SB Nation - Ronnie Brewer

Bobcats Lose to Jazz 110-102

David Arnott — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 02:48:57 -0000

More photos » by Chuck Burton - AP

Raymond looks personally hurt by the tech called on him.

The Bobcats lost to the Jazz 110-102 Saturday night. Coach Larry Brown pulled the starters with more than six minutes to go in the fourth quarter, save Gerald Wallace, probably figuring the game was headed for garbage time. However, the reserves mounted a comeback, led by D.J. Augustin, getting within six. There just weren't enough possessions, though, and Utah's crunch time lineup managed to hold on for the victory.

Highlights and lowlights after the jump.

BAD

-- There has to be a certain point after which we can't just disagree with the decision to play Stephen Graham, but try to do something concrete about it. LB played him about 10 minutes before garbage time. Graham has proven this season that he's completely useless to this team, and this game was no different. If he's just going to be filler on the wing while Stephen Jackson takes a breather, why can't Gerald Henderson do it, if only to put the NBA game and its speed in front of him? I've never said Henderson would certainly be a difference maker for the Bobcats, but I'd like to find out if he might be, yet we know hardly anything about what he can do because LB refuses to play him in favor of the proven mediocrity.

Henderson hit a three pointer and played unembarrassing defense in garbage time, which happened to be against the Jazz starters. He should get some of Stephen Graham's minutes. Derrick Brown got a DNP-CD. He should get some of Stephen Graham's minutes. Graham played the bulk of those early 10 minutes after Boris Diaw got his fourth foul in the third quarter, and LB went with a lineup of Felton, Jackson, Graham, Wallace, Chandler. That seems like the perfect situation to play either of the rookies, but apparently Stephen Graham is the coach's son, or something.

Graham in 2009: .154 3P% (2-13). 11.1 Pts/36. 5.0 Reb/36. 1.5 Ast/36. 8.7 PER. This is insane. That I'm highlighting this and we're already a quarter of the way through the season is insane. If I took over player personnel decisions, the first thing I'd do is cut Graham and bring back Dontell Jefferson or another D-League swingman. Make it stop. I beg you, Coach Brown.

-- I was happy to see Tyson Chandler spending most of his time on Carlos Boozer or Paul Millsap instead of Mehmet Okur, but Boozer and Millsap torched the Cats, and Chandler couldn't get anything going on offense. He didn't rebound, either, ending up with 2 points, both free throws, and only 5 rebounds in 32 minutes.

-- Boris Diaw scored 8 points in the first quarter, and then not at all the rest of the game. He did get 5 assists, but he also only managed 3 rebounds. I'm leaning more and more to the point of view that Jax makes Diaw's uniqueness less an advantage than a liability. We'd probably be better off on the first unit with an more traditional power forward than we are with Boris's reverse skill set. Here's an idea: when Augustin is in, he makes an ideal front court partner because they have similar skill sets, and that redundancy from those positions might be particularly difficult to address.

GOOD

-- Gerald Wallace played 45 minutes and was a game changer the entire time. Take your pick of highlights: 30 points on 16 attempts from the field (10-13 from the line), or 13 rebounds, or his ridiculous block on Ronnie Brewer's fast break layup attempt, or the ridiculous block he made on a Deron Williams shot that was ruled a goaltend (I wasn't sure from my upper deck angle). In all respects, Wallace looked like the best player on the floor, right there with Boozer and Williams, All Stars through and through.

-- D.J. Augustin was handed the keys to the offense in a low-stakes situation, and he made the most of it. In the first three quarters, most of his minutes were against Jazz backup point guard, Eric Maynor, but in the fourth, when Augustin did most of his damage, he played against Williams, a far bigger, stronger, guard. D.J. finished with 16 points on only 6 attempts from the field, thanks to a three pointer and going 9-10 from the line. He only got 1 assist, but that's who he is. He's a good scorer in the Damon Stoudemire mold, and when he's at his best, he's also got a little of Devin Harris in him, driving the lane to create contact. When he's allowed to be himself, this is the kind of game that can happen.

Let's Make Deron Williams An All-Star

aramnath — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 19:55:23 -0000

More photos » by George Frey - AP

Even though he's a top-3 point guard in the NBA, Deron Williams still hasn't made it to the All-Star Game. Let's change that. (AP Photo/George Frey)

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I know the man plays in Salt Lake City, but it's time to show Deron Williams some love. The guy has been an absolute beast the past three seasons. Him and Chris Paul are the only 2 point guards in the NBA to average double digits in points and assists over the past three years. Steve Nash would be there, but there was that whole Shaq thing that happened in Phoenix.

Superstars are supposed to elevate the level of play of their teammates around them and there are few that do it better than Deron. This is a guy who's helped turn Carlos Boozer into a 20-10 machine since he's been in Utah. Then when Boozer was injured for much of last year he transformed 2nd round pick Paul Millsap into a 15-8 player. Millsap's good, but you better believe Deron makes him look that much better.

In a league where you need stars to win, no team has less lottery picks on their roster than the Utah Jazz who have two, Deron and the legendary Ronnie Brewer.

The Jazz have no ability to spread the floor, hitting a collective 33.6% of their three point attempts for the season. Still Williams penetrates into a congested lane (that's what she said?) and drops dimes to Boozer, Okur and the rest of his underwhelming supporting cast. Just imagine if they had anybody capable of scoring from outside of 15 feet other than Okur who doubles as their major three point threat.

The real reason Deron hasn't been voted as an All-Star, other than being stuck in the heart of Morman territory, is that he doesn't have a good nickname. D-Will is not a good nick name, I mean you can do that with anybody's name. David Lee's nickname is D-Lee it's just not very creative. Plus you can't just call him Williams because it's the most common name in the NBA.

