Thursday, October 28, 2010

Wow… Now that that’s over with…



Ouch… Well what do I have to say about the season opener? Um, that made the 8-0 preseason champs look like they had never seen a basketball in their life. The amount of fouls was amazing and the Jazz had no intensity for most of the game. Looking over the play-by-play for the fist half of the game, you see (insert player name here) missed jump shots or had turnover after turn over. It was a really bad game to watch.
Speaking of bad games, what in the world is going on in the NBA? Jazz lose their first game, Heat lose their first game, Lakers win by 2 after a horrible 1st half, and the Celtics lose to the Cavaliers. It just all seems to be going wrong.
There were a few bright spots in the opener. The rookies played very well. Evans had 11 points total, which was more than Jefferson, Fesenko, and Kirilenko combined. Hayward added to the score with 9 points. Deron played well for being double teamed most of the game, pulled off 19 points, and lit it up at the start of the 3rd quarter. Jefferson looked lost and confused and only had 6 points. Hopefully they get it together by tonight when they play the Suns for their home opener.
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The Great:
Gordan Hayward
Jeremy Evans

The Good:
Deron Williams

The Bad:
Kyrylo Fesenko (Will he ever learn that he cannot dribble the ball?)
Al Jefferson
Andrei Kirilenko
Intensity
Fouls
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My Player of the Game:
The rookies: Gordan Hayward and Jeremy Evans
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My Play of the Game:
Deron to Fesenko for the dunk. At 2:09 of this video.

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All we can do now is hope that they get back into their preseason form and get a win when they play the Phoenix Suns tonight on TNT.

 ~Jazz4thewin

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Jazz Undefeated , Beat Kings 82-71



 Jazz finish the pre-season 8-0, undefeated for the first time in team history. Although it counts for nothing, it still shows that this team can play. Beating the Lakers twice, once without Williams, was the highlight for me and probably the rest of you reading this. 
    Friday night the Jazz played without Deron Williams because he was away due to personal reasons. But even without him, the Jazz played great except for a few minutes near the end of the 3rd quarter. Al Jefferson had some great moves down low and was one of three players with 12 points. Bell and Fesenko were the other two high scorers, and I have to admit Fesenko has really improved. But he still makes me cringe when he tries to take the ball to the hole by himself.  Bell made 3 out of 3 on three point shots and ran the break well. Evans gets better every game and his ally oops are enough to get even an old man to jump out of his seat. Watson ran the floor well and had some good drives to the basket, he was walking all over the Sacramento defense. Elson is looking to be a great back up center and has a rainbow of a jump shot. The Jazz played great and made team history. Lets hope that they make some more history this season.
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The Great:
Undefeated in Preseason
Jefferson (Had some great plays down low)
Bell (I think he is a much better replacement for Korver)
Memo getting better from his injury (On FSN they showed a clip of him shooting some shots and jogging down the court, it‘s good to see him recovering)

The Good:
Fesenko (I think losing some weight has really improved his game)
Evans (This guy just makes you like him)
Elson (His rainbow jumper is awesome)

The Bad:
Miles is injured
15 turnovers
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My Play of the Game:
My play of the game is when Price threw the behind the back pass to Fesenko and two of the King’s players ended up kissing the court. It starts at 1:37 of this video:

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My Player of the Game:
Raja Bell (12 points, 2 assist, 1 steal and 100% from 3 point land)
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This team is tough with both Jefferson and Bell playing through injuries. It proves that Jazz want to win and they will sacrifice to do it. They have looked good this far, now we wait for Wednesday, when the Jazz play the Nuggets for the start of the regular season.

~Jazz4thewin

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Jazz Beat the Lakers in Round Two! No Need for Round Three



Jazz beat the Big boys in L.A. 82-74. Unfortunately, the game was not broadcast on TV so I am unable to write a full article/blog. What I do know is that the Jazz played well enough to beat the Lakers for the second time in a row. Al Jefferson had 13 points and 8 rebounds. He was injured at the end of the 3rd quarter when his hand got stuck in Theo Ratliff's Jersey keeping him out of the rest of the 4th quarter. Deron Williams had 10 points, 5 assists, and 4 rebounds in 29 minutes. Gaines, Jeffers, and Nichols did not play again due to coach's decision which does not look good for them. Raja Bell was 1 for 1 from behind the three and had 7 points, 2 steals, and 2 rebounds. CJ Miles scored 14 in 29 minutes. Jazz are now 7-0 in the preseason. Let's keep this going into the regular season.

~Jazz4thewin

Monday, October 18, 2010

Gordon Hayward Shows His True Self, Jazz Beat the Evil Lakers 99-94



*This post is uncensored and does mention a certain team in purple and gold. If that makes you feel queasy, please puke in the toilet.

