San Antonio wins series 4-0
The Jazz showed a lot of heart. The Spurs showed us respect by putting in Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, and Manu Ginobili at the end there. We didn't win the game. But I think our young team won a whole lot more by digging deep and fighting back from a late 20 point deficit.
I love the Jazz.
Instead of singling out plays, moments, lapses, and mistakes let's just use this thread to talk about what we appreciated. I appreciated that in a lockout shortened season, with so many disadvantages (young coach, no training camp, free agency was 8 business days), we made the playoffs.
While we got swept, we didn't make Game 4 an easy win. We fought for that game. At home. There were some hard fouls. There was some pressure defense. And there was a hope. A small, dim, hope.
But with time, seasoning, development, and trust -- we're going to have a very bright future.
This is why we are Jazz fans. This is why we care for this team -- because of inspired play by some of our least heralded players giving it all when the chips were down.
Feel free to share your thoughts in this thread. And before I end this -- shout out to the San Antonio Spurs, and Pounding The Rock. You guys earned this win, and this sweep. You are a model franchise, and model fans. If we were going to lose, you were the best example to lose to. Our team will only be stronger next season because of the lumps we took in this series.
Thanks also to all the Jazz fans, and readers at SLC Dunk.
#WeareUtahJazz.
Jazz show up, but can't secure the win at home
This was a very telling game. The first thing we saw was that we're a much better team at home. Duh. Second, we saw that the Spurs are a pretty good road team. The Jazz had a number of things go right in this game; however, the Spurs always had a good counter. They were more patient on offense then we were, and moved the ball around quite a bit. As a result they got good shots, and nearly shot 50 fg%, which is far from our performance.
San Antonio makes you have to defend every part of the floor, that Matt Bonner three before halftime was a great example of that.
On our side, things were much better. Devin Harris was active and pushed the ball up, his shot was falling for the most part, and he even went 3/5 from deep tonight. He also finished with 5 points -- which makes his 21 points loot a lot better. Tony Parker finished with 27 and 6. We expect Parker to be better, but not as dominating has he has been in the first two games. In Game three we had a fighting change because Devin stepped up.
Tyrone Corbin went to various "big" lineups today, but they could not solve the riddle of the Bonner / Tiago Splitter front court. Al Jefferson had a much better game. He had the time to get into rhythm and he (mostly) took good shots. He finished with 21/11. He also played defense. We need more of this.
Spurs Take command of the series with a dominating wire to wire victory
The Utah Jazz played in their first playoff game in the Tyrone Corbin era, and had the unenviable task of starting it off on the road, against the San Antonio Spurs. The Spurs went 28-5 at home, and the Jazz went 12-21 on the road. You know, if you wanted to compound that to the fact that the Spurs are the #1 seed, and full of playoff tested vets while we are not. The outcome of this game was not a surprise. What was a surprise to me was all the flashes the Jazz showed tonight. Some were flashes of ineptitude. Some were flashes of indecision. Yet still others were flashes of insanity. That said, I saw quite a number of flashes of improvement, encouragement, and flashes of our brilliant future. I could not help smiling at the end of the game when I was looking over my notes.
We lost *this* game, but at the rate we are getting better at -- we're probably not going to be losing many games when it's our turn in 2014's NBA playoffs.
Speaking about waiting their turn, we got the return of Josh Howard to the starting lineup. He was an immediate force in this game and all of his success against the Spurs showed. He knew exactly what he was doing and getting whatever he wanted out there. He hustled hard, and got a number of boards. The one thing head coach Tyrone Corbin forgot to do when dealing with his mercurial star was tell him that "Yes, you're starting again; but we're not stealth tanking anymore." Chalk that one up to a communication error.
Jokes aside, did you see how decisive Al Jefferson was in the post? Sure, his defense isn't his strong suit, but he was pretty much getting what he wanted when we were able to get him the ball. He was also dropping off nice dimes and finding the rest of his team. He did only get to the free throw line once, but we know the Spurs never foul, so that's okay. He finished the game with 16 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists, and 2 steals. His game is not glamorous, but this loss isn't on him. This was his first playoff game since he was a member of the Boston Celtic. He's battled long and hard to get back to this spot -- the playoffs -- and he didn't toil for years just to play poorly. On offense he did his part.
