Recap - Utah Jazz @ Philadelphia 76ers - At least you have the Phillies

by Basketball John on Nov 12, 2008 1:59 PM MST in Game Recaps Comment 7 comments

Everyone can breathe a sigh of relief. Kick back and have some Brew(er).

Deron's back, although self-admittedly early. Nobody expected him to be dominate in this game. But he finished with 9 assists, only 1/8 shooting, and most importantly, didn't aggravate his ankle. I'm sure there was heavy icing going on afterwards. I wouldn't be surprised though for him to sit on one of the upcoming road games. He was suppose to play limited minutes but ended up with 31.

The Jazz really do have one of the deepest benches in the league. When you have a second team of Price/Knight, Korver, Millsap, Kirilenko, (and Memo usually plays with them), tell me that's not better than the 2004 Jazz starters. How many games would that team win in the league right now?

And I feel bad for Fesenkno. Last night would have been great to step in for Memo and finally show us what he can do. Kosta Koufos' solid outing (3/8, 5 boards, 6 points, 2 blocks) may have kept KK2 ahead of Fess. Sloan admitted that he likely would have started Fess had he been there. Hopefully he'll get another chance (and hopefully not at the expense of Memo's family).

On the flipside, the 76ers poor start can probably in part be attributed to their poor bench. The starters aren't earning any All-Star votes themselves, but tak a look at the bench. So any of those guys inspire you? It doesn't look like Mo Cheeks has much confidence in them either given their playing time.

Reserves	MP	FG	FGA	FG%	3P	3PA	3P%	FT	FTA	FT%	DRB	TRB	STL	BLK	TOV	PF	PTS
Louis Williams	16:35	2	8	.250	0	2	.000	1	1	1.000	0	0	1	2	3	1	5
Willie Green	12:25	0	1	.000	0	1	.000	0	0		1	1	0	0	0	2	0
Marreese Speights	10:25	1	3	.333	0	0		2	2	1.000	0	0	0	1	0	2	4
Kareem Rush	6:15	1	4	.250	1	2	.500	0	0		0	0	0	0	0	1	3
Reggie Evans	4:49	0	0		0	0		0	0		3	3	0	0	0	0	0
Royal Ivey	1:09	0	0		0	0		0	0		0	0	1	0	0	0	0

The Jazz though almost gave this game away again in the third quarter. The biggest reason for their 5-0 start was their strong second half play, especially in the third. But against OKC, NY, and the 76ers, they've laid a big goose egg. And had it not been for RonnieB shooting lights out in the fourth, this could have been another road loss.

Brewer was partly to blame for having the game so close. T he Jazz shot a miserable 44% from the floor. Ronnie helped out going 0-9 going into the third quarter. And right when I ripped on him in the game thread for it, he lit it up. He finished the game going 6/7, scoring all 16 points in the final quarter. But while he was breaking the rim, he did manage to dish out a team high-tying 9 assists to keep the Jazz from imploding.

As a result, Utah pulled away with a strong fourth and were never really in danger. Andre Miller did his best to keep things close, but reverted back to his 1998 NCAA championship form in the final minutes and couldn't score or help his teammates score.

Carlos Boozer continued his early season MVP run with 19 & 16. He's averaging 20 & almost 12 a game so far. His personal fouls are also down from 3.6 a game to 2.7. That will go a long way this year.

Millsap was one of four in double-figures with 16. And Korver may have been trying a little too hard shooting just 1/7 from the field. Got to love the Philly fans. They're suppose to be some of the fiercest on earth, and this was one of their heckles to KK,

Hey Korver, good game . . . not

Really? Was that ever cool to say? Siler also states that they cheered him when they checked in and then booed him the rest of the way. That's how it should be. I stated that's how Derek Fisher should have been handled (although I acknowledge he left under different circumstances).

And Kirilenko has cemented himself as the Subway sub of the year (Boler and Booner give this out after each game). It's becoming a formality at this point. Unless Millsap has a game like he did against the Clippers, AK will snatch up 90% of them. So I propose they change it to the AK of the game, presented by Subway. He ended up with 16 & 8 to go along with 3 assists.

So maybe in the next couple weeks we'll have the whole team back together. At this point, do we need Collins and Harp to come back? Kosta and Fess should be more than enough to cover Collins. And I haven't seen any reason why bringing back Harp would add anything. Would he even be able to play more than 5 minutes a game? Without even taking into account skill, physically, how can he survive the NBA rigors? Do we have any assurances that his knees aren't going to snap? Why haven't we heard more on his condition?

Up next, the Harry Potters of DC. I would imagine we will see Deron's minutes reduced a bit on this back-to-back.

Game thread for the Wiz coming in a bit.

Other blogs (which you've probably already read given how late I am),

All That Utah Jazz
Ross Siler
The Cowhide Globe
True Blue Jazz (now part of the Bloguin network) Sounds like ESPN's old "ESPN.com, part of the go network)
Liberty Ballers

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Comments

great site, good game (I guess)

speaking of being late, how about the fact that I didn’t watch the game (yet), didn’t write my post (yet) but I already know the score? and this 24 hrs after the tip off?

This happens when you live in Italy, have too much work to do to watch the game live starting at 1 AM, and the f’n Int’l League Pass doesn’t work when you come back at home after 10 hours in office and hope to watch the game replayed…

anyway congratulations for the W and for the site, I added it to my blogroll. I’ll post again after watching the game, hopefully within this week (LOL)

Regards from Italy
Ricky – Sixers4guidos

by Ricky - Sixers4guidos on Nov 12, 2008 2:11 PM MST reply actions 0 recs

Thanks.

I’ll add your recap link once you get it up.

SLCDunk.com, The Utah Jazz on SBNation

by Basketball John on Nov 12, 2008 4:16 PM MST up reply actions 0 recs

You beat me

you may be late, but you still beat me . . . i have to still put up my NYK game recap up, then my philly one! and this is a small thing, but i’m not “all that utah jazz”. There is no utah in the title, it’s a play on the phrase “all that jazz”. the utah part is assumed, I guess.

and dude, get those shirts made, i think i’ll buy like 5 or 6 of them.

by AllThatJazzBasketball on Nov 12, 2008 2:26 PM MST reply actions 0 recs

Yeah

I was going to put up something for the NY game, but work has been killing me. And the shirts will be coming. I’m just trying to find the best outlet for them. That post got linked to on Ball Don’t Lie so the Lame vote got quite a few.

SLCDunk.com, The Utah Jazz on SBNation

by Basketball John on Nov 12, 2008 4:18 PM MST up reply actions 0 recs

Frankly,

I forgot that Flop and No Knees were on the team, until I saw Flop dressed on the bench last night.

But, really, where would they fit into this rotation? NO WHERE. That is the thing, they are no longer needed. There is NO room for football skills in this team.

by DaniellelovesKK on Nov 12, 2008 3:13 PM MST reply actions 0 recs

No Knees

What the? You’ll appreciate him when we play the Nuggets and Rockets. Him getting under Artest and Martin’s skin is worth his salary alone. There is always that thought “There might be punches thrown this game”. And you KNOW J-Slo would be the first to throw down in defense of Harp.

I am a Collins fan. He is NOT worse than Fesenko. That is the truth.

We bleed True Blue.
www.truebluejazz.com

by CB Jack on Nov 12, 2008 4:38 PM MST up reply actions 0 recs

i agree…there are definitely times or situations when we NEED matty and he gives us an advantage.

as for collins, the kfan guys said on numerous occasions last year that he always smoked fess in practice…that doesn’t make me optimistic…

by moni on Nov 12, 2008 5:19 PM MST up reply actions 0 recs

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