Al and Paul Are Good Helpers Edition - The Downbeat #877

What a happy day to write a downbeat! There is nothing like winning the first game of the season, winning it by 19 and to a team that you have struggled with for quite a few years now. I didn't watch the game live, and I wasn't able to go to the game as I wanted to do. I missed out on interacting here and on Twitter. I did have fun watching the game after a night of Halloween activities. (I love that we get tons of trick or treaters).

Quick First impressions:

• I felt like I was really watching the Jazz again. There was ball movement, not just chuck it into the post and watch... yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
• Defense was incredible in the 2nd half.
• Loved that Ty mixed and matched Vets and Kids (besides Burks um, why the crap did he only play 2 minutes!)
• The Jazz played their style of ball which is quick and fast and fun to watch.
• Marvelous Marvin is a great great addition to our team

Some people questioned Favors at the beginning of the preseason. KOC questioned Favors fitness coming into camp. Jim Burton (@jmb247) wrote about it here:

KOC's quote:

"(Not everybody improves) on a certain pattern and level," he said. "I saw this summer he did a terrific job. Watching him in preseason I think it took him a while to get his legs underneath him. I don’t think he came in in the shape that kind of he wanted to. I think he got a little surprised at how quickly we were going to play this year."

Favors reply:

"I don’t like people calling me out like that … in a good way," Favors said. "You call me out like that, I turn into a different person."

So do you think Favors proved KOC wrong with his play last night?

I love looking at Popcorn Machine's game flow charts after the games. Here is the one from last night's game against Dallas:

Click on the chart to see it full size. The Jazz seemed to play their best in the 3rd quarter (which we all witnessed) with our starters in the games. One thing that really stood out to me from the game flow chart was Al's help value in the 3rd quarter. In the 3rd quarter Al had a HV (help value= rebounds + assists + steals + blocks - turnovers ) of 10 with only 4 points. Al had 7 rebounds 1 block and 2 steals. Paul had a HV of 10 in the first quarter with nine rebounds and 1 assist. I like when those two especially are doing more than just scoring.

Gordon Monson wrote a great recap of the game:

Few ideas that stood out to me. While I was watching the games I wasn't really paying attention to minute distributions. I was trying to just enjoy the game. The only obvious frustration with minutes was the lack of minutes for Burks. Even then I wasn't too mad because we won and the players on the court were playing well minus the last minutes of the 2nd quarter.

Anyways here's Gordon's take on the kids minutes

On Wednesday night, the young’uns were left, again, in Tyrone Corbin’s strict confinement. Favors got 17 minutes, scoring six points and grabbing 10 rebounds. Enes Kanter got 14 minutes, going for six and seven. Gordon Hayward got 23 minutes, collecting 11 points and three boards. Alec Burks got two minutes in garbage time.

Kanter's take:

"It’s coach’s decision," said Kanter. "Whether I play five minutes or 40, I’ve just got to give it everything I can. I’m going to fight on the court, always fight."

Favors take:

"I can’t control it," said Favors.

Monson didn't include quotes from Hayward and Burks. I know Burks deserved more than two minutes. I was surprised to see Hayward stay on the bench the entire fourth. But we won by 19 so what can you say, it was a good game.

Kanter tweeted this out yesterday it made me grin:

Kanter going coast to coast from Salt City HooPs