Utah Jazz Strategy vs. The Lakers
by AllThatJazzBasketball on Apr 3, 2010 2:06 AM MDT
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I'm not happy about this loss. I did not think that the Jazz would win -- but I did hope that the Jazz might have the gall to come out there on the Lakers home court and try to take the lead at some point during the 2nd half. Alas, they did not. I'm quite outspoken about why the Jazz just seem to have fits against the Lakers - Utah is always *right there* at certain points of the game; but it just ends up being a difference of inches. Specifically the height and length of the Lakers that kill our passing lanes (causing turn overs), make it hard for our undersized bigs to get good shots off (case in point: Boozer's career vs the Lakers), and are just too damn big to defend in the paint in single coverage with guys who are the size of other teams' small forwards and shooting guards. (Durant, btw, is only one inch shorter than the Jazz starting center)
Through all my sleuth work, and the decision to be creative at 3 am while I wait for some damn batchleorette party to finish, I seem to have uncovered the root of the problem.
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wow
having trouble uploading a non-default-compressed version . . . hang on . . .
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by AllThatJazzBasketball on Apr 3, 2010 2:28 AM MDT reply actions
link at bottom of page should be working now
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by AllThatJazzBasketball on Apr 3, 2010 2:49 AM MDT up reply actions
Rebounds:
Boozer (33 mins) 4 offensive, 18 total
Memo+Sap (57 mins) 1 offensive, 9 total
Fes (3 mins) 2 offensive, 3 total
As a team Jazz had 45 total, but only 9 offensive off of 47 misses. That’s pretty weaksauce right there. Lakers outrebounded the Jazz and no one was there boxing out / controlling the defensive paint. I’m no Hall of Fame coach, but at some point basketball is simply applied physics. (Don’t believe me? Ask Shaq’s 4 rings) A bigger, larger human being occupies more space (implicitly). With enough mass this individual is able to not just occupy space, but prevent other players from moving in, out or through that space.
We all love Millsap’s grit and hustle. We love Boozer’s sense of timing. And we love Memo’s, uh, play from a few seasons ago. It’s nice to love people. Rudy, the guy who played in 1 play for Notre Dame in NCAA football, was loveable. He was not, on the other hand, Lawrence Taylor. He did not write history with his stellar career. LT did that.
Scrappiness is only going to get the Jazz so far — I’m sick of having to watch guys like Adam Keefe try to play Pippen, or Greg Foster defend Chris Webber. Defending good players with physically overmatched players is bad coaching. I don’t care if you almost make the playoffs with Ben Handlogten. I’m interested in winning games in the playoffs.
The Jazz will not if they face the Lakers with such a physically over-matched group.
Deron played his heart out, and Wes had (possibly) the best defensive game on Kobe I’ve seen in a long time. The Jazz lost this game inside.
Because the other team was bigger (longer, taller) than we were.
Even Jeff Van Gundy took time out of his 2 hour rant about women’s NCAA basketball to mention that “hey, maybe Utah should use some of that size they have holding the bench down”.
I don’t think that Fes or Kosta are better than Ostertag. I do think that they could be way better than him if they got playing time. They don’t — and appear like they’ll never be ready to help the Jazz against bigger teams because of this systematic decision to never get them ready.
Lakers got an offensive boards that they should not have had. It’s hard to box out guys bigger than you when you’re listed 6’8 (in shoes). It sucks, after a certain point, not even effort will let you overcome physical laws of reality.
I’m sure that if Fes was taught to box out and focus on rebounding he could be a factor against guys like Gasol (who had 16 boards last night). It’s a damn shame that he’s not used — I could do his job (sitting on the bench, and going to practice), and I wouldn’t mind being paid $700k for it either.
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by AllThatJazzBasketball on Apr 3, 2010 3:29 AM MDT reply actions
Yes
But you sacrifice offensive power by taking out one of the big men for Fes. I love Fes i do. I don’t think he can play defense on Gasol and though he might get a few more rebounds then Milsap or Okur, the last thing i want to see is Gasol burning Fes on the block or shooting 15 freethrows cause Fes smacks him around.
