What a stark difference between the sounds emanating from much of the crowd at ESA, and the statements made by you all in the game thread and on Twitter. I am proud of all the Dunkers for their ability to show respect and gratitude to a great player and a fine citizen of our community. We all may not agree on many things when it comes to our favorite team and sport, but I'm glad we came to an honorable consensus in regards to Deron Willams.
Bravo Zulu, Dunkers
Full recap after the jump.
I mentioned in the game preview that this was another lesson game for the youthful Jazz team, and they performed wonderfully. The Jazz did exactly what good NBA teams do, they easily beat a depleted, under talented team at home. The other thing they managed to do was bounce back after a very tough overtime loss to the Lakers.
The game never felt like it was going to be close. I think many of us were more concerned about the obnoxious boos for DWill, than we were when New Jersey would close it to four points. Invariably, when it did happen the Jazz would go on a 10+ point run and get the game comfortably out of reach. By the middle of the 3rd quarter Deron was already showing signs of fatigue and disinterest, after having to carry his team the night before in Phoenix.
Devin Harris/ Earl Watson, CJ Miles
While there were a number of good games, I'm going with the two guys that controlled the flow of the game, and the guy who absolutely needed a breakout game. Can we just stop treating Harris and Watson as separate players and just lump their performances into one two headed PG? While their individual numbers may continually draw little excitement, the sum of their performance is usually quite solid. Take tonight for example, combined they put up a fantastic line: 6 pts, 5 rbd, 12 ast, 3 stl, 1 to
CJ seemed to be everywhere in his nearly 18 minutes of playing time, and the box score showed it. He finished with 17 pts on 75% fg, went 5/5 from the line, hauled in 6 boards, with 2 assists, and a steal on top.
The Bigs
Big Al had somewhat of a bounce back game, scoring 20 pts on 9/16 shooting. Millsap was amazing, yet again. Its starting to be expected and tonight he added 18 pts, 12 rbd, 3 ast, and 4 stl. Kanter just rebounds. All your rebounds are belong to him. Big Turkey managed 7 pts, 8 rbd, and 2 stl, in a little over 18 minutes.
The best number for all the big men was the minutes played. With Kanter, Favors, and even Jeremy Evans able to put in some good minutes, Al and Sap were only needed for 23 and 26 minutes, respectively.
We all love him and want to see more, but in the nine minutes he was on the floor he didn't bring the intensity that he should have if he wants to steal some minutes. He shot well, but that's about it. Maybe we need to back off the #FreeAlecBurks so the young fella doesn't get a big head.
Also, I'm putting the sad display by some Jazz fans into this category.
0 recs | 9 comments
Great recap, Dustin.
I agree with you on every point.
SurlyMae - January 15, 2012
I never thought it was a real possibility
And I know the man went on record to say ‘no’ beforehand, but amidst the boos (and it may have been hard to hear) was the sound of the rest of the fraction-sized chance of D-Will coming back to Utah this summer flying through the windows of ESA.
Those talks need to be put to bed. No way he’d ever want to come back after last night’s final bridge burning. Time to move on. looks at @mharpring15
allen aoki - January 15, 2012
hey did anybody notice
that the favors assist watch is over
gubihero - January 15, 2012
yep & it was a nice interior set up pass to Kanter
Waxmaster - January 15, 2012
I didn't see that
Our little man-child is all grown up. Excuse me, I’m a little verklempt.
prodigal punk - January 15, 2012
On the Harris/Watson thing...
How about Devil Walrus?
It isn’t perfect but it is close to Devarl Watris.
Waxmaster - January 15, 2012
more great write ups @SLCDunk
good work all. . . keep them coming.
jazzed - January 15, 2012
very nice job
I told Moni that I had a hard time concentrating in the first half but in the 2nd half it wasn’t as bad. It was very distracting from a pretty good game from our Jazz.
I really doubt thought that deron would let a few very vocal fans determine where he plays in the future. Not that I am one that believes Utah was ever an option from him or the FO.
dianaallen - January 15, 2012
Did anyone notice how unhappy both Deron and Memo looked.
It must really suck to get traded from team and city where you had great success and really liked to live to a team that is so bad. Deron just didn’t seem to have that same drive, fire and will to win that made him so good while he was in Utah. Unless something drastic happens, I don’t see him staying in New Jersey after this season.
I loved Deron while he was here and would certainly like him back on the Jazz, but I don’t see that happening, unfortunately. I just hope that he can find his “mojo” and be happy again.
I wonder if he has ever considered that it was a mistake on his part not to have been more committed to staying with the Jazz. The Jazz would never have traded him in a million years, if they had thought he was going to stay her long term. I’m sure he didn’t see that trade coming, but rather, thought he could pull a “Carmelo” on the Jazz or just walk away in free agency without any consequence like LeBron, leaving the Jazz with nothing. That certainly didn’t work out for him as well as it has worked out for Carmelo, Chris Bosh, LeBron or Chris Paul. However, he probably doesn’t think that he did anything to cause him to end up in his current predicament, whereas most NBA players don’t seem to have very much self-awareness of how their behavior might lead to consequences for themselves.
Fesenko for President - January 15, 2012
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