The good guys against the bad guys. The Oklahoma City Thunder have the best record in the western conference, are led by two All-Stars in Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook -- and in the off-season they nurse back to health injured baby unicorns. I guess that makes us the bad guys then. If that's the case, let's be bad and rough up the "teacher's pet team" that this league loves so much. The Utah Jazz are an inside/no out team that pounds it in the paint and have 13 wins somehow, despite getting nearly nothing from their guards this year. Jazz starters Devin Harris and Raja Bell, combined, average 15.4 ppg this season. OKC has three guys who average more than that by themselves.

That said, if OKC are the good guys, let's be the bad guys. And let's make life rough for the good guys.

Starters:

Notes:

• Jazz guard Jamaal Tinsley is probable for tonight
• Thunder guard Eric Maynor is out for the season
• Thunder guard Thabo Sefolosha is out indefinitely
  
• Thunder also without Ryan Ried, nasal surgery. I wish him the best. That must suck.
• Thunder vs Jazz coverage
• Thunder vs Jazz preview
• Welcome to Loud City

Tonight the Jazz take on the Pacer in Indiana. It is a home coming for Gordon Hayward, where he will be tested early and often by the Pacers Danny Granger and Paul George. Indiana is a solid team, while we were still trying to figure out who we are.

Stuck at work. Blah. Sorry for the lack of fun, fact filled game threads as of late . . .

• Jazz vs Pacers coverage
• Jazz vs Pacers preview
• Indy Cornrows

The Utah Jazz face off against the New York Knicks in 30 mins from now. Seriously. I'm not organized enough to have a flashy game thread up in time for something like an East Coast Game -- and I live in the Eastern Standard Time Zone. Man. Knicks will be playing without Amar'e Soudemire who lost his brother. I expect the Knicks to play with a lot of heart as a result.

No major injuries for the Jazz, Knicks w/o Amar'e, but also without Baron Davis and Josh Harrellson

• Jazz vs Knicks coverage
• Jazz vs Knicks preview
• Posting and Toasting

The Los Angeles Lakers will be facing off against our Utah Jazz for the 3rd time this season, and the 3rd time in only 22 games. Wow. How much more can learn from these experiences? Well, hopefully a lot. The Lakers aren't the same team that used to give us fits for years. These Lakers give us fits because we fail to play them at our best. We almost had them in Game 2 of this seasons' series -- but lost nevertheless. We should have Earl Watson, and possibly also Devin Harris back for this game.

The Lakers played last night and they started Derek Fisher, Kobe Bryant, Metta World Peace, Pau Gasol, and All-Star Andrew Bynum. They kind of got jobbed on a number of calls last night; so, yeah. Expect some level of business to happen tonight. If we're healthy we'll roll with Devin Harris, Raja Bell, Gordon Hayward, Paul Millsap, and Al Jefferson.

Sorry again for the lack of an awesome game thread -- those are coming back but remixed with your suggestions next week.

Nothing unifies people better than a common foe. There is no foe greater than the Lakers.

• Lakers vs Jazz coverage
• Lakers vs Jazz preview
• Silver Screen and Roll

Don't forget to get your "Guess the Game Score" guesses in before tip off.

Place holder . . . while trying to fix everything else right now . . .

Jazz vs Warriors coverage

Jazz vs Warriors preview

Golden State Of Mind

Tonight there is a double-header on ESPN (Oklahoma City Thunder at Dallas Mavericks ; then LA Clippers at Utah Jazz). I haven't slept much lately (2 hours in the last 24), so I'm going to make this a simple game thread:

Go Get 'Em Boys!

Feel free to keep things nice in the game thread. Talk about both games, be nice to all the fans, even if they come over and are not nice to you. By 'slacking' on this game thread I am dedicating myself to more fun, cool, informative, content rich posts for the site. Enjoy.

Clippers vs Jazz coverage

Clippers vs Jazz preview

Clips Nation <-- really cool cats who know their ball

Tonight the Jazz host the Portland Trail Blazers. They are a good team, and a division rival. We’ll face them four times during the regular season. I don’t think we learned much from each other in our two pre-season games. Tonight is where the fun starts. They are a very talented team with a number of legit Jazz Killers on the roster. At least the Jazz fans attending will know for which players to root for this time.

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Sight Reading:

While we may have a better record (by percentage points) than the Blazers – they are clearly the better team across the board. The biggest difference is their crazy pace. I guess Brandon Roy was holding them back all those years? They are Top 10 in Own PPG, Opp. PPG, Page, and Def RTG. They are 11th in Off RTG. We’re not that bad on offense (technically we’re better); but our defense lags behind theirs. Both teams take care of the ball, and hit the glass.