In my push to get Deron voted to the All-Star game I've decided it's my duty to come up with a nickname for him. Here are a few I thought of . The Mormon Mack Daddy, Ill Will, Dub Weezy and the Shah of Utah. I could use some help.

Vote For Deron Here

Poll

Which nickname do you like the best for Deron Williams

Game 19 Preview: Blazers vs. Jazz

Dave — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 09:23:10 -0000

Game Time: 6:00 p.m. Pacific TV: KGW

The Utah Jazz come into this contest 8-7 and indeed, they're having an 8-7-ish year. Their story is pretty basic. They've beaten most of the bad and mediocre teams they've faced. They've lost to every upper echelon team they've faced. The combination of the 2-3 mediocre team losses plus the elite guys balances out the wins against lesser opponents. And there you are.

The Jazz do a few things pretty well. They share the ball, spread the scoring, and shoot well from mid-range and in. This isn't the devastating offense of a couple of years ago but they can still score. 6 of their 8 wins have come when they topped 100. They also happen to be 6-2 when scoring 100 or more. The Jazz are decent rebounders and their bench is underrated.

Utah has also displayed several shortcomings in the early season. The most glaring one has been a disturbing lack of energy. They slough off their defensive responsibilities. They settle for obvious offense. That makes for some bad nights. Their main players turn the ball over too much. Outside of Mehmet Okur they don't have a good distance attack. They don't have shot blockers. They don't have a lot of team speed. In order to win consistently they have to play Jerry Sloan basketball and they're not always doing it.

Even with all that, the top six guys on this team can be as dangerous as anybody in the league. Carlos Boozer is a scoring machine, hitting 54% of his shots and scoring almost 20 per game plus 10 rebounds. Deron Williams is flirting with a double-double average also, scoring just above 19 and dishing almost 10 assists. Mehmet Okur is not providing All-Star level play but he is shooting 43% from the three-point arc. Andre Kirilenko has good games and bad but he can still defend and he's always been a nuisance to the Blazers. Ronnie Brewer brings athleticism to the two-spot and Paul Millsap scores and rebounds off of the bench plus his all-around game is improving. You don't have to give these guys much of a crack before they'll pound the door down. Their home turf isn't as friendly as it once was (they're 5-3 on the season at home) but it's always been a difficult place for Portland to play. No matter how the two teams are doing currently this is a tough matchup for Portland.

At many positions the strengths of the two teams clash. Deron Williams is a strong, bullish point guard who can score in droves. The Blazers field finesse guys. Okur is a distance-shooting center while the Blazer pivots prefer to camp in the lane. Kirilenko is a rangy, disruptive, defensive small forward while Martell Webster is more of a smooth scorer. Portland's bench plays flashy and tends towards skill players. The Jazz bench is more lunch-bucket. The two positions where you see mirrors are power forward and shooting guard. Aldridge and Boozer are both scorers, though Carlos is more experienced and by far the better rebounder. Roy and Brewer are both all-around guards, though Roy is far superior in talent and effect. Both teams also sport hard-line coaches with definite ideas about how the game should be played. It's just a nice mesh and clash of styles when these squads get together. You can never take anything for granted other than it's probably going to be a grind-out affair.

Pivotal Points of the Game

1. This game will be a real test of Portland's new-found defensive prowess. The Blazers like to shut down the interior. The Jazz love to score inside. Somebody is going to enforce their will on the other. That team will have a huge advantage. If Portland's defense is going to mean something it has to mean something in games like this. Last night's contest was not a positive sign. The Blazers need to turn it around defensively tonight.

2. Listen...please. The Jazz have problems getting back in transition. Repeat, the Jazz have problems getting back in transition. This game could be a clash between proficient halfcourt offenses. In that case you can probably flip a coin. But the Blazers could slip underneath the guard and deliver some stunning jabs simply by running. You can happily grind to a 60-60 standstill in the halfcourt if you finish ahead 20-10 on the break.

3. Can Aldridge stay close to Boozer's production? Will the Blazers let him try?

4. You have to worry about Okur on the perimeter. Somebody has to get a hand in his face. But that somebody doesn't necessarily have to be Greg Oden. It's time for the perimeter guys to help the Big Fella the way he's been helping them all year. Meanwhile what's Okur going to do trying to contain Oden on the other end? For that matter what could Boozer do? Or any of the Jazz big men? The Blazers ought to feed Oden early and often in this one. Draw fouls. Dunk. Get mean.

5. I'm not as frightened of Williams as I probably should be because I think the Blazers' interior defenders can help shut down whatever he does to the point guards. He might be able to post up Blake or Miller, for instance, but we can help with that. Guys like Brewer and Kirilenko scare me though. If they get hot, especially with the jumper, that opens up more possibilities for the Jazz to move the ball as the Blazer defense compensates. The Jazz moving the ball for free scores is probably their best shot at winning easily. I'm not sure the Jazz finish ahead on the strength of their top three alone, but if they bust out with #4 or #5 it could be a long night for Portland.

Final Thoughts and Links

Check out what the Utah folks are thinking about this matchup at slcdunk.com

Enter the Jersey Contest form for this game here. Our Jersey Contest Master says the Minnesota glitch will be fixed by the time the weekend is over so we'll have to wait to see who won this month's contest until then. But a new jersey is up for grabs in December, so play along!

--Dave (blazersub@yahoo.com)

Game 15 Preview: Oklahoma City at Utah

Zorgon — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 23:22:55 -0000

More photos » by David Zalubowski - AP

The X-Factors.

Browse more photos »

This also counts as an open thread, so feel free to post your thoughts during the game here.

