I thought now would be a good time to check in on Basketball John and see what his feelings are on the team. I can only imagine what he would have to say about the Jazz if he were writing the downbeat today. Luckily, BBJ has left SLCDUNK, but not Jazz fandom or twitter. So here is an update on some insightful and funny stuff he had to say last night via twitter.

The Jinx:

A joke appropriate for Tax-filing season:

And the kicker of the whole shebang:

Preach on, Brother.

I received a couple of private messages about the downbeat I posted yesterday, in regards to its negative/depressing nature. I'm not going to apologize, but thought I would explain. I wrote almost all of that downbeat right after the Thunder loss and was feeling a little frustrated by the direction of the team. Everything I wrote, I feel, whether it's after a win or a loss, but the Memphis win certainly made some of the comments feel out of place. I never expected the Jazz to lose last night. It was most likely the worst loss of the season, but Jazz fans aren't new to performances like that. The Jazz have had similar/worse losses in recent memory. The Jazz aren't unique either. Every team in the NBA has losses similar to that one last night. Any team in the NBA can beat any other team on any other night. It's not just a clever saying. Which makes this statement frustrating:

Jefferson is obviously speaking for the team. There's little doubt that some of the players were discussing that they believed the Hornets would walk over for them. That is in a word...

UNACCEPTABLE.

The Jeremy Lin story is the "Moves Like Jagger" of the NBA: it's completely overplayed to the point of being more annoying than it should be. It doesn't make the Lin story less incredible ("Moves like Jagger" is not at all incredible). It is unprecedented and crazy what Lin has done for the city of New York, the Knicks and the NBA. What amazes me about the story is how Lin was able to singlehandedly change the Knicks from a bottom feeder to a playoff contender and probably top 10 team. Besides Lin fitting in with the Dantoni offense, he really just happens to provide the exact ingredient that the Knicks were missing: competent point guard play. It is obvious that the Jazz are missing 3 point shooters as much as anything, but would a great 3 point shooter change the Jazz's fortune like the Knicks' has changed? I can't help but think of the Korver acquisition and how the Jazz won 15 of the next 17 games afterward. But what is a realistic expectation? If the Jazz acquired, say Anthony Morrow, tomorrow, how many games would the Jazz improve? Bottom line is that the Jazz need a Lin-type experience in order to turn the team around.

The Jazz need a hero, but any 3 point shooter will do to pair with deadeye Raja Bell (39% from 3 this season).

One of the reasons the Jazz struggle on the road is because their defense doesn't travel very well. As of last week, the Jazz were allowing their opponents to shoot about 4% better on the road than at home. But even bigger news to me is that the Jazz are allowing 28.5 free throw attempts on the road, but only 22.8 at home as of 3 games ago. Add the fact that the Jazz shoot 4 less free throws on the road than at home and we are talking about a 10 free throw differential. Considering that the average NBA team shoots 74.7% from the free throw line and the Jazz are handicapping themselves by 7.4 points on the road. They can't do that. The Jazz need to improve their road defense by fouling less, first and foremost.

I had too much to write to do a trivia question yesterday, so I will do one today.

What do these teams have uniquely in common that pertains to the Jazz?

Warriors, Bucks, Hornets, Supersonics.

Yay an incomplete comeback in the 4th quarter. A game where we should have won. A game that reminded many of us on twitter earlier in the day of the that dreadful game in 2009 when the Jazz lost to a 7 players Warriors team. Well it pretty much was the same.

Kudos to Ty for sticking with the young guys in the 4th. Thank you young guys for making an effort to come back, sorry our starters made it so difficult on you and dug too big of a hole (yo!)

Share your thoughts of the games here, things you liked, things you didn't like. Let it all out here!

