fantastic game with 24 points and 13 assists.  Deron really has been turning it on when needed the most hitting clutch jumpers and pushing the ball when it matters most. D-Will is itching closer and closer to Chris Paul for the NBA assist title: Paul 10.9 assists/game, Williams 10.6 assists/game.  
• Carlos Boozer had a relatively good game, although I am not really sure what that means these days.  Booze had 21 points and 11 boards on 8 of 13 shooting.
• Brewer and Millsap were the energy for the Jazz when it was needed most. Paul came up with a few huge buckets and rebounds when the Knicks threatened and Brewer was up to his usual hustle, generating multiple layup attempts.
• Memo Okur was in foul trouble for much of the game and never really got into the flow.  Memo finished with just 8 points in 21 minutes.  Perhaps he can follow with a big game in Portland since he played relatively few minutes tonight.
• The Jazz finish the season at 15-15 against the “weaker” Eastern Conference while they are currently 31-12 against the “stronger” Western Conference… Kinda makes you scratch your head. The positive is that if the Jazz end up in a tie-breaker that comes down to conference record, they will win it.
• No other meaningful games for Jazz fans on the scoreboard Monday night.  Tuesday is a different story with the Mavs, Spurs, Nuggets, Hornets and of course Blazers (vs. Jazz) all in action.

Do you think the Jazz can breakthrough on the road against the Blazers?

Ouch. Another winnable road game down the drain. Such a great game full of so much bad defense, unexpected heroes (for the Suns) and disappointments (for the Jazz).

Honestly, I thought that the Suns lost the game with 8:10 left in the game when they took their best player out, Louis Amundson.  Amundson won this game for the Suns with his hustle, blocking shots, and putting in 10 points on 5 of 6 shooting. The funny thing is, Amundson is perhaps the least productive player in Utah Jazz history… Here is his career line with the Jazz:

Despite the great former Jazzman’s performance, the Jazz and Suns were tied with 49 secs left after Ronnie Brewer hit a jumper.  Following a timeout, Grant Hill hit a tough fade away in the key to regain the lead with 31 seconds left.  It was definitely a difficult shot, so credit the veteran for coming through.   Now this is usually the type of situation that the Jazz thrive in. When almost every team in the league would call a timeout, Jerry Sloan and the Jazz usually don’t, preferring to keep the defense on their heels rather than let them talk it over and get set.  But to my surprise, Jerry Sloan called a timeout himself with 27 seconds left.  The only person more surprised than me perhaps was Deron Williams, he kept running the offense, unable to hear the unexpected timeout whistle. After the timeout, Deron missed a 17 footer but Memo got the Jazz another shot with a offensive board.  Unfortunately for the Jazz Memo forced up a horrible shot with 5 seconds left and that was that.  Not the shot you want to go down with.

• Boozer’s play is still frustrating me as I am sure it is to many fans of the Utah Jazz.  And actually, it all started about a year ago, continued through the playoffs and through the Olympics and through most of this season.  I have always defended Carlos when fans have ridden him for his injury issues but this seems to be a major confidence issue and I’m really not sure if there is an end in sight.  His box-scores are generally okay but if you watch closely, Carlos is really struggling.  He is fumbling balls, making careless decisions and costing the Jazz points and momentum at key times in the game.  Boozer got blocked 4 times in the games (twice by Shaq, once by Hill and once by Amundson). To my liking, Sloan pulled Booze with 3:17 left in favor of Okur.
• Deron Williams played a great game and got the Jazz back in it with back to back three balls when the Jazz trailed by 7 with less than 5 minutes to play.  D-will was having his way most of the night on his way to 25 points and 10 assists.
• Kyle Korver continued to impress with his hot shooting (5-8 from deep).  He is deadly at the moment if he gets any sort of an open look… far cry from January when he was struggling mightily (most likely due to his injuries).
• Props to Grant Hill.  The guy has battled back to play in every game this season.  He finished with 26 points including the shot that put the Jazz against the wall.
• Can’t help but start to wonder if the Jazz would be better off at times with Ronnie Price rather than Brevin Knight.  I think Knight is a fine player and solid backup but Price brings more energy and better shooting.  Coming into this season, I though Knight’s biggest strength was not turning the ball over but Brevin had 3 costly turnovers in 9 minutes against Phoenix.
• The Jazz and Suns each shot 27 free throws… the Shaq-lead Suns made 6 more of theirs… ball game.