Time: 8 PM Central Standard Time

Place: EnergySolutions Arena, Salt Lake City, Utah

TV: Fox Sports Oklahoma, Fox Sports Utah

Radio: WWLS The Sports Animal (98.1)

Enemy Blog(s): SLC Dunk, True Blue Jazz, Salt City Hoops

Backstory: Well, after one hell of a road trip, it is certainly great to be back in my own bed. But, more importantly, it's great to be writing about the Thunder again. So, what did they do while I was gone? Well, they rightfully trounced the Wizards, and got stomped by the Lakers in Los Angeles. This, all in all, makes for a 7-7 .500 record that the Thunder can't seem to stray away from, one way or the other.

Meanwhile, the team we're playing, the Utah Jazz, seems to be in a similar boat. They've been flirting from staying at okay to becoming good for years now, suffering minor injuries and while beating some opponents badly and losing to other opponents equally badly. It's a team that works well against some and badly against others.

Below: Matchups, Prediction

Matchups:

Center: Nenad Krstic vs. Mehmet Okur (Possibly Kyrylo Fesenko)

A matchup of two clones if there ever was one. Unfortunately, Okur is a bit more well rounded, so he's expected to win this matchup handily if he does play. But, if Fesenko plays, expect Krstic to have a field day.

Power Forward: Jeff Green vs. Carlos Boozer

Jeff Greens continuing quest to remain the #2 guy on the Thunder doesn't get any easier against one of the leagues top 5 power forwards, Carlos Boozer. He'll have another down day, but hopefully he can cause some problems from Boozer inside, because Nenad Krstic certainly won't.

Small Forward: Kevin Durant vs. Ronnie Brewer

Ronnie Brewer was a nice pick at 14, but he's still just a shadow compared to Kevin Durant. He's not an exploitable matchups, but one that should allow for a good Durant performance nonetheless.

Shooting Guard: Thabo Sefolosha vs. Wesley Matthews

Wait....who is Wesley Matthews? Does he play in the NFL or something? Apparently, he's some undrafted rookie. The Jazz are pretty thin at Shooting Guard, I see. He'll obviously be shut down by Thabo, but the bigger question is whether Thabo can use his weak opponent to springboard him into a great offensive night. It's raining 3s!

Point Guard: Russell Westbrook vs. Deron Williams

Daron Williams is one of the best point guards in the league, and a huge reason for the success of the Jazz. I really doubt Westbrook will have a great night tonight if he tries to score too much. Rather, he should focus on distribution, and if he does that, he should be fine.

Battle of the Benches:

The Jazz have the Thunder easily beat here. Kirilenko and Millsap beat us almost automatically. If Kirilenko can come off the bench and be effective defensively, it will be a huge damper in the Thunder's offensive efforts.

Coaching and Intangibles:

The Jazz have the longest tenured coach in the NBA, are at home, and have been 4-1 over the last 5 games, with wins in the last 3 without Mehmet Okur. That's nothing to sneeze at, especially considering we're coming off of a Lakers pounding.

Bottom Line:

The Jazz are a good team, but they are one with weaknesses. If Okur doesn't play or plays badly, they'll be really weak inside, and their lack of swingman talent can pen huge doors for Durant and Sefolosha. As long as Williams and Boozer can be held in check, the Thunder can win this game.

Prediction: Thunder 89, Jazz 86

A close victory. A lot of this is banking on lack of Okur, but I'm confident the Thunder can rebound after a nasty loss against LA.

How do you think the game will go? Vote in the Poll!

And, again, feel free to drop any comments you might have during, before, or after the game below. I might be here during the game to drop my thoughts as well. Go Thunder!

Poll

Who's going to win tonight?

The Oklahoma City Thunder

22 votes

The Utah Jazz

5 votes

27 votes | Poll has closed

Same Song & Dance: Jazz 100, Pistons 97

Packey — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 06:43:29 -0000

Chalk up another winless year in the Salt Lake City. After falling in overtime on Saturday night, the Pistons are now winless in Utah since 2002 and have not beat the Jazz, period, since March 2005. More importantly, the Pistons dropped their fourth straight of the 2009-2010 season to fall to 0-3 on the current west coast swing and 5-8 on the season. Things don't get any easier as they travel to play the first place Phoenix Suns, with tip off in less than 24 hours. Detroit is 0-4 this season in the second game of back-to-back's.

Aside from the demoralizing final result, this was probably the best game of the season. It was back-and-forth for the full 48 minutes of regulation and fans received a free five minutes of overtime basketball to boot. There were nearly 20 lead changes and over 10 different tie games.

Even though it was an entertaining game, that doesn't mean it was aesthetically pleasing. The Pistons turned the ball over 17 times and allowed Utah to get to the charity stripe 44 times, of which they made 33, serving as the difference maker in this one. Detroit made 21 of their 25 attempts.

Trailing by one in overtime with 15 seconds remaining, the Pistons had a chance to take the lead and possibly win it. Unfortunately, Will Bynum's one-on-one drive to the hoop resulted in the ball slipping from his hands and out of bounds. Utah, as they were all game, hit the free throws when they needed to put them up three with a little under 10 seconds to play.

As the Pistons did against the Mavericks when they needed a three to tie the game, they drew up a play for the efficient shooter, Ben Gordon. They had him inbounds the ball to Bynum and ran him off a Ben Wallace screen, only it didn't look well executed at all. Ben Gordon got the ball in his hands, but his man was on his tail the entire time. He was forced to put up a contested three with the time expiring. The shot sailed to the left of the rim, buzzer, and curtains.

Ben Gordon led the Pistons with 25 points on 10-20 shooting. Kirilenko and Boozer each had 22 points to lead the Jazz.

