After a game one loss, the Utah Jazz ‘will be fine’

Game one of the playoffs is in the books for the Utah Jazz. The game started out in the Jazz’ favor, but once the OKC Thunder responded to the early attack, the Jazz were unable to find their footing and lost 108-116. Looking at the stats, the Jazz actually played a fairly good game. They shot 47.1% from the field, 39.3% from three, 75% from the free throw line, and matched up well in other general box score numbers such as rebounds, assists, steals, blocks and turnovers. The real edge the Thuder had was making three more 3pt shots than we did (14/29 vs 11/28), and making five more FT attempts (20/23 vs 15/20). I bring this up as something to take hope from. We forced them into taking jump shots, as evidenced by the points in the paint. The Jazz scored 50 of their points in the paint, while the Thunder only scored 32 points in the paint. That is a great sign for the Jazz’ defense in future games. The stats also suggest that the Jazz played a fine offensive game as well, the Thunder were just scorching hot so it didn’t matter this time around.

The next game will take place on Wednesday, giving plenty of time for certified evil genius and Utah Jazz Head Coach Quin Snyder to figure out the team’s next game plan. Three days should also be sufficient for the players to heal their dings and bruises they sustained in this physical game 1. Donovan Mitchell’s foot, Paul George’s hip, and Steven Adams’ hand should all be more or less better by Wednesday, or at least tolerable by then.

#WeWillBeFine

Taking a look around the league, here are the current Game 1 results of the first round of the Playoffs courtesy of NBA.com:

New Orleans and Indiana are the first to win upset games against a higher seeded team. Anthony Davis had a monster game against Portland, scoring 35 points, grabbing 14 rebounds, and blocking 4 shots. Since 2012, LeBron James has not lost a game in the first round until last night vs the Pacers. Victor Oladipo got a stat line of 32 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists and 4 steals. One last interesting fact is that Toronto had lost ten Game 1s in a row until this past Saturday. Round 1 is long from over, it will be exciting to see who the contenders are, and who the pretenders are.

@Kickstradomis has been hooking up Jazz players with some very nice kicks. Here are a few that he has made so far:

And here are a pair he made earlier for Donovan:

Which pair are your favorites? According to his twitter page, Kickstradomis will be painting during the halftime show for the first Jazz home game of the playoffs on Saturday. He has a YouTube channel, if you’d like to see his process for painting the shoes (note: there is some NSFW music on there). I have never really been big on the whole shoe thing, but this year the whole NBA seems like it stepped up its shoe game. Shoes might only be something to be worn on the feet to some people, but to NBA players, they have evolved into a means of self-expression.

We have seen multiple raps about the Jazz and its players, but we haven’t had many songs from other musical genres. Layne Sanders posted a unique take on Rudy Gobert, in the classic country genre. It has a very westerner feel to it and actually isn’t half bad if you don’t mind country.

If Rudy were in a Western cowboy film, what would his character be?

When people think of “tradition” and “sports”, often what comes to mind is the Superbowl, March Madness, and things they have done with family or friends every year during those events. Whether this involves chicken wings or superstitious lucky charms, those events like the Superbowl are easy to celebrate, whether you even like football or not. With the 7-game series aspect of the NBA Playoffs, it seems traditions are a little more difficult to make happen. With so many games in a single round, it can be difficult to set aside one specific time to plan on doing something yearly with the family. Do you and yours have any playoff traditions? If so, what are they?