NBA Regular Season: Utah Jazz fall to Sacramento Kings 108-97 -- Game Recap

NBA Regular Season 2012-2013, Game 14:

Utah Jazz 97 @ Sacramento Kings 108

#UTAatSAC Game Stream -- Sactown Royalty (SB Nation Blog) -- Jazz vs Kings coverage

Game Recap

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Is the sky falling, or are we just doing what we normally do -- play poorly on the road?

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First Half:

Due to an injury sustained in the last game the Jazz went with the starting line up of Jamaal Tinsley, Randy Foye, Marvin Williams, Paul Millsap, and Al Jefferson. It's generous to suggest that this lineup has some problems. No line up is perfect, but in a pinch this is what Tyrone Corbin had to start with to start this game. In the first quarter the Kings started on an 8-0 run. Though, due to the unlocked video game mode of Randy Foye (4/5 from downtown this quarter, 1/1 FT, finished with 13 points in 11 minutes, along with 2 dimes and 1 board) -- we went on a 21-8 run. That effectively erased the deficit, and the two teams went with some mixed bench units and the Jazz then went on an 8-2 run. Earl Watson was a major factor in this run as his defense was a sight for sore eyes.

The second quarter had their bench making a recovery against ours (6-1 run), but mostly both teams holding serve. The Jazz finished the half up by 5 points. One critical point I have is that Randy Foye sat for so long, he did not return to the game, after starting off on fire, until there was 3:40 left to play before an even longer break. I understand that DeMarre Carroll was hustling well (so you couldn't just put Gordon in his place), and that Gordon was shooting poorly (and benching him super early would be dumb, because you need him to get going) -- so the off-ball slots were filled. And Earl was conducting things, while running Foye at the point would prevent him from being off-the ball. So logically it would have been hard to put Foye in the game earlier. Though, I think Corbin (a professional NBA coach) probably still should have found a way.

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Second Half:

Once again we got to see the third quarter collapse. This time it was a 9-0 run when both starting units were in, followed by a quarter ending 11-1 run. The Jazz seem to give it up so easily in the 3rd quarter this year. I guess the other team comes into the game more motivated after their coaches halftime speeches? Or is it that . . . hey . . . we're playing without our starting PG Mo Williams . . . *and then* . . . our starting C Al Jefferson got injured in the middle of the quarter when we had retaken the lead?

The fourth quarter was our bench going on a 7-1 run, then their mix and match lineup (no Cousins because he got himself ejected) returning fire with a 7-0 run and that being the ball game.

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Top Performers:

• Jamaal Tinsley (PG, 30:47) -- Jamaal went 4/6 from downtown tonight, on his way to 14 points. He also had 7 assists, 2 rebounds, and 1 steal. So we wasted the best scoring game of his season on an early season loss. If Jamaal Tinsley goes 4/6 from downtown ever again I will eat a whole can of Tuna Fish (my most hated and detested food)
• Randy Foye (SG, 30:50) -- Started off hot, going 4/5 from downtown in the first quarter, made 1 shot the rest of the game. He missed three free throws in a row after being fouled in the act of shooting. It was just that kind of night for our team. He led the team with 17 points, 2 assists, and 1 rebound. Of course, his counter part scored 27 points, had 5 assists, and 5 rebounds -- so . . . when do we reward defense?
• Enes Kanter (C/PF, 14:01) -- Enes had 9 points and 7 rebounds in little over a quarter's worth if minutes. He also had 1 assist, got to the free throw line 4 times, and drew an offensive foul on DeMarcus Cousins, which elicited a technical foul on DeMarcus, and then DeMarcus went DeMarcus on the ref, and got ejected.
  
• Jeremy Evans (PF, DNP-CD) -- He scored two free towels from the hotel, and saved $150 on his per diem by putting extra fruits and yogurt cups from his continental breakfast in a bag to have for lunch.
• A number of guys played poorly, but let's try not to be too negative. Some of our franchise played poorly too (be it coaches, reporters, all the way down to fans . . . or something)

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Game Changer:

For me the game was completely changed after Big Al got injured in the 3rd quarter. The Jazz had widstood the Kings 9-0 third quarter starting run and retook the lead again. Jefferson was playing well, he went 2/3, was getting shots at the rim, had 3 rebounds and 1 block -- in 6:56 minutes. Him getting hot elicited more defensive pressure and Paul Millsap started to play well and do Paul Millsap type things as a result. Al went out. We lost our momentum. Paul lost his Mojo again. And the Kings go on an 11-1 run against our starters*. (* because we're already without Mo Williams, and then we lost another starter in Al Jefferson) By the time the benches cleared to start the fourth the game was almost already out of reach. Millsap, Carroll, Hayward, Kanter, and Watson spurred a 7-1 run at the start of the fourth, but we couldn't get over the hump.

The team got derailed after Al left, and Corbin was forced to have to many even more lineup changes -- something he's really not good at under pressure right now. It didn't work out in our favor, even after DeMarcus was ejected for being an entitled young generation player. Jefferson isn't the best player in the world, and I've written thousands of words on him to explain that; however, we were playing better with him on the floor during the stretch right before he got hurt.

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Ooooohhhh Moment:

Jamaal's dribble between Cousins' legs that led directly to a turn over and fast break score for the Kings? Was that it? I think that explains the game perfectly.

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The Good News:

The next game is at home!

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The Bad News:

It's against the Denver Nuggets who are an amazing team that killed us last time we played, and this time around we have two banged up / injured starters.

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Going forward:

The last four games are vs. Denver Nuggets, @ New Orleans Hornets, @ Oklahoma City Thunder, @ Houston Rockets. That's four games in the next six nights. It's going to be rough, and I can easily predict the immediate reactions to be immediate and reactive in the next few nights. But it's still only November. We have 3 new starters this year. It's super early.

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Post Game Immediate Reaction Video:

If you missed this somehow . . .

And yeah, as usual with Andy -- we go all night long. (49 mins) So ladies, you know what you're in for if you play your cards right. As for the video, yech. Well, we talk about the game, but we also try to talk about this team. It's not unusual to consistently do dumb "stuff". And we did.