Reflections, and more, after the jump.

Heading the ugly column, continues to be the shooting of Rodney Stuckey. He did score 18 points, but on just 7-18 shooting. He is now 16-51 in his last three games (31%) and his misses haven't been close. Despite his poor shooting, he somehow manages to salvage his stat lines. He led the team with five steals and a team-high six assists on Saturday night (opposite four turnovers). I think it's safe to say he's ready to get the heck away from this west coast road trip.
Despite the big shots the Jazz were able to hit, the Pistons put up great effort on defense, I thought. The two things the Pistons could not contain were Utah's pick-and-rolls with Boozer and working the back door cuts with the ball in Boozer's hands in the post. Utah picked Detroit apart on those plays.
Ben Wallace played 43 minutes, nearly logging a double-double. He had eight points and nine rebounds.
Charlie Villanueva had an impressive game. He was very active on defense, finishing with three blocked shots. He fouled out in overtime, but his final line was respectable with 17 points, eight rebounds, and two steals.
The Pistons did a great job clearing the glass. They outrebounded the Jazz 40-34 and had five guys with five or more rebounds.
One of the Pistons lowlights of the season has been their free throw shooting. Tonight they were 21-25, great for 84%. They were shooting just 72% from the stripe coming into tonight. Ironically, and I might be nitpicking, but Will Bynum's missed free throw late in the overtime proved to be crucial. For starters, the Pistons would have been tied on the possession Bynum lost the ball out of bounds with 10 seconds. It would have also put the Pistons within two, as opposed to three, on the final possession allowing Detroit to go to their strength in the final nine seconds, rather than force up a three.
Game highlights:
Box Score
SLC Dunk for the opposing view.

Game 13: Detroit Pistons @ Utah Jazz [Game Thread]

Packey — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 02:00:51 -0000

NBA Regular Season Game 13
	@
5-7 (2-5 away)		6-6 (3-2 home)
Energy Solutions Arena Jazz Blog: SLC Dunk
November 21, 2009 9:00 PM ET
TV: Fox Sports Detroit PLUS Radio: 950 WWJ
Probable starters:
Rodney Stuckey	PG	Deron Williams
Ben Gordon	SG	Ronnie Brewer
Jonas Jerebko	SF	Wesley Matthews
Charlie Villanueva	PF	Carlos Boozer
Ben Wallace	C	Kyrylo Fesenko

You know how the Pistons kind of own the Magic over their last 25 meetings? Well, that's kind of how the Jazz own the Pistons in the Salt Lake City.

The Jazz have beat the Pistons in 17 of their last 19 meetings in Utah and the Pistons have not won there since March of 2005.

Hopefully, the new-look Pistons can put an end to the misery that exists for the Pistons when they step foot in the state. Luckily for the Pistons, they won't have to deal with former Piston, Mehmet Okur, who could have provided plenty of match up problems for the 'stons. He will miss his third straight game due to flu-like symptoms.

Detroit, of course, will be without Richard Hamilton and Tayshaun Prince again. They've made slight progress in their recoveries, but it does not appear that they will be back this month. Will Bynum sprained his ankle in LA, but played in Portland and is expected to play tonight.

Detroit needs to take advantage of their couple days off and hop on Utah early by playing to their strengths. And it seems they aren't at their best until they get three guards on the floor.

Utah is averaging around 20 three pointers per game, so the Pistons will have to be conscious of the kick-back passes from the post and contest the Jazz shots. The Pistons have done a good job keeping opponents field goal percentages low (and rank 4th in points against), but the Jazz are top half in scoring and shooting 36% from beyond the arc and capable of lighting up on any given night with Williams and Kirilenko.

This should be a highly competitive game because these Pistons aren't going to walk into the arena scared and they'll be more focused on trying to end their current three game skid than any futility vs. Utah in the past. And with Phoenix tomorrow (Detroit 0-4 on back-to-back's), Utah is their best bet of winning on this west coast trip.

Tip off is 9 PM EST.

Game Preview #10: Utah Jazz at San Antonio Spurs

Tim C. — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 08:06:08 -0000

That kid is soooo a Spurs fan right now.

Are you pissed off now? You can bet the Spurs are. Both teams in this game are already backed into a corner in the young season, and are going to fight to the death tonight. This is a SEGABABA for all involved, so... we got that going for us.

Utah Jazz @ San Antonio Spurs
Where: AT&T Center - San Antonio, TX
When: November 18, 2009, 7:30 PM Spurs time
Watch: FSN Utah (SLC); FSN Southwest (SA)

How They Stack Up


4-1	Home	3-2
0-4	Road	2-4
101.9	Offense	100.8
99.9	Defense	100.9
46.4	FG%	48.1
34.8	3-pt%	32.5
73.1	FT%	79.0
40.1	Rebounds	41.5
12.0	TOs	13.6
4-5	Last 10	5-5
Lost 2	Streak	Won 1
3rd, Southwest	Position	4th, Northwest


Country/Time Zone	Game Time
Argentina	10:30 PM
West Coast	5:30 PM
Philippines	10:30 AM
Central Europe	2:30 AM
Palestine/Egypt	2:30 AM
Least Coast	8:30 PM
Colorado/Arizona	6:30 PM
Perth, AUS	8:30 AM
Tokyo, JP	9:30 AM
Sydney, AUS	11:30 AM