I think Boozer did very well last night against Gasol. He rebounded well, was able to get going in the second half etc.
That being said, not having AK hurt us. I feel he is the only one that can really match up to Odem’s height and quickness. Milsap cannot hang with him. He just can’t.
Our bench lost the game for us lastnight. They did jack outside of Price’s hussle. I put this on Sloan for not playing Korver. Maybe there is a reason for it that I don’t know however, we sorely missed his shooting.
Last night stunk, it was a winnable game for the Jazz and we let it slip away with a bad first quarter and not being able to close in the fourth. The Laker bench played better than ours and Odem was a nightmare. We won’t even go into the foulshots….. cause that’s to be expected when you’re in LA.
On a goodnote, at least we didn’t have to see Jack’s ugly mutt!
For the Love of the Game
I think Korver did not get burn
because of a precieved disability to guard a speedy Shannon Brown type (lakers went into two small guards for parts of the game), Ron Artest (yet somehow Price was on him at times?) or Kobe (obvious)
His shooting would have been awesome, sadly he did not take many shots, and of them — he did not really impress many with his making ability. (Lakers length and disruptions to our floor spacing is a factor in this)
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by AllThatJazzBasketball on Apr 3, 2010 4:16 PM MDT up reply actions
Yes, Fes can't defend Gasol right now
But to say Gasol was being defended at all last night is pure revisionism. He almost had a triple double. He was shooting right over guys all night long. Gasol is 4 inches taller than Millsap.
I have no problem with Boozer’s game — 1st quarter was bad (but it was bad for everyone), but he tried all game long. More than trying, he was able to do good things around the basket. I’m more concerned with the play of Memo, and am faulting Millsap here as well. Sap was just too small to be useful. Memo, well, he wasn’t knocking down outside shots. Fes can ALSO not hit outside shots. I don’t see the argument that for LAST GAME that trying either Fes or Kosta more would have hurt our offense. Our offense couldn’t have gotten much worse.
Also, we’ve seen good things happen when Fes and Booz are on the floor together (Boozer has legit range, and draws a lot of Agro from defenses . . . ), just have to look back at the portland game where Booz had the shot to put it to OT, and Fes had a number of high fg% shots that he took and made.
I see the whole FAILURE of 2 seasons ago as a learning experience. The Lakers length hurt us then. We go out and draft Kosta, Ante Tomic and resign Fes. We don’t play them. Playoffs come around and they aren’t ready to help – and don’t. Again, Lakers length hurts us. Next off-season we draft Suton (who doesn’t make the team). We also don’t play any of these bigs. And again, now close to the playoffs — the Lakers length will hurt us.
The point of the flowchart was to show the cycle of failure when it comes to combating the Lakers main advantage (they are way bigger than us). Three years in a row now . . . seems kind of negligent, right?
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by AllThatJazzBasketball on Apr 3, 2010 4:22 PM MDT up reply actions
Fouls
Fes would have been called for Fouls on Gasol. Gasol was getting all kinds of phantom fouls anyway, Fes would have at least made him earn those foul shots. Of course — Fes would get better at NOT FOULING, and gain a bit more cred from the refs if he actually was a rotation player. But that means playing in games regularly for more than the last 1:52 mins.
Do you see a fundamental problem with this scene? I do.
These guys will never be worth the draft picks we used to get them if we never put in the effort to make them better. If that means finding 10 mins to play in a game in December on the road against the Celtics — or gosh, 20 mins against Dallas — then it must be done. For the greater good, and for the purpose of actually correcting some problems we have. (aka. interior defense)
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by AllThatJazzBasketball on Apr 3, 2010 4:27 PM MDT up reply actions
I see your point
Fes really hasn’t been developed as much as we should have. Sloan seems to hold weird fluctuating grudges towards Koof and Fes wehreh he plays one for a week and then switches to the next. I’ve never really understood this. It is one of the flaws in Sloan’s system and there aren’t very many of them.
