The Phoenix Suns veteran dropped a pass out of bounds with 25 seconds left allowing the Jazz to force overtime with a Deron Williams jumper over Steve Nash.  In overtime, the Jazz put the Suns playoff hopes on ice with strong play by Deron and a four point play by Andrei Kirilenko.

It had to be a demoralizing loss for Phoenix that could be comparable to the Jazz collapse in Miami earlier this month.  The Suns had battled back to go up by 7 with 2 minutes left but could not hold on as the Jazz outscored them 9-2 to close out regulation.

Despite walking away with the victory, the Jazz perhaps produced more questions than answers as the playoffs near.  Utah lead Phoenix by 21 early in the third quarter but were extremely fortunate to be able to force overtime.  

• Mehmet Okur had a great first quarter to get the Jazz rolling.  He was cutting to the hoop and making deep jumpers on his way to 26 points on 10 of 15 from the field.  Memo hit the shot of the game (no disrespect to AK’s 4 point play) with 51 seconds left to pull the Jazz within 2.  It was a deep three over Steve Nash and without it going down the Jazz would have been toast.
• D-Will had another great game against Nash.  21 points and 13 assists and two clutch shots in the final 30 seconds of regulation.
• Boozer didn’t play in crunch time and was benched in favor of Millsap for overtime.  
• The Jazz had 23 turnovers leading to 26 Phoenix points. Deron had 7 turnovers at home whereas he had zero giveaways on the road versus this same Phoenix Suns team.
• With the Jazz down one halfway into the overtime period, Andrei Kirilenko hit a three pointer and was fouled by Grant Hill to complete the first four point play of the year for the Jazz… Phoenix would never see the lead again.
• If the playoffs started today (Monday) the Jazz would face Denver in the first round with the Nuggets having home court advantage.  The Nuggets have to be one of the more favorable match-ups that the Jazz could realistically hope for but there is so much that could happen over the remaining 10 games that this match-up is not likely to remain.  
• The Jazz are now 11th in this weeks ESPN NBA power rankings by Mark Stein, 7th in the computerized Hollinger power rankings and 9th in the Jeff Sagarin NBA rankings.

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.