Spurs (4-5)	Matchups	Jazz (5-6)
George Hill Coach's Pet	Point Guard Tony's still out, and George has done a pretty good job standing in for him. Unfortunately for Cubits, he's getting a nightmare assignment tonight. Unlike the two-headed monster of Beaubois/Barea that he was up against last night, Williams is the total package. He's got size, speed, athleticism and excellent court vision. Did I mention he also plays defense? He's my personal favorite among current point guards, because he usually gets the better of CP3 head-to-head. Look, we all love Cubits, but he's completely out of his league here. And let's not even talk about Mason running the point. The best thing George can do is attack the rim on offense and use those long arms to draw contact. Advantage: Jazz	Deron Williams 2nd Best

Keith Bogans The Boogeyman	Shooting Guard As of this writing, Manu is officially out for this game. That means we'll see a lot of Bogans, probably guarding Williams. If he can get a couple of corner threes, that'll be nice, but I want him completely focused on limiting Williams. When Bogans is sitting, we'll probably see a lot of Michael Finley and Roger Mason, with a bit of Malik Hairston thrown in for good measure. Malik did good things last night, and appeared to earn Pop's trust for the most part, so I hope he can have a decent contribution off the bench. For the Jazz, Wesley Matthews and Ronnie Brewer will likely rotate at the 2 - these 2 need to be SHUT. DOWN. Cubits, are you up to it? Advantage: Nobody	Ronnie Brewer Meh.

Richard Jefferson Still Waiting For Some RAGE	Small Forward RJ still looks lost out there sometimes when the big 4 all play. Luckily for us him, Tony and Manu won't be there to defer to. Kirilenko is an able defender, but there's no way he can stop Rage. There better be a full assault on the rim tonight by RJ. Advantage: Spurs	Andrei Kirilenko AK-47

Antonio McDyess Anti-Boozer	Power Forward Poor Dice - he gets two incredibly difficult assignments in a back to back. Luckily, Boozer had to chase Chris Bosh and Andrea Bargnani around all night last night. If SAM plays the kind of D he has on Dirk tonight against Boozer, he'll be all right against a tired Boozer. In other news, DeBeast will get another shot at Millsap tonight. Let's hope all those comparisons were right. Advantage: Jazz	Carlos Boozer

Tim Duncan WWTD?	Center Okur was held out last night with flu-like symptoms, replaced by the 7'1" Ukranian, Kyrylo Fesenko. I'd expect him to return tonight, but Timmy has the advantage either way. If Timmeh does enough to counter the Boozer/Millsap combo, this game is in the bag. Something tells me he will. Advantage: Spurs	Kyrylo Fesenko Chernobyl Mutant?

Michael Finley Wise Beyond Our Years	Bench & Role Players The Findog is going to be backing up both of the wing positions, and needs to hit some shots to make up for his horrible defense. Roger Mason attacked the rim last night, and I would love for him to continue doing that, but he's going to be playing PG at times tonight. Please, Roger, break out of your shooting slump tonight. Matt Bonner, Malik Hairston, Dejuan Blair and Theo Ratliff probably see court time tonight as well, and they can all be effective. Utah's bench is decidedly thinner, but their bench wings are a pretty nasty matchup. Advantage: Spurs	Wes Matthews Undrafted Rookie Starter

Gregg Popovich The Veins Are Popping Out	Coach That Sloan has never been Coach of the Year is a crime against humanity, and a stain on the NBA. He gets no respect. He's the only coach who's been with his team longer than Pop, and he's done a great job year after year, even when he doesn't have much to work with. I still can't bring myself to take Pop's white box away, but Sloan gets one too. Advantage: Tie	Jerry Sloan Rodney Dangerfield
	images via yahoo.com

	Other Factors
Intangibles
Both of these teams are failing to live up to expectations so far. That doesn't mean it will continue, though. The Spurs have only looked slightly better. Advantage: Spurs
Mojo
On a SEGABABA, it's coming down to whose home crowd can give them an extra boost. Oh look, that's us! Advantage: Spurs
Winner: Spurs
There's no reason for the Spurs to lose this game. Well, no reason other than having our 2 best guards unavailable. Prediction: Spurs win, or our secret suicide pact takes effect.

Keys To The Game

Defense - The Jazz destroyed us in Utah a few weeks ago because our interior D was pathetic. The inside D has made great strides since that sad day, but it needs to continue. Without our two best outside scorers, we're also going to need the perimeter guys to step up. If the Bogans/Hill combo can limit the effectiveness of Utah's backcourt, Pop will have a happy face. OK, that was a lie - Pop never has a happy face.
Rebounding - This is getting old. Dallas got 17 offensive rebounds last night. Seventeen. The fact that the Spurs even had a chance to win this game is pretty ludicrous when you take that into account. These guys need to box the fuck out.

Strength of Schedule

The Spurs played a tough, demanding OT game against a division rival last night. The impact of that is compounded by the loss of Tony and Manu, causing our available backcourt to play a lot of minutes.

As for Utah, they had an easier go of things last night, beating Toronto 104-91. However, they always play much better at home. A SEGABABA on the road is usually terrible news for Jazz fans. The short flight the Spurs took home from Dallas is much easier than the considerably longer flight from SLC to SA.

Last Time They Met

Utah sliced and diced us mercilessly at home about 3 weeks ago. REVENGE!

Some Other Reading

Copied from previous Jazz game, due to lack of sleep.

Jazz

SLC Dunk - The Jazz SBN blog. They are not too happy about the start of the season and the Boozer mess.
Salt City Hoops - This is the TrueHoop network blog for the Jazz. I know nothing about this blog, but it looks snazzy.

Spurs

48 Minutes of Hell: Speaking of THN blogs, we're extremely lucky that the best one is dedicated to the Spurs. Tim and Graydon always do an excellent job of breaking down everything that's happening in the Spurs' organization.
Project Spurs: Good independent blog with lots of good content. Spurs fans are lucky to have so many good blogs out there.

