According to Sloan, Hayward had earned he right to more playing time based on his play in Minnesota and practice. What's weird I thought was that he would bring him into the game to start the fourth both times without having played a minute beforehand.
That seems like it would be a hard position to be in even as a vet, let alone a rookie. It's not like he had his hand forced. AK had left the game, true, but CJ Miles was sitting on the bench the entire time when the offense needed something. It just seems like it would be hard to get into the flow of the game at that point.
He did have some decent play. He was able to draw a foul early on a drive and then get to the line on another. He also played some good transition D against Patty Mills.
However, Hayward had some open looks and just couldn't knock them down. He has to start knocking down those open looks. Even if he's playing lock-down D, 37% just isn't going to cut it.
After a frigid start to the season, Raja is finally ringing the bell from deep. He was shooting barely above 30% through November. This month though he's raised that average to 38% thanks to his 48% shooting from three.
Speaking of threes, that was the first loss of the season for the Jazz when they've made at least 10 three-pointers. The victories came at Cleveland, at home to Orlando, and at Portland last month. It's also just their third loss in 21 chances when making at least 4 three-pointers.
Congrats to Deron for receiving the NBA Cares Community Assist Award for November. The money that he has put into the community through the Point of Hope Foundation can be measured, but the impact on the lives that it benefits cannot.
He has the annual golf tournament, dodge ball tourney, Thanksgiving dinners, and Christmas dinners for single mothers and their children.
This is a guy that would show up at a local Costco for pete's sake and sign autographs and hang out around the time he was working on a new deal.
I'm putting together a list of games for a SLC Dunk night out. I'll have it up shortly. So start thinking about that and putting away some money for tickets. I'll put up some information on what's available. The biggest question is who do you all want to go see? Obviously the bigger-named teams are going to cost more but we don't want to necessarily see the Wolves play either.
I'll put a list together and we can vote on the game. Then we can get the package information.
Tuesday open poll... What lineup should be closing out games?