However, in a battle for playoff seeding against the number 1 team in the conference and alot of heat behind us. I was okay with the lineups Sloan was using, except for Korver which I already mentioned. I also think that had CJ been more on his game he would have been a HUGE factor cause he is quick and long enough to play a little better defense. I think the bad game by CJ and the non use of Korver played a key factor in the loss. 2 guard set or not, his shooting should have been out there in some stretches. I would have loved to see him come out and play at the start of the 3rd so we could make a big run.
I don’t think it’s really the length that’s a problem for us with the Lakers. Even less when Bynum is out like lastnight. It’s the ATHELTICISM of their big men that kills us. Tim Duncan is older and has lost a step and his length doesn’t bother us as much. Memphis’ Gasol isn’t that much of a factor cause he’s not nearly as good as his brother. Camby doesn’t really hurt our game with his length either. We even can usually handle Howard. At least in my opinion, it’s how quick and athletic Gasol, Bynum, and Odem are which kill us. Fes could spell some rest for Boozer, Okur, and Milsap but I don’t think even if we played him as a fulltime starter he would be able to hang with the Laker big men. He’s just not athletic enough.
I also wonder how Gaines would have done as a substitute for Price. Price always plays balls out against the Lakers and usually does pretty well so i understand him being on the court with D-will at the same time. However, Gaines has a little bit better offensive game and I wonder If him playing in a 2 guard set would have helped.
It’s all specuulation though.
For the Love of the Game
I agree that the Jazz have more problems with athleticism than length, but...
Odom is the problem in that department. Gasol is fairly athletic, but the bigger problem is that he can take Boozer one on one and get an easy bunny shot, unless our wings double down on him, but that leaves Derek Fisher and Co open for threes. Fes would work better against Gasol than Odom. AK is our only semi answer for Odom, but I think you can live with having one of them play well. but if Odom gets 20+ points on 70% shooting AND Gasol gets whatever he wants and gets 9 assists due to double teaming, the Jazz CANNOT win in LA. Gotta stop one of them.
The more you try to erase me, the more that I appear.
microsoft excel (had to download a template)
of course, the template did not help at all, so I just fooled around with the program instead of going to bed angry
Follow me on Twitter: AllThatAmar
Visit my blog: http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/
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Really, I'm totally not lonely or anything . . .
by AllThatJazzBasketball on Apr 3, 2010 7:12 PM MDT up reply actions
Love the chart.
Maybe Sloan will have a “price moment” with Fes when he finally puts him in for the last four minutes of WCF game 6 elimination and Fes dominates and then Sloan says at the press conference, “Maybe i should have played him more” and then next season he will and by then we either won’t have Booze or we won’t have AK and DW will be thinking, “Man, I wonder if I could sign with OKC?”
I'll make it coach.
as long as he has that recognition, that's great -- no matter who it is with
Kosta has significant upside, he’s young, but also needs playing time. Fes seems less focused, but has a bigger standing reach (9’5)
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Really, I'm totally not lonely or anything . . .
by AllThatJazzBasketball on Apr 3, 2010 7:13 PM MDT up reply actions
I have been a diehard Jazz fan since I was 12 years old. The ’97 and ’98 teams simultaneously made me very excited about Jazz basketball and broke my heart (thanks, MJ). I have stuck with this team through thick and thin, even during the year when they failed to make the playoffs.
But as of last Friday? I am taking a break.
Thank you for expressing in flowchart what I’ve been thinking. This same Lakers team has presented the same problems to the Jazz for THREE YEARS NOW and essentially, nothing has been done. I am a big fan of Fesenko, and I don’t care if he doesn’t work his butt off in the gym, he’s huge and he tries on defense, which is more than I can say for either Boozer or Okur.
No team will ever, ever win an NBA championship with Okur and Booz starting at the 4 and 5 spots. It is impossible. This was evident four years ago.
In short, thanks for the chart.. I’ll start following the Jazz again when they decide they’re serious about developing some interior defense. Until then, meh.
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