The (sort of) Daily Twitter

DeJuan45

How do everybody like my new pic? It's a hott wall paper!!! Lol http://twitpic.com/q0m09

The Magic That Happened

Lots of stuff to read in the comments if you flip through the game threads. Really, it's fun.

Where to Tune In

TV

This game will be televised on local stations only. Fox Sports has the rights in both Utah and San Antonio.

Online

As always, NBA league pass is recommended for those who are willing to pony up the cash. Almost every Spurs game will be broadcast there, which is especially helpful for those of us who aren't in the San Antonio area.

Please don't post links to illegal game feeds in the game thread. Links to illegal feeds are not permitted on SBNation, but you can probably find them out there on the internets if you're resourceful and desperate. In fact, nobody can stop you from googling "atdhe". You can also shoot an email with your PtR username to dmenendez@gmail.com for more assistance.

Spurs League Pass audio is still free this year if all else fails, so check it out.

Radio

If you're in the San Antonio area and aren't near a TV, tune in to WOAI (1200 AM).

Recap - Utah Jazz @ Philadelphia 76ers - W - 112 - 90

Basketball John — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 19:01:47 -0000

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We don't see this a lot

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I love it when a team comes together

Probably the best team performance we've seen all season. Even scoring, even rebounding, even assists... this is what we've been looking for all season. 22 of 24 free throws made. 32 assists. 6-11 from three. This is the ball moving and executing offense that we've come to know and expect. Compare those 32 assists to the just 18 the team had against Boston.

We had only 9 guys dressed for the game with only 7 of them playing for most of it. The biggest team effort of the year also resulted in some of the biggest individual performances of the year. Crazy how that works. Let's go through each of them.

Eric Maynor is used to stepping things up. In his first significant game of the season, he couldn't have done much more to fill in for Deron Williams. His biggest contribution was his 11 assists and only 2 turnovers. That's poise. He also added 13 points but that was icing on the cake. He got the Jazz into the offense and drove constantly into the lane.

Ronnie Brewer added 14 points, 5 rebounds, and 6 assists to go along with 2 steals. This has come to be the norm for him this year. The assists were a little higher than his average. But just shows how well the ball was moving around.

Memo was decent tonight. He had a couple of big baskets in the third. He had 15 & 4 and hit the only three he took.

I was surprised when I saw the Andrei only had 4 assists. I could have sworn he had twice that. He threw in 7 boards and 13 points. He thrives in this environment when he's one of the leaders of the team. I think we've seen that all year from him. There's no doubt that his contract is huge, but he's the glue right now for this team.

Millsap finished with 15 & 7 and would have brought the house down in the ESA with one of his plays in the second quarter. After he missed a little jumper, the rebound came down to two 76ers. One of them had the ball and Millsap just came in and ripped away from him and put it back in for an easy bucket. That's why he's Mansap.

Wesley Matthews did most of his damage in the first half. He was 3-4 from the arc and had 14 of his 16 points before the break. He also penetrated well and created a lot of opportunities for himself.

Most impressive about Maynor and Matthews' performances is that they haven't been intimidated. Their confident when they hit the floor and it shows.

I don't often, if at all, talk about Sloan's performance. His rotations were great tonight (except I was wanting to see at least Fesenko get in the game). He's down 5 players right now and used 7 guys to beat the 76ers on the road. Everyone bought into the system tonight and Sloan had a lot to do with that.

Don't think I forgot about Boozer. I'm so torn when he does well because it starts making me soften my stance on him and I start forgetting just what he's done in the past.

Here's the thing, he hasn't said a word since the season has started and after a nasty start, he's getting better. He's still nothing to brag about on defense, but when the team is winning, it's hard to say anything critical about him.

And what infuriates me the most is that I don't think anyone wanted to hate Boozer. He's a Jazz man and one of our own. We've all been frustrated with players before, but we didn't hate any of them.

I still think it's best to trade him but the reason for wanting that is shifting slightly. With each game that he plays better, it increases his value and the return we would get in a trade would be higher. Being able to get a scoring wing player would be huge for this team. And that's becoming my biggest reason to trade him now more than just wanting to get rid of him.

I have a huge internal struggle with the whole situation right now.

Back to the team though. We had hustle, multiple tip balls, and a lot of guys going for loose balls tonight. Boozer had active hands and had three steals. The team only had 15 fouls which has to be some sort of record or at least on the bottom end of the bell curve. They had just 3 turnovers in the first half. It was mass hysteria.

High fives were breaking out all over the place and you could tell the team was enjoying the game again.

Once again, once we see 4 games or so like this in a row, maybe I'll start to think that something has changed. But too many times have they had a game like this and then crapped the bed again.

Other notes

Boonerism of the night - While talking about Matthews' scoring, he said, "Each time he scores, it's a new career high." He didn't go so far as to say whether that was a new season high though.
After Millsap got a rebound, Samuel Dalembert came up from behind and fouled Paul. He then held on in a hug from behind for a little a lot too long. That led to this statement from Steve Brown speaking as Millsap, "You got more than just basketball."
Liberty Ballers
Ross Siler
Living and Dying (moni saw the game the same way I did)
The Cowhide Globe

Jazz 95, Knicks 93

Seth — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 06:23:36 -0000

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I know that there's "no such thing as a moral victory" and whatnot, but I'm gonna go ahead and take the moral victory on this one. For the most part, this game was the usual fare: a truly horrid start followed by a spirited comeback that fell just short. We've seen that before. There were a couple elements of this one, though, that made it stand out. The primary one, as you might have heard, was the performance of a particular "precocious neophyte".

