Carlos Boozer With 33 & 16, Bobcat's Your Uncle, Jazz Win 102-93

by Basketball John on Feb 25, 2010 11:24 AM MST in Game Recaps Comment 12 comments

That's Charlotte of points that Boozer put up, isn't it?

Thankfully Boozer put on a uniform last night because he was the biggest reason the Jazz didn't drop their third in a row at home.

After crapping the second quarter with only 14 points, the Jazz were down 11 at the half, 52-42. It's probably no coincidence that Boozer only had 1 FGA in that second quarter. The Jazz only had 2 assists in that quarter and 0 from Deron. Just a putrid quarter of basketball from the Jazz.

When he finally got the ball in the third, he went on a tear, going 6-9 from the field and a total of 14 points. The Jazz also stepped it up on D holding the Bobcats to just 16 points and turned that halftime deficit into a a four-point lead heading into the fourth.

Why do you think Boozer opens his mouth so wide when he yells? He's hungry and the Jazz should keep feeding him the ball right now. Maybe we would have pulled out a win against Atlanta had he got more touches.

Charlotte hung around, even tying it up in the fourth, before the Jazz went on a 16-4 run to close it out. The hero behind that run was none other than Kyle Elliot Korver. He made three threes during that span and had the clinching three with just under two minutes to go in the game.

Basketball-reference.com has a team page that shows whether players have been playing above or below their season averages for the past 10 games. The bad news is that Korver's three point percentage is down over his past ten games. The good news is that it's only 57% compared to his season average of 60%. Holy crap. He doesn't have enough attempts to qualify officially for the league lead, but right now he's shooting almost 5% better than Mike Miller.

He's said that this is the healthiest he's been in a long time and it shows. If he keeps this up, the Jazz would be dumb to not try to bring him back. However, he's going to get a lot of offers I'm sure from other teams this offseason.

The play of the night though for me came from big Fess,

It's going to be hard to hold him down much longer. I'm eagerly waiting to see how he progresses. He's altering shots and becoming a presence inside.

I'm impressed with the way the Jazz kept in this game with their D. Their offense hasn't been the best lately but they're always given themselves a chance to win. Last night the Bobcats shot 53% from the field and had 71% from behind the arc. But the Jazz weren't giving up anything inside.

After the first quarter, those threes didn't fall for Charlotte. After shooting 5/7 in that first quarter, they only had 2/14 the rest of the way. They were also held to just 37.5% shooting after that first period. What kept them in the game was free throws, specifically, a lot of made free throws. I guess that's like saying the only reason the Jazz won the game was because they scored more points than the Bobcats because you can't discount either.

But when the guy with the most free throws is a flopping Gerald Wallace with 10, then that irks me a bit. Everyone in the NBA flops but after his no-show at the dunk contest and general apathy in the game itself, he dropped quit a bit in my book. Still a tremendous basketball player but as far as being respected, he falls into the same category as Manu for me now.

Other notes

Tyrus Thomas had a good night with 20 points on 6-8 shooting. His most memorable moment though was when he checked into the game sans uniform sporting only his black under shirt.
Bolerism of the night, "Boozer has had 3 20/20 games this season. He's looking at a 30/14 right now." I wonder how many 30/14's he's had? Looks like he's had three 30/14s with his latest being at GS this month.
Deron had 20 & 12 on his best shooting night since the All-star break. Hopefully that continues
CJ is taking his recent poor play pretty hard. Not sure how he's going to snap out of it. He did have some sweet passes last night.
Rufus on Fire
Salt City Hoops
Cowhide Globe
TUJB
UBJF

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Comments

Boozer was unstoppable last night.

And wow, you weren’t kidding about him being one of the touchiestplayers in basketball. He’s all about the high-fives. I love it.

I liked seeing Fes play with his back to the basket a little last night — and the And-1 dunk was great! (I love how he assumed the foul was on him) In his post-game interview he said that he is enjoying the increase in minutes, and that his teammates are constantly giving him advice/tips on what to do in certain situations, etc. And THAT, my friends, is how you develop a player. This kid’s got loads of potential, and I really want to see it unleashed. Glad to see him getting some minutes and making the most of them.

By the way, BBJ, the half time score was 53-42. Just caught the typo.

by vizzle07 on Feb 25, 2010 12:10 PM MST reply actions

Fes needs to work on his big play celebrations.

Boozer had a fantastic game last night.

That is all.

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

by clarkpojo on Feb 25, 2010 12:19 PM MST reply actions

Boozer

really needs to coach Fes on those . . . a few leg kicks on dunks / rim hangs / “And one” shouts and so forth should make Fes more marketable. Also, Fes needs some product in his hair.

Follow me on Twitter: AllThatAmar
Visit my blog: http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/
E-Mail me at: allthatjazzbasketball@hotmail.com
Really, I'm totally not lonely or anything . . .

by AllThatJazzBasketball on Feb 25, 2010 1:37 PM MST up reply actions

1/2 game behind a tie for first place.

I'm all about covering the spread and moneylines. I was building a house, I don't deserve this, deserves have nothing to do with it. Bang. "Unforgiven" I drink your milkshake. I drink it up! "There Will BE Blood"

by wolfmanshowlforever on Feb 25, 2010 12:26 PM MST reply actions

CJ

needs to try to use a little punctuation in his tweets. He’s as bad at that as shooting right now.

Booz is the bomb!

For the Love of the Game

by ForTheLove on Feb 25, 2010 1:11 PM MST reply actions

LOL...

I was thinking the same thing. And I wasn’t liking the “tha”.

by iLoveBooks100per on Feb 26, 2010 7:37 AM MST up reply actions

could we play tall?

fes,memo,ak,cj, and deron? id like to see them work this out! we suddenly become scary if we can get fes goin and get this lineup started soon or ak at the 4…wow our options are plenty i think we can take it all the way if we can make the adjustments smoothly

by UtonganKidInCali on Feb 25, 2010 1:15 PM MST reply actions

Fes

can’t manufacture his own shot. so he’s not on the same scale as a guy like Booz (post moves / drive), Memo (can make space for his shot, etc) and other bigs who are starters.

That means that Fes needs to be on the floor with 4 guys who can do something offensively. Essentially, Fes is Ostertag — he will only really be useful as a dump off pass under / around the basket that is created by another player drawing in defense to him.

Probably an “ideal” lineup for Fes would be to play with Deron (duh), Kyle (for floor space), Andrei (can pass) and a guy who can play high post on offense (either Booz or Memo can do this. Memo has greater range, but I think Booz is a better passer / commands doubles).

Follow me on Twitter: AllThatAmar
Visit my blog: http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/
E-Mail me at: allthatjazzbasketball@hotmail.com
Really, I'm totally not lonely or anything . . .

by AllThatJazzBasketball on Feb 25, 2010 1:33 PM MST up reply actions

Boozer or Memo

Fes works in with either one playing.

Last 2 games he got an and1 dunk.

1st time Boozer drew the D and dropped it off to him. 2nd time Memo was on the floor and the D was spread out leaving Fes in a 1 on 1 matchup in the post.

So I agree he can be very effective with either one.

"He is STUPID but he knows that he is STUPID and that almost makes him smart."

by LoWBlok on Feb 25, 2010 5:00 PM MST up reply actions