Preview - Indiana Pacers @ Utah Jazz

by Basketball John on Dec 4, 2009 4:29 PM MST in Game Previews Comment 12 comments

Ho, ho, ho, Green Giant

How appropriate that on the night when the Jazz break out the green and yellow retros that they face the team from the John Deer capital of the world (I can't back that up). The same state where Sloan heads to drive those tractors in the off-season.

The last time the Jazz faced the Pacers at the ESA, they probably should have lost if you look at the box score. The Pacers shot 50% from the floor including 13 of 22 from downtown. They had 34 assists and evened the rebound battle.

But they didn't count on the Turk.

Memo went off for 43 points that surprisingly included only three three-pointers. He lived at the line putting down 14 of his 15 attempts while also going 13 of 19 from the field. Money had to step up as a result of injuries. Check out the starters:

Deron, Price, Memo, AK, and Ronnie B. Nobody on the bench hardly played at all.

This year's Pacers aren't the best offensive team, in fact they're near the bottom. The only reason why they have a relatively high PPG total is that they play at a higher pace than most of the league.

Their defense is solid but because of that high pace, they'll give up a lot of points to other teams. With the Jazz rolling on offense like they are now, we should see a pretty high-scoring game.

The Pacers are led of course by Danny Granger, someone who's capable of dropping 50 on you any given night and especially against the Jazz. He's their biggest three-point threat right now. In fact, he's shooting an almost better percentage from the arc (37.3%) than he is in FG% (41%) overall. Now that we'll have CJ back, hopefully we can slow him down a bit with Matthews, CJ, AK, and Brewer.

The Pacers come into this game struggling having lost 5 of their last 6 and are at the tail end of a 4-game road trip. Hopefully the Jazz stick it to the Pacers early and take care of things. I'm hoping that the layoff hasn't impacted their chemistry too much.

Indy Cornrows for the Pacers side of things.
TBJ
Game Thread @ 6:30

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repeating myself

Danny Granger’s high school coach was my high school coach, but I’m about ten years older. Anyhoo, I’m a Granger fan for that reason. And John Deere’s are from Iowa, no? Do we expect to see CJ tonight?

More importantly, Park City is playing South Summit in high school ball tonight. I’m torn between my school (PC) and my neighborhood (SS).

I'll make it coach.

by MTN on Dec 4, 2009 5:08 PM MST reply actions 0 recs

And doesn't Jerry Sloan live in Illinois in the offseason? So many lame states that begin with I. I'm looking at you Idaho.

The more you try to erase me, the more that I appear.

by clarkpojo on Dec 4, 2009 5:14 PM MST up reply actions 0 recs

Totally Unrelated to Basketball

but, give it a shot:
http://www.sporcle.com/games/states.php

See how many of those lame “I” states you name.

by kris247 on Dec 4, 2009 5:28 PM MST up reply actions 0 recs

that site is awesome. I just wasted like 2 hours of my life.

The more you try to erase me, the more that I appear.

by clarkpojo on Dec 4, 2009 7:12 PM MST up reply actions 0 recs

one minute, 48 seconds

thank you, fifth grade.

Uh, do you think you could draw me like a ninja?

by Shums on Dec 4, 2009 9:51 PM MST up reply actions 0 recs

I seriously did about 50 of those tests. So addicting. And I took a little over 2 minutes.

The state I forgot was new jersey.

The more you try to erase me, the more that I appear.

by clarkpojo on Dec 5, 2009 11:27 AM MST up reply actions 0 recs

yes, it is Illinois

don’t know what I was thinking

SLCDunk.com, The Utah Jazz on SBNation

by Basketball John on Dec 4, 2009 6:42 PM MST via mobile up reply actions 0 recs

two thoughts on the pacers totally unrrelated to the game

indiana has taken two of our projected draft picks two years running—hibbert and hansborough. also, people want to say that we are the whitest team in the league (without looking at the roster), but that title so belongs to the pacers.

by moni on Dec 4, 2009 5:33 PM MST reply actions 0 recs

and instead we got the KOOF and E3!!

Funny thing is I wanted Jazz to get Hansborough. But that was, of course, when I thought Boozer would be gone and we’d lose Millsap’s hustle and toughness from off the bench.

by Yucca Man on Dec 4, 2009 6:02 PM MST up reply actions 0 recs

Yep, Sloan is from Illinois

McLeansboro, Illinois, in fact. I was there on a road trip with my dad and uncle (both jazz fans) in May of 2006. We were driving up the Mississippi and made a detour just to see McLeansboro. We asked some folks at a diner and they told us how to find his house. We drove by it that afternoon — it’s a large house set way back on a huge plot of farmland. It was pretty cool to see.

But then, as we were driving back through town, we were going through an intersection and I looked up from my seat out the back window. Driving a big old truck going the other way, was Sloan!

by bantic on Dec 5, 2009 9:16 AM MST reply actions 0 recs