Yes, for perhaps the first time in his young career, Toney Douglas did what Toney Douglas do. It wasn't a revelation, really. Toney played 23 minutes of steady, determined basketball, and ultimately took the fall for a heartbreaking loss. The contrast, though, between TD and Chris Duhon was a sight to be seen. I know Chris means well, but he's been playing like he doesn't care. Most of us picked up on it, and I think Mike D'Antoni finally gave into the suspicion as well. He benched Du for the entire fourth quarter and handed the keys to Pretty Toney, who very nearly won the game by his damn self. Throughout the evening, but particularly in the fourth quarter, Douglas showed his full arsenal- three-point bombs, pull-up twos, and speedy drives to the rim. Though Toney threw away more turnovers (2) than assists (1), it was immediately evident that his ability and willingness to score prevented the D from sagging and made for many more passing opportunities. Should he continue to score so successfully, the pick-and-roll options and team-wide ball movement should thrive in turn. This isn't even close to Toney Douglas's team yet, but he made it very clear that he deserves a chance at taking the reins. His playing the full fourth quarter suggests that D'Antoni is fully willing to grant him that chance. As for that last shot, one more dribble and he could have splashed a nice running floater off the correct leg. Toney's a rookie, though. These things happen. If he keeps up this nerve, I'd be more than happy to watch Toney Douglas learn on the fly. DWTDD.

The rest of your game notes are after the jump...

- This was mentioned in the comments, and it's really a splendid thought. I see two ways to deal with the Knicks' tendency to fall behind early then storm back late. One would be to make them play two or three quarters of five-on-five before the game starts so they're in endgame mode by the time tip-off rolls around. Another would simply be to change the scoreboard to indicate that they're down 18 in the fourth quarter from the outset. You could totally pull that off, at least at home.

- I asked my team of trained genius badgers to run some numbers and found the following: The Knicks have lost every first quarter except for two (vs. Indiana and New Orleans). Through 8 games, the average first quarter margin is -9.4. Meanwhile, the Knicks have won every fourth quarter except for one (against Indiana), with an average margin of +7.6. That just goes to show that my first bullet point is no joke. The Knicks have really clicked in fourth quarters, but never enough to crack the eggs they collectively lay in first quarters. Part of this is that the opposition gets sloppy in the waning moments of a blowout, but part of it is significantly better New York basketball. Like I said, start each game with a fourth quarter and the Knicks would be a pretty solid team.

- Danilo Gallinari had a quiet night. His outside shots weren't really in rhythm, and he didn't get nearly as many touches as one would hope. It's tough for a youngster to demand the ball on offense, but I'd rather watch Gallo go iso for 20 seconds than see most anyone else try and create offense. Danilo also had two fantastic blocks (he's better at that than I expected) and was seen pounding his signature dish- scaloppini di Gallo- with Tina Cervasio in a pre-game feature. It's gnocchi with veal, if you're curious. I would love some right now.

- The presence of both Carlos Boozer and Ronnie Brewer nearly made Walt Frazier's head explode. By the end of the game, I'm pretty sure he resorted to calling both of them "Broozum".

- One thing that distinguished tonight's loss from every other loss was that the Knicks got back into it with zone defense. D'Antoni saw the opportunity to create turnovers and exploit Utah's lack of shooters by employing a 2-3 zone for very lengthy stretches. He was successful on one of two fronts. With Toney and Larry Hughes in the backcourt, New York was able to disrupt a lot of passes and even turn some steals into fast break buckets. At the same time, though, Utah accepted the challenge to shoot and did so with considerable success. Andrei Kirilenko hit 5 of 8 threes, many of which were so wide open that the nearest defender was someone in the crowd. Jerry Sloan also made his squad stack one side of the floor, which meant that one guard (often Douglas) found himself stranded at the top of the zone. The ensuing scramble repeatedly left Ronnie Brewer open for a mid-range J, or one of the big men open off a backdoor cut.

- That was the other big thing. Be it laziness or a child-like understanding of object constancy, the Knicks were completely baffled by backdoor cuts. I don't have much more to say on this. If somebody disappears for a second, that doesn't mean they're completely gone. I thought that was a given.

- This movie 2012 shouldn't be advertised on MSG. It almost makes me think Walsh should be clearing cap space for John Cusack, since it seems like he'll be the only dude around in a few years.

- Jared Jeffries has a new haircut. It looks fresh. Jared Jeffries's free throws look like the opposite of his haircut.

- Al Harrington really troubles me. He's trying very hard to be the difference and provide energy, but his shots just ain't falling of late. It's problematic, but I'm not as ready to bench him as some of y'all are.

- I guess Larry Hughes (and Toney, right?) deserves some credit for holding Deron Williams to 2-10 shooting for just 5 points and 7 turnovers. D-Wil did have 16 assists, though.

- Listen, I think the fact that the Knicks promote the Lustgarten Foundation is really, really excellent. Pancreatic cancer is a serious problem and it's a worthy cause for the organization to advocate. All that said, I can't help but single out Mike D'Antoni's performance in his ad spot for the foundation. Where Channing Frye's former rendition of "sometimes, dinner was just crackers" for the Garden of Dreams foundation was classically deadpan, D'Antoni's gratingly loud delivery of "WORKINGTOGETHERASATEAM (beat) THAT'SHOWWE'LLBEATPANCREATICCANCER." lacks nuance and prosody to the point that I have to laugh. The cause is truly noble, but the execution is downright hilarious. Am I a bad person for thinking that? Probably. Just to clear my conscience, why don't I link you over to the foundation one more time.

- In her regular halftime interview, Jill Martin asked Darryl Strawberry what trend from the 80's he'd most like to have back. Once more, I felt like a bad person for thinking the thoughts that I thought.

- It's funny how a 17-point deficit feels like nothing at halftime. That's practically a tie game in the context of this early season incompetence.

