Jazz lose at home to the Atlanta Hawks

Undermanned Jazz fall to Hawks at home – 2/22/10

// February 23rd, 2010 // Game Summary

I have to say, despite being extremely short handed, I blame Jerry Sloan for this loss. This was a very winnable game. His lineups, especially down the stretch, were not the winning solution. First of all, as @Bilo_LC put it, Ronnie Price looks dazed and confused while trying to run the offense. When Sundiata Gaines came into the game, the Jazz went onto their 30-9 run through the end of the 1^st and 2^nd quarter. SunnyD clearly has a better understand of how to run offense plays and is a better passer and shooter. From my seats in the Upper Bowl I could see that. Sloan has some pretty good seats (maybe he and I should trade). I refuse to believe he didn’t see that last night. He must have watched Ronnie Price airball a couple open shots (WTF?) and badly miss a few more. He also must have seen Gaines make good plays, make shots, and free throws. Price went 5 for 14 from the floor including 0 for 4 from downtown finishing w/ 13 points and 6 assists in 32 minutes of play. Gaines played a grand total of 15 minutes and recorded 10 points and 3 assists.

Last year, Sloan made a mistake by starting Brevin Knight for most of the year which he admitted after we lost to the Lakers in the playoffs. He was stubborn and he knew it. This year, determined to not make the same mistake he played Price over Maynor (when Price got healthy) which was a gigantic mistake. After Maynor left it made sense to give Price the minutes but as we’ve seen Sundiata Gaines play he is already better than Price. He doesn’t look confused running the offense. He’s just as quick as Price (without the hustle, however) and is all around a better player. Is Sloan going to tell us at the end of this year that he should have been playing Gaines all along and that he made a mistake? Sloan: learn from your mistakes. Play the right people at the right time.

Sloan’s mentality is play the veterans over the rookies in crunch time. I.e. Jarron Collins playing for the Jazz for TOO LONG. Last night, apparently the “veterans” were CJ Miles, Korver, Price, Millsap, and Boozer. When we needed a shooter Sloan turned to CJ Miles? That’s like saying when we needed a cold blooded assassin we turned to Miss Piggy. Where was Mehmet Okur when we needed solid shooting and a veteran presence?? Memo played only 14 minutes after missing the 2 previous games. He wasn’t injured, he was home with his family. He was rested. He’s probably the Jazz’ best shooter. Where was he when we needed clutch shooting and free throws? On the bench.

Sorry Sloan, you’re a hall-of-fame coach but that was the wrong decision and I can’t even dream up a reason as to why you thought that was right. As a result, we had CJ Miles taking crazy shots in crunchtime, going 5 for 13 from the floor, and missing 2 free throws with less than 30 seconds in the game. Give me a break Jazz! CJ was our go-to player at the end of the game?? Sloan, you might remember a game a month or two ago where we need a clutch play to beat the Cavaliers and who was it? Oh yeah, it was Gaines. I’m not saying he should be taking every game winning shot but don’t tell me that you’re going to play the vets at crunch time when your idea of a veteran is subjective and the players you put in are shaky at best.

You may have forgotten this but only because we’ve been winning a lot lately but it counts more than ever for tonight’s game.

Running total of games CJ Miles has lost for the Jazz or caused the Jazz to lose momentum: 9