The Utah Jazz lost to the San Antonio Spurs 88-86. It's not the end of the world. There's a few more games to play, games the team will win. We look back at some of the #SASatUTA and #UTAatSAS exploits of a former player -- you know, Mehmet Okur. We also take a trip down memory lane and watch some of the 2016 Hall of Fame Class in action . . . and we're all still trying to figure out where Tibor is.
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So the Utah Jazz lost to the San Antonio Spurs, and the men in black claim their 101st win against our Jazz in the regular season. The fact that they have 101 wins should be somewhat telling that Utah wasn't favored. I'm not going to feel bad about this loss. Utah can still make the NBA Playoffs, they pretty much just have to take care of business against the Dallas Mavericks at home, and two road games against bad teams: the Denver Nuggets and the Los Angeles Lakers. So do not be alarmed.
But man, the Spurs have beat the Jazz thoroughly this season, 123-98, 118-81, 96-78, and last night 88-86. Last year the games went in Utah's favor, winning 2 of 3. What a difference a year can make. I really wouldn't want to see them in the playoffs.
And really, wanting to face the Warriors is also going to be a big problem for our Jazz. But hey, at least it's not the Spurs, right? Right? I'm writing this at a quarter to 4 am. So this is as good as it's going to get.
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I think we just really miss our Spurs-killer, the one and only Mehmet Okur. Memo had a number of big games against SAS, including a few game winners. Let's look back:
- 31 points, 11 rebounds, 3 threes, 2 assists, 1 steal
- 25 points, 16 rebounds, 4 assists
- 23 points, 11 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 block
- 22 points, 10 rebounds, 2 threes, 1 assist, 1 block
- 22 points, 17 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 threes, 2 steals, 1 block
- 17 points, 16 rebounds, 3 threes, 3 steals
- 17 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 three, 1 block
- 16 points, 11 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 three, 1 steal
Too bad he's busy right now.
Anyway, we'll always have Memo-ries like this:
We miss you, Memo13!
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The Utah Jazz dropped this yesterday.
SQUAD. #WeAreUtahJazz pic.twitter.com/nlqREqPEWU
— Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) April 5, 2016
The big question is . . . where's Tibor Pleiss?
Tibor Pleiss at Supercuts in Cottonwood Heights? pic.twitter.com/LtrldUlcQn
— UteGorilla (@UteGorilla) April 4, 2016
Apparently he's got some free time right now about, now that the Idaho Stampede Salt Lake City Stars season has ended. A guy you DO see is Alec Burks (and Dante Exum) wearing Jazz uniforms. Alec needs to come back asap. I think the times where the team goes HALF A QUARTER without scoring a bucket clearly demonstrate that need very acutely.
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This really doesn't seem accurate at all, but according to Ed Kupfer the Utah Jazz have only given up 14 season high player scoring nights so far in 2015-2016.
NBA 2015-16 Number of times each team's defense has allowed a season-high in points to an opposing player pic.twitter.com/sY1z1Kvj5o
— Ed Küpfer (@EdKupfer) April 5, 2016
I guess our own fears of #Jazzkillers exist, but I don't think that our eye-ball test is invalidated by this information. In my mind I think what is really special about the Jazz opponents is that we may not let the other player get a season high scoring night, but for many role players they seem to pick up their career high against us.
The big surprise here has to be the Golden State Warriors mainly because everyone talks about how great they are. Let's not forget that they play at a wicket-fast pace of play, and other teams can get suckered into playing that type of game because a) it's fun, and b) people like scoring. So when you score you feel happy, even if the other team is pulling away.
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The Basketball Hall of Fame announced their 2016 class. If you didn't hear earlier, the class is headlined by Sheryl Swoopes, Cumberland Posey, former Utah Stars star player Zelmo Beaty, Shaquille O'Neal, Allen Iverson, and Yao Ming. Like all years there's some controversy. This year? People are (still) upset about how the international players have an easier time to make it than American players, but that's the complaint almost every year. Some of the inductees from other years who hail from outside the USA were Dikembe Mutombo, Sarunas Marciulionis, Oscar Schmidt, Arvydas Sabonis, Ubiratan Pereira Maciel, Drazen Dalipagic, Dino Meneghin, Drazen Petrovic, and Kresimir Cosic.
Many of them are decorated for serving their countries for many years. Few of them make any mark at all in the NBA. Are players like this on the same level as players who have multiple MVP awards in the NBA, or NBA championships? Or do North American fans over-value our NBA? Would it be equally dumb to say "Is Jo Jo White really on the same level as Sergei Belov?"
I don't know what the answer is to our overt provincialism. And I don't think we need an "NBA Hall of Fame" distinct from the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.
What I do know is that Shaq's HOF speech is going to be great. Love him or hate him, he is entertaining.
You know. Unless he's trying to be entertaining.
Allen:
Cumberland:
Shaq:
Swoops:
Yao:
Zelmo: