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So it was totally, one of those games. Crappy opponent, second game of a back-to-back, got up by 20+, wiffled around a bit and let a run cut the lead to 10, then closed out the game. It never became nervous, but you got to where you were a little nervous that it would become nervous.
The ending was, of course, abysmal. It was my first time being the fan on the "victim" side of the intentional fouling thing. How stupid that was. All along, I've sorta been on the "make your free throws" side. And sure ... when Rudy hit 8 of 10, that was all the Suns did. But whatever ... it was still stupid. And yeah, it needs to be fixed. And it's simple to do: non-basketball fouls are worth 2 FT's and possession. Done and over.
Then Devin Booker hit some shots in the last 2 minutes that made Jazz fans everywhere remind themselves that we coulda got him but didn't. Trey Lyles may come on in the future, we all know, but right now Booker would be really awesome to have.
But in the end, the Jazz closed out, got back to .500, solidified the fact that they look like a quality basketball team again, and we are all happy.
Earl Watson definitely looks like a head coach. I would say that I hope Phoenix has more patience with him than they showed with Jeff, but I don't know if I do. Cuz Phoenix's management is really the problem and I'm not sure they know how to build a good team, regardless of the time. Jeff wasn't fired out of impatience. Jeff was fired because the GM turned a decent roster into a mess. That's not really going to change if Earl is given more time. But I still wish him the best.
On the Jazz side, Rodney Hood and Gordon Hayward just kinda did whatever they felt like. And tonight they felt like getting some easy scores. Rudy Gobert did his thing defensively, Derrick Favors again struggled offensively (he really didn't look good offensively at all this week). Raul Neto had another decent game scoring. And the bench, again, contributed very little outside Joe Ingles and Trevor Booker. But at least Sloppy Joe gave us this:
On the Suns side, well, everybody just looks miserable. They are almost as joyless as the Cavs. The Phoenix Gorilla looked good in a tux, though.