Recap - Utah Jazz @ Minnesota Timberwolves

Bad news:  Jazz started out slow and got behind by 12 early.

Good news:  They were playing the Timberwolves.  That hasn't always been a given against the Jazz, but tonight it was.

Here's how the first quarter possessions for the Jazz ended up:

1.  Turnover by Deron trying to get it in to Boozer (still a little out of sync)
2.  Blocked Deron layup
3.  CJ missed jumper
4.  Deron layup
5.  Travel by CJ - TO
6.  Boozer fall away jumper good
7.  Jumper Booze top of the key
8.  Ronnie B missed jumper
9.  Booze travel on spin move
10.  Boozer missed baby hook push shot
11.  CJ missed layup
12.  Boozer jumper from the top of the key
13.  D-Will missed three
14.  Millsap lost the ball off the dribble - TO
15.  CJ Miles made jumper
16.  Millsap missed layup
17.  CJ made jumper
18.  Deron missed jumper
Korver checked in
19.  Korver made jumper
20.  Memo made three
21.  Korver fouled on layup, made 2 FT
22.  KK two more FT
23.  Memo offensive foul to the other 7 foot Collins
24.  KK hits baseline jumper

That got them in a hole early but Korver came in and scored all of his 13 points in his minutes ending the first and to start the second.  It seemed like each quarter a Jazz player would take over a bit.  KK started it and Brewer finished the fourth quarter.  Memo was the steady force over the course of the game.

The 120-103 win is another one of those deceiving scores.  The Jazz led just 101-97 with about 5:30 to go in the game.  Minny went ice coldover the next three minutes and the Jazz were able to take advantage.  By the time the Wolves scored again, the score was 111-99.  Memo added to three pointers at the end of the game for good measure and to give the Jazz their final score.

Can we just put Lakers or Hornets or Celtics jerseys on everyone we play?  There just seems to be a lot more focus and a lot more effort and the part of the Jazz when they play those teams.  That's not to take anything away from what Minny did tonight.  They were hitting their shots and not giving the Jazz many second shots. 

Kevin Love almost took care of that by himself as he pulled down 15 boards to go along with his 24 points.  He seems to be in the mold of Tim Duncan.  He's a big guy with fundamentals.  He's not going to wow you, but he'll silently put up big numbers.

It's a road win and we'll take it.  I'm glad that we could finally use some veteran experience to pull this one out.  We certainly preyed on Minny's inexperience down the stretch.

Our bench was good again.  They didn't match the 58 points against Atlanta, but they put up 35 and outscored Minny's bench by 25.

Some quick breakdowns of the Jazz

Deron - His shot disappeared, but he still put up 13 & 13 and still killed Telfair.

Booze - 12 & 4 in 22 minutes but with 3 TOs.  It was his leg that was injured and not his hands, right?

Miles - Quiet 15 points.  He had a couple of stretches where he carried the team.

Memo - He's been straight cash homey.  He's shooting 66% (14/21) from three over his last 7 games.

Ronnie B - Another great outing with 20 points.  Most impressive was his 8-8 from the FT line where he's struggled a bit.  In February B has put up 16 a game on 55% shooting.

AK - 5 boards, 5 assists, & 12 points.  No blocks tonight.

Millsap - Solid in only 17 minutes with 7 & 7.  But someone had better start calling fouls for him or he's going to lose it.  He got a T after giving a frustrated whatever wave after getting called for a foul against Love away from the ball.  There wasn't much contact, their arms were tangled up, and Love sold it pretty good.  This came after Miles had stripped Telfair only to have Telfair shove Miles down going for the loose ball with no foul called.  Anyway, Millsap is getting visibly more and more frustrated and rightfully so. 

The T came from none other than Joey "I mean funny like I'm a clown, I amuse you? I make you laugh, I'm here to ... amuse you? What do you mean funny, funny how? How am I funny?" Crawford who threw out Duncan a couple of years ago for laughing on the bench and then challenging him to a fight.  Crawford also T'd up Mike Miller for his hair bobbing inappropriately.

Paul's going to blow soon.

The Jazz have a great shot at pushing the win streak to 8 games as they take on SacTown at home next and then head out again to Golden State.  They'll need every win they can take before they hit the gauntlet that is March and April.

Other notes

• If you're 7 feet and can take a charge, you have a spot in the NBA.
• KK looks like he got a pretty good tan in Mexico. 
  
• I loved the Super Mario coin sound for every made T-Wolves free throw.
• Jason Collins is listed at 255 and Jarron at 249.  Jason looks like he's pushing 300.
• Bonner "Man, does he have a set of legs on him."
• Timing between Booze and Deron is still off.  They had a couple of nice pick and rolls but had a couple of TOs because they weren't in sync (bye bye bye)
• Booze was getting beat by Craig Smith a lot.  Should be able to defend a slow, 250 lb guy a bit better.