NBA Regular Season: Utah Jazz 92 at Brooklyn Nets 90 -- Quick Recap

NBA Regular Season 2012-2013, Game 26:

Utah Jazz 92 at Brooklyn Nets 90

#UTAatBKN Game Stream -- NetsDaily -- Jazz vs Nets coverage

Deron Williams faces off against the club that drafted him, made him a star, then traded him

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Quick Recap:

• Who: The Utah Jazz, lead by their starters,
  
• What: came back from being down 14 points,
  
• When: during a decisive 3rd quarter counter-attack,
  
• Where: on the road in the Barclays Center, in Brooklyn,
  
• Why: because Tyrone Corbin gives a great halftime speech, or something.

More seriously, I think the main difference had to be getting stops in the third quarter. In the first half the Jazz gave up 24 and 33 points in the first two quarters. Early on the Nets had slowed things down and taking the Jazz out of the tempo that we desired to play. The game was slow and ugly where every single play seemed to hinge upon a failed pick and roll and the ensuing iso play for a jumper. It's not how we want to play; but that's precisely how guys like Joe Johnson look good.

Early on there were defensive struggles by Randy Foye, Paul Millsap, and Al Jefferson against dribble penetration. Guys like Joe Johnson are supposed to beat you one on one. Guys like Gerald Wallace and Kris Humphries? Not so much. The defensive tone changed with the insertion of Gordon Hayward (2 blocks), Derrick Favors (3 blocks), and DeMarre Carroll (no blocks, but his general level of pestiness).

The Jazz were down by *only* 13 at halftime, and turned the tables by holding Brooklyn to only 17 points, while scoring 26 on their side of things. Utah took the lead in the fourth quarter on a Mo Williams three -- and a mixed lineup carried the day.

With Utah up 4 with 31 seconds left things got a little too interesting for our comfort. Gordon Hayward and Mo Williams botched an inbounds and gave Brooklyn a chance. Joe Johnson ends up getting fouled and makes both. The Nets then elect to foul Mo Williams (with a foul to give) after half the remaining time is gone. The Jazz then have to inbound the ball again, and are unable to do so as DeMarre Carroll got it to Al Jefferson 40 feet from the basket. He coughs it up. The Nets run some stupid stuff, take a long jumper, missed. Reggie Evans got the offensive rebound, and missed a layup to tie the game.

Jazz win.

Crazy.

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Shout outs:

• Marvin Williams was so key tonight, he was one of the few guys working in the first half, and he finished with 11 points ,10 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal, and a so necessary dunk.
• Paul Millsap had 12 and 8, with 2 assists, 3 steals, and 1 block. He did not dominate this match-up against Kris Humphries, but he did enough to be a +8 in +/- in a 2 point game.
• Al Jefferson had 16 and 11, with 1 assist. He was not scoring well or defending well all game long, but come crunch time he made two huge baskets when we needed it most and had one heck of a great offensive rebounds to set up our victory.
• Mo Williams had 19 points off of 17 shots. Errr. Not what we like, but he did go 4/4 from the line and had 6 assists to his 5 turn overs. He had a sloppy game, and he and Deron Williams basically negated each other. (Deron had 14 and 5) Both guys didn't have their best games of their lives, but Mo came out the victor tonight with his big three and the W against a Gold Medalist.
• Derrick Favors had 13 points, 2 rebounds, 2 assists, 3 blocks, and did so many things right. He also went 5/6 from the FT line. In a game with such a small margin of victory this cannot be overstated.
• Gordon Hayward had 7 points, 5 assists, 4 rebounds, 2 blocks, and went 3/3 from the line. He does a little of everything and his defense against Joe Johnson (coupled with DeMarre) helped secure the win in the 4th