Deron Williams had his worst scoring game in recent memory scoring just 5 points on 1 of 9 shooting, although he did contribute with 12 assists and 5 steals.  Carlos Boozer scored just 11 points on 4 of 13 shooting while struggling against the length of Roy Hibbert and the interior defense of the Pacers.   It didn’t matter though, the Jazz were able to pull through with big games by Paul Millsap, Memo Okur, Ronnie Brewer and Kyle Korver.

Jazzspin MVP

Ronnie Brewer. Brew was consistently deflecting balls with the Pacers attempted to drive or drop it into the post. His 5 steals paced the way to 16 thefts for the Jazz leading to numerous fast break chances resulting in many easy points for the 3rd year pro.  The Jazz ended up scoring 26 points off the Pacers turnovers, the key factor to staying ahead of Indiana all night.

Somebody Guard That Guy

Troy Murphy was on fire… for the first half. SEVEN first half threes by big Troy kept this game from getting out of hand.  Murphy consistently found himself wide open from deep as Boozer and Millsap struggled to fight through screens and stay up on him.  I am sure Jerry Sloan let them know how he felt about that at halftime and Murphy’s hot hand only got him a pair of free throws after halftime.

Millsap/Boozer

Paul had a fantastic game. 22 points and 9 rebounds in less than 30 minutes.  His energy was at its usual level and his 12 to 15 foot jump shot was falling all night.  Boozer, on the other hand, struggled mightily as he often does against tall, lanky defenders such as Roy Hibbert.  Hibbert’s long arms and 5 blocks kept Booze from putting the ball in from point-blank range and his 3 turnovers felt more like 6.  Carlos is certainly not all the way back from injury but he occasionally gets a match-up, which for whatever reason, it seems every shot he puts up is blocked (I am specifically remembering a game against Minnesota a few years ago).  It is amazing the luxury that the Jazz now have when both Millsap and Boozer are available as it is unlikely that both will struggle on the same night. 

Memo’s Hot Starts

Memo Okur has been leading the Jazz out of the gate recently, a huge key to their current 12 game winning streak.  It started just 19 seconds in against the Pacers as Memo converted a 3 point play on his way to a 12 point first quarter.  The Jazz are very hard to beat with Okur scores 15 or more.  Prior to the streak, the Jazz often would bury themselves on the road with a dismal opening quarter which they can’t recover from.  Now, they seem to be playing from the front and Memo is the catalyst. 

Kyle Korver, Not Just a Shooter

I really don’t think Kyle Korver gets the credit he deserves for his all-around game.  Ever since coming to Utah last season, I have been consistently impressed with Kyle’s hustle, overall defense, help defense, movement without the ball, etc… No player of the Jazz sacrifices his body more for the team, which is saying a lot with guys like Paul Millsap and Andrei Kirilenko around. Kyle is constantly diving for balls and taking brutal charges.

The Real Test

Now come the harder games as the Jazz travel to Atlanta, Miami and Orlando.  I could almost pick any of these three games to be the toughest.  The Jazz should be able to take Atlanta, but it is the second night of a back to back against a rested team and Atlanta has been great at home this year. Jerry Sloan’s team always seems to struggle against D-Wade, probably a factor is the 20 trips to the line he is sure to get against the foul-happy Jazz. Orlando will be a tough game as they present a inside-outside game and will be the end of a long road trip for the Jazz, and also the second of a back to back.

Will the Jazz streak run to 13 against Atlanta?

It was a barometer game. Sure Houston was playing for the second night in a row.  Sure it was another home game for a team that struggles much more on the road.  But no doubt about it, this was a telling game. The Rockets were nearly as hot has the Jazz, having won 8 of their last 9.  It was a test for this finally healthy Jazz team against the premier defense in the NBA. It was a test that the Jazz passed en route to their 12th win in their last 13 outings, adding Houston to the list of heavy-weights taken down during that stretch (Lakers, Celtics, Hornets, Dallas… and now Houston).

