I watched the Knicks/Bulls games last night mainly because it was the only basketball on but also to see how Korver and Brewer played. If Boozer managed to hurt himself on the sidelines in street clothes, then that would have been gravy.
Man, Ronnie did not look good while he was in there. On defense, he was okay, coming up with a steal and a bucket. However, his jumper doesn't seem like it's ever going to come around. His two buckets were close to the rim. As soon as he let his jump shot go, you knew it was going to clang. In his limited minutes this season (just 10 per), he's shooting just 33% (which was raised from 25% with last night's effort). I'd like to see in a month if he's still shooting that poorly.
Korver on the other hand played really well. He was 4 of 7 from deep and helped keep Chicago relatively close despite New York's 124 three-pointers.
And I'm really trying to move on and not dwell on Boozer but seeing him on the sidelines just gave me a wave of relief. Especially so when I read sentences like this,
The sight of Boozer [...] in a soft cast was exciting for his teammates.
It should be an exciting five years for them then. In fact, that would make a great Sports Onion article. "We're looking forward every season to Boozer recovering and getting him back on the court" said his teammate Kyle Korver.
The second game of the night featured the Blazers/Thunder. This of course is always a win because no matter who loses, we win. I didn't have a preference really but I gave a slight edge to the Thunder because Portland is leading the division right now. They gave up a lead late at home and couldn't hit anything in overtime. Matthews had a chance to tie it up late when they were down three and he drove the lane and got fouled. His shot got right to the back of the rim but didn't have enough on it and it rolled back off the left side. He also came down awkward on that shot and tweaked his leg. Given that the Blazers lost two more players yesterday (Olberto retired due to a heart condition), they would have been hurting.
So little over a week into the season and we're 2-2 and just a game back of Portland right now. Get used to it because the NW is going to be like this all season.
I had to go back and re-read this part of Brian T. Smith's notes on Fesenko,
Meanwhile, Utah center Kyrylo Fesenko (gastric distress) and forward Jeremy Evans (sprained right wrist) are game-time decisions. Both attended practice Thursday, and Fesenko was scheduled to engage in as much action as possible.
"I need to sweat it out," Fesenko said.
That's not what I wanted to think about after Fess was recovering from gastric distress. If I hadn't read Genessy's article first, I might not have known that he just meant that getting a practice in would help him feel better overall as he recovers.
Genessy also notes that last season Fess missed four games due to stomach viruses. Maybe it's just one virus that hangs out in his stomach and wakes up when Fess goes into hibernation on the bench. See Sloan? This is why you need to play him more. Otherwise, he gets distressed gastrically!
Have we got a name for our front court of Millsap and Jefferson? Matt Moore uses Aul Jeffsap. I mis-read that at first as just Alsap. Maybe, "You're in good hands with Alsap?" Whatchagot?
There seems to be a growing movement by the media to get Sloan a coaching of the year award. The fact that he doesn't have one yet didn't go unnoticed by the Toronto media citing previous Raptor's coach Sam Mitchell's win in 2007. Maybe that's why so many of the media type have the Jazz pegged for fewer wins so that when the Jazz exceed those expectations, they can finally right a wrong.
Some feel at this point that Sloan should never be given the award just to prove a point. Then we could call it the Jerry Sloan COY Award and relish in the irony that he never won one.
At this point though, I'm hoping he wins one just so that he don't have to hear about this again. It's becoming an annual occurrance and something that is brought up every time the Jazz are on national TV.
Maybe they should award it to him and then announce that they're re-naming it.
Friday poll,