Upper Bowl Jazz Fan

Jazz lose badly to Los Angeles Lakers – 4/2/10

// April 3rd, 2010 // No Comments » // Game Summary

Well, there goes the dream of going 6-0 to finish the season.  But it was just that: a dream.  The Jazz enjoyed the #2 position in the West for all of 24 hours.  It’s not too late to get it back though.

We noted that the Jazz, in one way or another, all reverted to their bad selves in long stretches during this game.  Memo lost his shooting touch.  CJ Miles was bricking all manner of terrible shots and playing absolutely terrible defense.  Boozer, somehow afraid of the softness of Pau Gasol, wouldn’t attach the rim and settled for some poor midrange shots.

Deron Williams took it upon himself in the 2nd quarter to get the Jazz back in the game and he did a pretty good job doing it.  However, it seemed like down the stretch Williams made the pass (perhaps as a good PG should) instead of taking the shot himself.  Instead of taking advantage of the Lakers’ main weakness (the point guard position) Williams seemed content to try and facilitate others.  Only he and Wesley Matthews shot .500 or better (of those who played more than just a couple minutes).

The one bright point of the night was Matthews smothering defense on Kobe Bryant.  Kobe finished 5 of 23 from the field but was sent to the line a shocking 18 times, where he converted 15 of his attempts.

The Jazz really missed Andrei Kirilenko because he could have at least disrupted Lamar Odom, who always seems to have a spectacular night against the Jazz.  Odom missed only 3 of his 14 shots, was deadly from downtown, and was a matchup issue all night.

The Jazz just need to shake it off and win their remaining 5 games.

Jazz embarrass Golden State Warriors – 3/31/10

// April 1st, 2010 // No Comments » // Game Summary

For 2 straight games, the Jazz scored 40+ points in the 1st quarter against an up-tempo team.  The difference between the game against the Warriors and the game against the Knicks was that the Jazz continued strong against the Warriors.

The Jazz have dominated the Warriors in the past few years and the key has been the Jazz bigs taking it to the smaller lineups the Warriors employ.  Thankfully, Boozer, Okur, and Millsap remembered that as they absolutly hammered the Warriors for 25/13, 18/10, & 19/11 respectively.

As I was watching Deron Williams absolutely carve up the Warriors defense (finishing w/ 19 assists in only 31 minutes of play) I wondered what kind of numbers he would have playing for such a team.  One thing I love about D-Will is he will get up and run and play transition basketball as good as anyone else and then slow it down for methodical half-court play.  Such versatility is extremely rare among point guards.

As the Jazz were up nearly 30 it was nearly unbelievable to see CJ Miles foul out in only 24 minutes.  It’s interesting to look a little more into it that while the entire Jazz team could play a little easier against the Warriors since they couldn’t buy a bucket, CJ couldn’t help but foul…and foul a lot.  For that matter, neither could Boozer or Okur who both finished w/ 5 fouls apiece playing 29 minutes.

Something I never thought I would see in this game was Kyle Korver on a fast break dunking the basketball.  I’ve never seen Korver dunk.  It was surreal.  The only attempt I saw was a failed one a month or so ago where Korver barely laid the ball in on a fast break.   That was embarrassing and Korver knew it.

At almost the same point in the year last year, the Jazz lost at home to a 7-man Warriors team as a precursor to being handed their hat in the first round of the playoffs against the Lakers.  It was nice to see this Jazz team show GS the exit and give them the beat down they deserved this time.  I think this is a better Jazz team…

Jazz roll over short-handed Wizards

// March 27th, 2010 // 2 Comments » // Game Summary

Things are as they should be again.  That was an upsetting game yesterday that no one ever wants to think about again.  Except when we think about having lost to the Clippers, Kings, Timberwoves (twice), and the Pacers.

Just to put that in perspective: The Jazz would be #1 in the West had they won those games. *sigh*  That’s a depressing thought

But anyways, props go to Memo for this game for showing another glimpse of the Mehmet Okur we used to know and love shooting 64% from the floor, making both of his 3 point attempts, tallying 22 points and 11 rebounds.  He also played some fairly good defense against Andray Blatche who has been enjoying a mini-breakout since he was thrust into the starting lineup after Brendan Haywood was traded.

Blatche attempted a mind-blowing 22 field goal attempts (making only including 3 3-pointers (he missed them all).  As I recall, he was unguarded for all of them.  I would have never guessed that he shots the 3 ball at a rate of 36% on the season, which isn’t half-bad.

Carlos Boozer had a torrid 2nd half scoring 18 of his 22 points.  Not sure if it makes up for his lazy defense in the 1st quarter or two.  He had 6 assists which reinforces my long-standing idea that he’s an underrated passer.  However, his 6 turnovers prove that he’s not that great after all.

Overall, this is what we should have seen last night against the Pacers but what’s done is done.  The Jazz handed the Wizards their 14 loss in a row which means they have officially mailed in the rest of the season and are really hoping for that top 3 pick in the draft this summer.

Jazz blow big 3rd quarter lead to lose to Indiana Pacers

// March 27th, 2010 // No Comments » // Game Summary

What a wasted opportunity.  For one of the worst teams in the league to come back after being down 12 points with about 5 minutes left in the 3rd quarter just represents a colossal meltdown.

The Jazz gave up 122 points to the Pacers which was the highest total they had allowed all season.  Is this more than just a loss to a bad team?  At this point I’m not sure which Jazz team to expect these days.

Will we see the team from 2 years ago that won all the big games but lost to the horrible teams?  Or the team from last year that couldn’t beat any good teams on the road?  It seems like a combination of both which is too bad.

I realize the Jazz are one of the youngest teams in the league but how long can we realistically blame these losses on that?  It shouldn’t be an excuse at all really.

Since CJ Miles’ Twitter disaster his offensive play has stepped up which has been nice since before that it had been embarrassing…to say the least.  Many people have been praising him defensively as well citing his increase in steals over the same time period.

Steals are the most overrated defensive statistic. Getting steals doesn’t mean you’re a great defender but a great defender will get steals.  They are NOT one in the same.  Often times the defender gambles to get the steal and if it works out then great!  If it doesn’t work out, often if leaves their man an easy basket or a blown rotation.

I’m not remotely sold on CJ’s defense right now as his foul rate is still unacceptable and his man often enjoys quite the night as Danny Granger experienced last night by his career high 44 points.

Gotta do better Jazz.  Before this game, looking at the remaining schedule only losing 2 games of the last 11 seemed very feasible…but that was counting games like this one against the Pacers a guaranteed win.  I guess nothing is guaranteed.