The Downbeat - 7 October 2009 - #73 - The James Johnson Edition

by Basketball John on Oct 7, 2009 6:42 AM MDT in The Downbeat Comment 0 comments

1_medium I told you I wanted James Johnson. I know he wasn't available when we picked, but <LloydChristmas> I like him a lot </LloydChristmas>

He finished with 18 including a put back slam and of course the game winner. AK had him boxed out, but the long rebound from the three took a weird bounce off the rim sideways and went right into Johnson's hands.

See, this is where we can say it's just the pre-season, not big deal. But it's never easy to lose like that.

2_medium Almost titled this post the Block Party Edition. Good gravy. Joakim Noah was looking like he was swatting 6th graders. The Jazz ended up with 13 BA total. Wes Matthews, Paul Millsap, and the KOOF were on the receiving end of most of those. They gotta learn in the NBA it's okay to push off with your off arm when going up, at least if you play for the other team.

8_medium Wes Matthews made quite the impression. He had 16 points including 3/4 from downtown. Sign him up if he can hit that corner three. With CJ out, he's doing all the right things. With Dupree having got a lot of the minutes in the first game, perhaps we'll see Johnson from FSU get minutes in the Madrid game.

Deron helped lead the comeback in the third and finished with 16 & 3. None of the starters finished out the fourth.

Despite having 3 BA, Millsap led the team with 18.

4_medium We're gaining market share! In the latest GM surveys, of course Chris Paul was selected as the best PG in the league with Deron Williams a distant, distant second. Last year though, Paul got 88.9% of the vote. This year he dropped to just 77.8.

The Jazz as a team also got no love, picked to finish 3rd in the division. Of course, the Jazz were picked by almost 93% last year to win it. Doing the opposite of what they're expected to do is one of the Jazz's trademarks. So this selection makes me happy.

We also dropped to the second spot in the "Which team has the best home-court advantage" behind Cleveland. I'm guessing that's more best Lebron James advantage than home-court advantage.

And finally, the what player should suck, but doesn't award, goes to Memo, otherwise known as "what player does the most with the least" award.

5_medium And don't worry, I'm not going to be using the Downbeat for recaps. I didn't see the game only because it happened in the middle of work. I only got to see highlights and the box score so I didn't write up a full recap.

If anything, I should be putting up a Downbeat and a je ne sais quois at night because of a plethora of info compared to the off-season. But don't count on it.

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