"Can I Get A Karl Malone All-Star Snub Type Performance?" - The Downbeat - # 684

I thought now would be a good time to check in on Basketball John and see what his feelings are on the team. I can only imagine what he would have to say about the Jazz if he were writing the downbeat today. Luckily, BBJ has left SLCDUNK, but not Jazz fandom or twitter. So here is an update on some insightful and funny stuff he had to say last night via twitter.

The Jinx:

A joke appropriate for Tax-filing season:

And the kicker of the whole shebang:

Preach on, Brother.

I received a couple of private messages about the downbeat I posted yesterday, in regards to its negative/depressing nature. I'm not going to apologize, but thought I would explain. I wrote almost all of that downbeat right after the Thunder loss and was feeling a little frustrated by the direction of the team. Everything I wrote, I feel, whether it's after a win or a loss, but the Memphis win certainly made some of the comments feel out of place. I never expected the Jazz to lose last night. It was most likely the worst loss of the season, but Jazz fans aren't new to performances like that. The Jazz have had similar/worse losses in recent memory. The Jazz aren't unique either. Every team in the NBA has losses similar to that one last night. Any team in the NBA can beat any other team on any other night. It's not just a clever saying. Which makes this statement frustrating:

Jefferson is obviously speaking for the team. There's little doubt that some of the players were discussing that they believed the Hornets would walk over for them. That is in a word...

UNACCEPTABLE.

The Jeremy Lin story is the "Moves Like Jagger" of the NBA: it's completely overplayed to the point of being more annoying than it should be. It doesn't make the Lin story less incredible ("Moves like Jagger" is not at all incredible). It is unprecedented and crazy what Lin has done for the city of New York, the Knicks and the NBA. What amazes me about the story is how Lin was able to singlehandedly change the Knicks from a bottom feeder to a playoff contender and probably top 10 team. Besides Lin fitting in with the Dantoni offense, he really just happens to provide the exact ingredient that the Knicks were missing: competent point guard play. It is obvious that the Jazz are missing 3 point shooters as much as anything, but would a great 3 point shooter change the Jazz's fortune like the Knicks' has changed? I can't help but think of the Korver acquisition and how the Jazz won 15 of the next 17 games afterward. But what is a realistic expectation? If the Jazz acquired, say Anthony Morrow, tomorrow, how many games would the Jazz improve? Bottom line is that the Jazz need a Lin-type experience in order to turn the team around.

The Jazz need a hero, but any 3 point shooter will do to pair with deadeye Raja Bell (39% from 3 this season).

One of the reasons the Jazz struggle on the road is because their defense doesn't travel very well. As of last week, the Jazz were allowing their opponents to shoot about 4% better on the road than at home. But even bigger news to me is that the Jazz are allowing 28.5 free throw attempts on the road, but only 22.8 at home as of 3 games ago. Add the fact that the Jazz shoot 4 less free throws on the road than at home and we are talking about a 10 free throw differential. Considering that the average NBA team shoots 74.7% from the free throw line and the Jazz are handicapping themselves by 7.4 points on the road. They can't do that. The Jazz need to improve their road defense by fouling less, first and foremost.

I had too much to write to do a trivia question yesterday, so I will do one today.

What do these teams have uniquely in common that pertains to the Jazz?

Warriors, Bucks, Hornets, Supersonics.