Despite 20 turnovers (14 in first half), the Jazz were able to push the tempo and share the ball to the tune of 50% shooting and 25 assists on 40 FGs.  Utah was able to recover from a brutally tough start of the game where they started out ice cold and turning the ball over at will.

Boozer Shows Rockets He is Back

It was Boozer’s 5th game back and Carlos looks to be getting healthy and returning to All-star form.  He out rebounded Houston by himself in the first half 13 to 9 and ended up with 20 pts and 17 rebs.  Boozer was hitting his fade away shots over Yao and finding his rhythm.

Deron Took Over

D-Will continued his strong play and imposed his will on the Rockets with 26 pts and 14 ast.  It was a complete game and it appears that Deron Williams is developing into one of the great team leaders in the NBA.  Deron put the dagger in the Rockets with 20 foot jumper with 21 seconds to play to put the Jazz up 5 after, somehow, Ron Artest gave the Rockets hope by banking in a three ball.

Respect for the Rockets

That team came to play.  They hustled, they defended, and they kept themselves in the game when Utah could have run away with it in the third quarter up by 13.  Yao is great (19 pts/7 rebs/6 ast/5 blk) but he seemed to completely lose his gas halfway through the 4th quarter… probably a factor was his 7′6″ 310 lbs. frame playing at altitude on the second night of a back to back against the physical Jazz.  Ron Artest did not seem to impose himself so much defensively but had 25 pts including 5 from downtown.  Kyle Lowry kept the Rockets in it with his strong play which kept Aaron Brooks glued to the bench for all much of the second half.  Houston definitely has a solid team that will be a tough match-up for anyone in the 1st round given their superior defense.  Part of what gives the Jazz a competitive advantage against the Rockets (and has generated to playoff series wins against them) is that their offense is not run through a great shooting guard such as Kobe, D-Wade, Brandon Roy, etc… This cancels out some of the defensive greatness that Shane Battier brings to the table.  Battier is fantastic about getting a hand in the shooters face and denying dribble penetration, however his skills are not as effective against a team that passes as well as Utah and the find-an-open-spot, dunk-happy Ronnie Brewer (19 pts).

Whats Up with Rockets Fans? 

Are they still bitter from the Stockton shot? Or being bounced by the Jazz from the playoffs for 2 straight years despite home court advantage? Jazzspin was on Twitter during the game and noticed many “hate Jazz” type tweets.  Add to that this little tirade from The Dream Shake:

Do Jazz fans know what basketball is?  Contrary to their belief (the collective belief of Energy Solutions Arena’s inhabitants) it is not a combination of rugby, MMA, and British “diving-is-a-bloody-part-of-the-game” soccer.  It’s basketball, and flopping and taking charges off the ball isn’t a part of the game.  Jazz fans consider it an integral part of the game, and they boo their butts off whenever a call isn’t made.  To add to that, they’re straight up classless.  But back to the basketball vs. flop-sketball argument.  Here’s what angered me the most: When Yao Ming came off the court in a typical Shaquie Chan rage, it wasn’t because his sixth foul was on an elbow to Boozer or yet another incredibly stupid charge attempt of his own, but because frickin’ Ronnie Brewer picked the spot on the floor where Yao would be next (which happened to be a whole first-and-ten away from the ball) and waited for the Ming Dynasty to collapse on him.  What a pathetic way to play the game.  Pathetic.  We’ll go sign Carlos Tevez before our next Jazz game and have him run around solely trying to get his ass kicked.  But wait – Sloan doesn’t need professional soccer players to flop.  He gets professional floppers to flop!

Hmm…. well, if anything is “straight up classless” it may be this argument or when they referred to Utah as the “hell-hole of all hell-holes.”  Regarding the Yao charge play, in an interview Ronnie Brewer described that the Rockets had run the same play about 3 times in a row, so how do you stop it? Answer: you get in Yao’s path and let Yao run over you.  That was no flop. That IS smart basketball and if Battier had done the same to Boozer, Rockets fans everywhere would have rejoiced.