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March Game Streams -- Welcome to Loud City -- Jazz vs Thunder coverage
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Do you remember the Seattle Supersonics? Sure you do. Well, remember in their last season when they had some skinny rookie and we took their lunch? They moved away and became the Oklahoma City Thunder (tell me something I don't know!) Well since that time they've gone on to be one of the best teams in the NBA. During this span in their new home the zombics are 57-28 at home against the visiting Utah Jazz. We don't win there. We don't really win anywhere but Utah, as this seasons' Jazz are 8-29 on the road. The Thunder are 30-7 at home. It's, well, it all evens out I guess. It's a very Daoist thing I guess. OKC is 7-3 in their last 10 games, and the Jazz ate 1-9. Worse still, Utah has lost 3 in a row and will look to avoid making it four tonight.
It's going to be hard to do, as the Jazz still don't know what's the deal with Alec Burks -- who looks to miss his fifth straight game with an ankle injury. He practiced yesterday and will test his ankle out before the game, and then make a decision. Without Burks the Jazz bench is very weak. After all, there's only so much Marvin Williams and, gulp, Diante Garrett can do by themselves. (Second "tell me something I don't know" moment of the post: we sure were a great team when we had the C4 all on the bench, one of the best benches in the league.) Andris Biedrins will probably miss this game too. Compounding things, Tyrone Corbin has shortened the rotation (#playoffpush ?) and Brandon Rush isn't seeing any time on the floor anymore.
It makes sense though. A good coach doesn't shut down the 3rd string SG when the 2nd string SG is hurt, and you don't have a lot of depth. Tyrone Corbin is showing us that he's not a good coach.
The Thunder aren't without injuries either. Kendrick Perkins (starter), Thabo Sefolosha (starter), and Reggie Jackson (6th man) are all out. So, that kind of makes it a little less of a huge talent disparity. But OKC still has Kevin Durant (32.2 / 7.5 / 5.6 / 1.3 / 0.8), Serge Ibaka (15.0 / 8.7 / 1.0 / 0.4 / 2.6) and Russell Westbrook (21.2 / 5.7 / 7.0 / 1.9 / 0.1). That alone should be enough.
It's going to be hard for the Jazz to win tonight unless they get something crazy from Gordon Hayward or Trey Burke. Our guards our going to have to show up for the Jazz to have a chance. Most likely, though, we have no chance. And we lose our 4th straight.