Wow, let me be the first one to admit that I did not think that the Utah Jazz would have defeated the Memphis Grizzlies (still without Zach Randolph, but with All-Star Marc Gasol and former All-Star Rudy Gay). But they did, 98 to 88. That's a very solid road win in my books; especially since we're supposed to be one of the worst teams ever (according to preseason predictions from ESPN and other places). This Jazz team proved me wrong last night. Tonight they face off against the struggling New Orleans Hornets. New Orleans has 4 wins this year, and 23 losses. They aren't doing so hot with Chris Paul playing in Los Angeles, and David West playing in Indiana. Eric Gordon is out indefinitely. Jarrett Jack is expected to miss at least one week. Chris Kaman is questionable for tonight's game, as is Jason Smith. And Carl Landry is expected to miss about a month. The only guys averaging more than 15 mpg for the season who are healthy for tonight's game are Tervor Ariza, Marco Belinelli, Emeka Okafor, Greivis Vasquez, and Al-Farouq Aminu. Even though we're on the second night of a three game set, I think our team is more talented (right now) than the Hornets. We're also bigger (and we can't say that too frequently), as both of their 7'ers are out -- leaving them with Emeka Okafor and Gustavo Ayon to patrol the paint. If one of them gets in trouble, we could own the glass.

Of course, the alternative would be for the Hornets to go small, and they have plenty of guys who can drive, dish, and drain the three. And if I was Monty Williams -- that's exactly the type of game I would play. Tyrone Corbin doesn't seem to make adjustments (in-game) that well right now. Corbin is still figuring out the whole rotations thing too. Tonight would be a great game to get Alec Burks some playing time. But hey, that's just my crazy opinion. Jeremy Evans too.

My computer is still jacked up. And I have crazy family issues right now -- so once again, you guys are getting a combined Game Preview / Game Thread. Things will normalize very soon though.

Jazz vs Hornets coverage

Jazz vs Hornets preview

At The Hive

Great win by the Utah Jazz last night. It's fun to see the team play good team ball like they did against Memphis. The Jazz had 26 assists on 42 made baskets and 6 players had 3 or more assists. It is obvious this team really likes each other off the court, so it is surprising to see them play such selfish basketball at times. Off the court, they stick up for each other when the fan base wants a guy traded. Paul Millsap and Al Jefferson talked about how the other guy got snubbed for the All-Star game. Jamaal Tinsley never plays, but he's the most positive, encouraging vet on the team. When Matt Harpring foolishly brought up a starting point guard controversy on twitter, Earl Watson immediately shot it down. These are awesome guys in the locker room. Unfortunately, team chemistry isn't the most important thing in producing wins although it certainly helps. And i don't think great team chemistry will, or should, keep the Jazz from making trades to better the team. But it is super refreshing to see that the teammates on your favorite team are friends and care about each other.

One thing I love about twitter is that you can get a decent feel of how Jazz fans are feeling about their team by scanning the comments. Two nights ago, the Jazz were one of the worst 5 teams in the NBA. Tonight, Jazz fans are talking about an easy win tonight in NO and about how huge this win will be for the playoff tiebreakers over Memphis. I just want to mention that the truth usually lies somewhere in the middle of an issue. The Jazz aren't as bad as the team that lost to Toronto at home, but they also aren't as good as the team we saw play last night. Look at the averages and don't get too high or too low about the team. Or do, if that's what you want to do. It's just that I've had an ulcer before and I don't want each of my Jazz friends getting one.

I have mentioned this before in comment threads, but I feel the need to again express my concern over the make up of this team. You see, I'm a huge Oakland Raiders fan. And they are currently lost as a franchise. And a good reason they are lost is because they mortgaged their future to be competitive in the present. After beating the Cleveland Browns this past season, the Raiders found themselves with a 4-2 record and without a quality starting quarterback after Jason Campbell broke his collarbone. The Raiders were left with what was a likely, or at least possible playoff team (for the first time in like 9 years) and a decision of how to land a quarterback. Instead of signing a decent qb and making a run for it, or else cashing in the chips and trying for the next year, the Raiders traded a first and second round pick (the equivalent of two lottery picks in the NBA) for Carson Palmer. In essence, if the Raiders made the playoffs, great, but if they didn't, they would also have no top 18 pick to heal their battle wounds. As you probably know, the Raiders did miss the playoffs and sacrificed their future in order to not really get ahead in the present anyways. It was a poor trade made by a poorly run organization, but I can't help but think that the Jazz are doing a similar thing right now on a smaller scale. The Jazz are not only keeping their veterans, but they are signing more of them and giving them too many minutes and touches for the sake of winning now. It's the playoffs or bust, because if the Jazz proceed like this and still miss the playoffs, they will have become the Oakland Raiders, only instead of draft picks, they will have sacrificed minutes for young guys, time to evaluate the players they don't know about yet, and the opportunity to show trust in their future cornerstones. Don't be the Oakland Raiders, Jazz. I beg of you.