    Last night the Jazz played the HATED Lakers on NBA TV. Unfortunately, my cable network doesn’t offer NBA TV. So, instead of giving up hope of writing a well informed article today, I searched the internet for NBA TV online and to my joyful surprise I found a stream that actually worked. Now for the sad part, the stream was not for NBA TV but for FSN West the home of L.A. Basketball. So the whole night I heard the game from the perspective of a brain washed evil Laker loving announcer. The thing that fired me up the most was that the announcers stated that the Jazz are “an unsuccessful team because they NEVER win on the road.” Last year the Jazz came out at over .500 on the road with a 21-20 road record. This year however is a completely new team. You cannot judge the current Jazz by a team 2 or 3 years ago. That’s like comparing the team now with the Jazz team that made it to the finals in 1998. They are a completely different team with different strengths. Well, enough with my rant lets get to the real stuff.
    Gordon Hayward, ninth overall pick in the 2010 draft, won the 4A Indiana State championship at the buzzer, and came inches from a game winning shot in the NCAA finals. With that list you would think that Jazz fans would be jumping for joy over the pick but many fans were angry that we picked up another combo 2/3. Up until last night, Hayward hasn’t shown us much other than free throws and some nervous play. In the first quarter he played timid, looked  nervous, and was confused on offence. The last three quarters however he showed us what he could do, other than make free throws. What I liked is when he converted a bad pass into two points. That boy has some good hands.  Hayward led the Jazz with 26 points and also had  5 rebounds. I can see a bright future with this kid.
    Once again I have to talk about Jefferson. He worked over Gasol in the post. It was good to see him up against some real power forward competition. He had 14 points and 5 rebounds in 30 minutes.
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The Great:
Al Jefferson (Played well down low against Gasol)
Gordan Hayward (Showed us why he was drafted ninth overall)
CJ Miles(That Ally Oop with Price was awesome)
The Good:
Andrei Kirilenko (threw some nice passes, dived for the ball and got the steal)
Watson ( ran an OK point job, but rushed the offence a little)
Price (Had a nice breakaway dunk; like Watson, rushed the offence)
The Bad:
Point guards need to slow down and run through the offence
Deron is out
Evans is out
Memo is out
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The Jazz played well overall, but came out to a slow start after halftime and let the Lakers take the lead. The Jazz shot 50.7% from the field and 37.5% from behind the three. They are 6-0 still undefeated in the preseason with two games left until the start of the Regular Season.
~Jazz4thewin

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Like us on Facebook and Follow us on Twitter

I have set up Facebook and Twitter accounts for Basketball and All That Jazz. There is a Facebook stream on the right of the blog now and I am looking into a twitter feed. So Like or Follow us or even do both.

Twitter: http://twitter.com/BballanThatJazz
Facebook:  Basketball and All That Jazz

~Jazz4thewin

Friday, October 15, 2010

Al Jefferson Is A BEAST! Jazz beat Phoneix 108-97

  



             Last night was the Jazz's first broadcast game of the season on FSN. So, like many of you, this was my first look at the Jazz this season. I was really impressed on how most everyone played. But most of all Al Jefferson, our new big man, really impressed me. I mean this guy was a beast. He had 24 points, 6 rebounds, and 3 assists. He played really well with Deron, and them talking and laughing on the bench is a good sign of things to come. Heck this whole game was a sign of good things to come. What I really like about Jefferson the most is that his go to move isn't an ugly fade-away behind the head jumper like Boozer's was. He likes to go down low and battle for points. He also has that sweet jump hook that is looking pretty good. Overall I think that Jefferson is a much needed improvement over Boozer and he seems really happy to be here in Utah on a winning team. The Jazz are much better this season on paper but they proved last night that they can play together. Let's just hope that they continue to improve and be ready for a run deep into the playoffs.
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The Great:
Al Jefferson
Deron Williams (I just loved when he broke Nash's ankles)
Jeremy Evans (Looks like a replacement of Brewer for crowd raising dunks)
Paul Millsap
The Good:
Earl Watson (looks like a good backup, much better then Price)
Gordan Haywood (ran the offense well, took some nice open shots)
The Bad:
Back up Point Guard Defense (especially on the pick and roll)
Memo is out
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Jazz 4-0 This Preseason, looks like another good sign to me.

~Jazz4thewin

Sunday, October 10, 2010

ARE YOU READY!?

As most of you know the jazz had there first preseason game has come and gone and now everyone is pumped for the season. I'm just here to ask you one question. Are you ready!?

~JAZZ4THEWIN