Paul Millsap started off slow, and missed some shots this game that we've seen him make all season long; that said, he still finished with 20 points, 9 rebounds, and 3 blocks. He played both forward spots and was not depredated upon, on defense. We know he's a playoff performer who has fought through battles before. He remembers that Western Conference Finals series against the Spurs. He's showing up this series, and did today. I do expect the Jazz to work on their entry passes a bit more to make sure these two guys get the ball. The Spurs length was quite disruptive in this regard. And as a team, the Spurs ended up with 10 steals, while their season average was 7.4 steals a game. That's way too many. We don't need to make an already good defensive club into a lock down defensive club.
For the rest of this "quick" recap click on below.
All your base belong to Jeremy Evans
The Utah Jazz finished the 2011-2012 Season tonight with a win, capping a five game win streak. They stand at 36-30, which is a huge improvement over Head Coach Tyrone Corbin's 8-20 from last season. Bravo Ty, and Bravo Jazz.
Tonight was fan night, and Jeremy Evans played 28 minutes. So you know the fans left the Energy Solutions Arena satisfied. (Implied: Dunking)
The Starters did not get a lot of burn, regular Paul Millsap did not even play. Derrick Favors started in his place and only played half the game. Over all this was a less than crisp game where the two teams combined for nearly 30 turn overs, but thankfully the refs did not call a lot of fouls. The last possession is all the evidence you need.
Good season Jazz. I'm proud of you. Whatever you do in the playoffs will be fine by me. You exceeded my expectations and earned my unwavering support.
Thank you so much for doing that. I love it when our Jazz team is winning. And we're winning again. A lot sooner than people thought.
Thanks again for the great season Jazz fans and Jazz team.
.
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And get ready for the playoffs starting this Sunday in San Antonio!
Big Al Jefferson and the rest of the "big unit" own the paint, own the game. Own their destiny.
I did not think that the Utah Jazz would make it to the playoffs. They did. Amazing. Take a bow Jazz. You Earned it.
WOOO!
Jazz go big against injured Orlando, casts "Dispel Magic" in OT
To be perfectly honest, in the 4th quarter some of the things that were happening made me very, very nervous. I'm super happy the Jazz won this game, and got a lot of practice dealing with the pick and roll. I also love that our *really big* lineup is getting more practice together. Devin Harris, Gordon Hayward, Paul Millsap, Derrick Favors, and Al Jefferson are just too big. You can't use that lineup all game long. And you can't use them against every team. But if the Jazz are going to win a few playoff games (and it's increasingly looking like we'll make it! Yaay!), this line up is going to have to take advantage of their size.
And dominate.
Like they, honestly, did not do in this game. Orlando had 15 offensive rebounds, and for the game were -1; but that final margin was a product of overtime where we got all the boards.
We're not a perfect team, and damn this was a good win that we needed to get.
The Boxscore shows all the good bits. Big Al had a double double. Favors had a double double. Millsap was 1 board shy of a double double. He also had 4 steals. Big Al had 3 steals. , Those three guys combined for 4 assists. WHen Kanter was in he went 4/5 and 1/1 from the FT line. They did not dominate, but our inside strike force is why we won this game.
Hayward and Harris gave the rest of the bigs enough help, including back to back threes in overtime. Those were the daggers.
This Orlando club was out gunned, smaller, and on the road -- but they played with a lot of heart and you gotta give them respect. Their best player is screwing them over, and screwing his own team mates over. Yet they still went out there, played their hearts out, and took us to overtime. I'm happy we won. But I'm not blind to their bind.
Orlando took 38 three pointers. Wow.
Jazz win.
Two more games to go.
Go Jazz Go!
Jazz beat up on the Blazer's "select" team, take care of business
Wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!
Jazz went loco from downtown and put the Blazers to bed early. Lots of garbage time, Blake Ahearn shot the ball 3 times in 5 minutes. I'm happy for this win. Very solid win.
There is going to be a better write up for this later.
Everyone did okay to great. Glad we did not lose -- the Blazers were going at us hard for most of the first half, but the Jazz extended the lead past the 10 point barrier and never let up. After halftime the Jazz held serve and increased the lead somewhat.
The Jazz won and Al Jefferson finished with 11 and 10, Paul Millsap with 6 and 8 . . . wow.
Devin Harris did most of the heavy lifting with 27 points off of 6/10 from downtown and 5/6 from the FT line. He also added 4 assists and 4 rebounds. Gordon Hayward had 23, including 3/4 from downtown, and 4/4 from the line. Off the bench Alec Burks (cookie in peril, or CIP) had 17 off of 1/1 from downtown, and 5/8 from the ft line. He also had 5 assists (lead team), and 5 rebounds in 27 mins of action.
Portland was far from full strength -- Jazz face Orlando Magic next.
Wooooooooooo!!!
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