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Not that much Much more info after the jump!

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The Utah Jazz are on a two game skid, and look to finish off the week with a win on the second night of a back-to-back set. The Jazz will host the Sacramento Kings at the Energy Solutions Arena, or Delta Center, depending on your current point of view regarding radiation. (Karl Malone Interview Reference #1) The Kings are not a very good team, not according to their record (6-13 overall, 2-9 on the road); and not according to their team stats. No team in the league gets scored on more than they do. To their credit, they do have the 5th highest pace in the sport. Tyreke Evans and Jimmer Fredette headline "a pretty small in stature, but high in offensive firepower" backcourt. Evans outscores Devin Harris and Raja Bell by himself. By nearly a whole point. Ouch. Of course the game is bigger than two players, it’s a chance for the Jazz to get a win at home while the majority of the crowd cheers for a guy on the other team.

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Sight Reading:

This TV game is going to be fun for one set of fan, and one set of fan alone: those who want to see Jimmer Fredette play the Jazz. I don’t think Kings fans are going to have a blast tonight. Nor do I expect pure Jazz fans to be happy with this game either. We are a better team, period. Though I expect a lot of Jimmer craziness making the game a side event to the ‘more important’ spectacle. The Prince of Provo returns to the State that adores him.

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Much more info after the jump!

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Tonight the Utah Jazz will attempt to avenge an early season heart-breaking loss to the Dallas Mavericks. I’m not going to write much here because I have a bad head ache. So yeah, not tonight, honey . . .

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Sight Reading:

There is a lot of D in Dallas – they flat out shut down teams. They are big on steals and causing turn overs. Our side? We’re a little light on defense, but have a Top 10 offense right now. We try to not turn it over ever. Furthermore, we do play some defense by blocking shots. Ultimately, this is going to be a rebounding issue. We’re Tops in keeping the other team off the glass; and they are 5th best in getting rebounds.

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Much more info after the jump!

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I love it when the Utah Jazz and the Toronto Raptors play. And I also hate it. When I was a kid, and living in Canada in the pre-internet / pre-league pass days it was one of the only times outside of the playoffs where I could see the Jazz on TV. Today, it’s a situation where I feel bad for Canada’s team getting killed over and over again. The Canadian media (and many fans) grew up learning to understand, appreciate, and respect the Jazz as a result. (Don’t believe me? See how a Canadian beat writer reveres the team Jerry Sloan built, or how Canadian bloggers also point out when we’re doing great.) I don’t sense that the admiration goes both ways across the border – even our beat writers would rather make up some crazy story about their passport than head north to cover a Raptors game. (Hee hee hee) The Raptors aren’t the perfect team, but they have a number of good players – they recently beat the Phoenix Suns, and before that the Minnesota Timberwolves. They’ve had a horrible schedule filled with numerous road games. On the flip side we’ve experienced the opposite, home game after home game. One could argue that the Jazz aren’t as good as their record; and by the same token, perhaps the Raptors aren’t as bad as theirs is? If either of those statements are valid then we’ll be in for a good game tonight.

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Sight Reading:

On paper this looks like a decisive advantage for the Utah Jazz. Our offense is coming around (#11 in PPG, #12 in point differential, #11 in offensive rating), and our defense only allows 0.7 ppg more than the other team does. The Raptors, on the other hand, are having a number of struggles on offense. This is the only time these two teams will play one another this season, so it’s not like we’ll get a chance to make it up if we drop this game. Toronto’s offense isn’t fantastic, but if they can slow down the pace and keep the game close they have a number of guys who are legit NBA scoring options (Andrea Bargnani, Leandro Barbosa, Linas Kleiza, and DeMar DeRozan for starters…). Furthermore, Jose Calderon is averaging 8.8 apg. And this team is super slow (24th slowest pace). That means he’s doing a great job distributing the ball in the halfcourt. If the Raptors sped it up Jose would average over 10 apg easily.

I think this game is going to be won or lost in the paint. Both teams are Top 10 in blocked shots. The Jazz don’t turn the ball over much, so it’s not likely that the Raptors will get easy, fast break buckets. And the Raptors don’t get lit up from the outside, forcing other teams into shooting in the very low 40 fg% range. Lastly, the Raptors are 7th best this season in defensive rebounds, and 7th best this season in total rebounds. Contrasting that, the Jazz are 2nd best at NOT giving the other team a lot of total rebounds. Things are going to get mucky inside as both teams have a penchant for being whistled for fouls. It will be messy, indeed.

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