- I couldn't have told you without looking that Wilson Chandler (33 minutes, 17 points on 8-15 shooting, 10 rebounds, 2 assists) had a good game, but I guess he did. I'd prefer he not shoot 4 threes and 0 free throws, but hats off to Wil, I suppose. That's a nice line.

- According to the boxscore, Jordan Hill played in this game. I must have been blinking.

I don't have much else to say. The Knicks, as usual, hung tough when they hit open shots and play defense with even a hint of conviction. As usual, that occurred in the fourth quarter. As usual, it wasn't quite enough. Luckily for us, this game was distinct because of a compelling stretch of zone defense and an intriguing breakout performance from Toney Douglas.

Next game's on Wednesday against the Hawks.

The Downbeat - 29 October 2009 - #89 - The Don't Do Lobs Edition

Basketball John — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:31:21 -0000

Thanks for all those that stopped by for the game thread last night. At last count there were 555 comments with roughly 80% of them talking about some sort of sucking or crapping.

I'm hoping by the end of the regular season to be pushing the 1,000 mark and have to start a new game thread. So for those lurkers, jump in on Friday.

Late, late last night I flipped the switch on VoteDeron.com. The movement has started. I'll get a post on this by itself later today, but make sure to follow @votederon and add it to your reader.

In my recap I wrote about giving things a little time with Boozer. However, thinking about that some more, I don't think we have that much time. You look at what Denver did when they traded Iverson the first week in November. They got Billups here early in the season and it paid huge dividends. Had they waited until the break, I don't know if that trade works out the same way.

If the Jazz are going to move Boozer, it should be quickly. I know the Jazz aren't going to dump Boozer for nothing, but the closer we get to the trade deadline, the more leverage the Jazz lose. Of course there could be some teams that are so far out of it and they just want a salary to come off the books, the might do it. There might be a contender that loses someone to injury that might get desperate. What will end up happening is that the front office will be content to just stick with Boozer and at the worst, let his salary come off the books.

The problem with that is that we've now just wasted another year of Deron Williams. That would leave only two years left (plus a player option) on his contract.

This team could contend, last night notwithstanding. But we know the Jazz won't go far in the playoffs again unless we have a scorer. Ronnie Brewer looked like he might be coming along with his pre-season and his shooting last night. But I want to move from contender into a favorite. Moving Boozer for a wing scorer would change that.

If you're planning on the future, it's now. We know Boozer isn't going to be back next season. If that's the case, the keys to the PF position should be handed over to Millsap yesterday.

Getting a scorer now also allow him to gel with the team for the entire season and get to know the offense.

I'm not saying this just because I'm tired of the Jazz not doing anything. I'm just tired of the Jazz reacting instead of being proactive. Make things happen instead of waiting for the right situation.

That was a little bit longer than I normally write for the Downbeat, but it just kind of kept going.

They have PSAs and other videos to discourage kids from taking drugs and other harmful activities. Paul Millsap needs to create a campaign on avoiding the worst outlet pass in the entire history of the NBA. "When making an outlet pass, make sure to not practice your jump ball throwing skills lest you have the ball come back in your face."

Can I ask a question. When players are going up for blocks, why are they using their right hand? Shouldn't they be using their left hand to block as it's on the side of the body where the ball is? Shouldn't they only go up for the block with their right hand if it's a lefty? Not that it would have made much difference in this case.

Maybe some of the calls last night were retribution for the excerpts leaked yesterday from Donaghy's book that he's trying to get published? A 5-second call on Deron? A double lane violation? One involved the Jazz when they were playing Denver while Iverson was on the team.

And then there was the ongoing feud between Javie and 76ers superstar Allen Iverson. The rift was so bad that Philadelphia general manager Billy King often called the league office to complain about Javie's treatment of Iverson during a game.

Iverson was eventually traded to Denver, and in his first game against his former team, he was tossed after two technicals. Afterward, Iverson implied Javie had a grudge against him, saying, "I thought I got fouled on that play, and I said I thought that he was calling the game personal, and he threw me out. His fuse is real short anyway, and I should have known that I couldn't say anything anyway. It's been something personal with me and him since I got in the league. This was just the perfect game for him to try and make me look bad." The league fined Iverson $25,000 for his comments, but most of the league referees thought the punishment was too lenient and were upset he wasn't suspended. As a result, we collectively decided to dispense a little justice of our own, sticking it to Iverson whenever we could.

Shortly after the Javie-Iverson incident, I worked a Jazz-Nuggets contest in Denver on January 6, 2007. During the pregame meeting, my fellow referees Bernie Fryer and Gary Zielinski agreed that we were going to strictly enforce the palming rule against Iverson. Palming the ball was something Iverson loved to do, but if he so much as came close to a palm, we were going to blow the whistle. Obviously, our actions were in direct retaliation for Iverson's rant against Javie. True to form, I immediately excused myself and made an important phone call.

Sticking to our pregame pledge, each of us whistled Iverson for palming in the first quarter-we all wanted in on the fun. The violations seemed to affect Iverson's rhythm and he played terribly that night, shooting 5-for-19 with five turnovers. After getting repeatedly whistled all night long, Iverson approached me in an act of submission.

"How long am I going to be punished for Javie?" he quietly inquired.

Scary to think that the refs are really that unprofessional. Seems that they're just the muscle behind the NBA mafia. The whole thing is damning if true. I'm more inclined to believe him for the fact that Jose Canseco was discredited when he published his tell-all. But everything he said has come turned out to be true. Not one person he named sued him. Isn't that the tell?

Apparently though the NBA threatened to sue the publisher into oblivion and it was dropped. I have to tell you, it shook my faith in the NBA.