What a stark difference between the sounds emanating from much of the crowd at ESA, and the statements made by you all in the game thread and on Twitter. I am proud of all the Dunkers for their ability to show respect and gratitude to a great player and a fine citizen of our community. We all may not agree on many things when it comes to our favorite team and sport, but I'm glad we came to an honorable consensus in regards to Deron Willams.
Bravo Zulu, Dunkers
Full recap after the jump.
I mentioned in the game preview that this was another lesson game for the youthful Jazz team, and they performed wonderfully. The Jazz did exactly what good NBA teams do, they easily beat a depleted, under talented team at home. The other thing they managed to do was bounce back after a very tough overtime loss to the Lakers.
The game never felt like it was going to be close. I think many of us were more concerned about the obnoxious boos for DWill, than we were when New Jersey would close it to four points. Invariably, when it did happen the Jazz would go on a 10+ point run and get the game comfortably out of reach. By the middle of the 3rd quarter Deron was already showing signs of fatigue and disinterest, after having to carry his team the night before in Phoenix.
Forte
Devin Harris/ Earl Watson, CJ Miles
While there were a number of good games, I'm going with the two guys that controlled the flow of the game, and the guy who absolutely needed a breakout game. Can we just stop treating Harris and Watson as separate players and just lump their performances into one two headed PG? While their individual numbers may continually draw little excitement, the sum of their performance is usually quite solid. Take tonight for example, combined they put up a fantastic line: 6 pts, 5 rbd, 12 ast, 3 stl, 1 to
CJ seemed to be everywhere in his nearly 18 minutes of playing time, and the box score showed it. He finished with 17 pts on 75% fg, went 5/5 from the line, hauled in 6 boards, with 2 assists, and a steal on top.
Mezzo Forte
The Bigs
Big Al had somewhat of a bounce back game, scoring 20 pts on 9/16 shooting. Millsap was amazing, yet again. Its starting to be expected and tonight he added 18 pts, 12 rbd, 3 ast, and 4 stl. Kanter just rebounds. All your rebounds are belong to him. Big Turkey managed 7 pts, 8 rbd, and 2 stl, in a little over 18 minutes.
The best number for all the big men was the minutes played. With Kanter, Favors, and even Jeremy Evans able to put in some good minutes, Al and Sap were only needed for 23 and 26 minutes, respectively.
Piano
Alec Burks
We all love him and want to see more, but in the nine minutes he was on the floor he didn't bring the intensity that he should have if he wants to steal some minutes. He shot well, but that's about it. Maybe we need to back off the #FreeAlecBurks so the young fella doesn't get a big head.
Also, I'm putting the sad display by some Jazz fans into this category.