Some thoughts on the Jazz win:- For the first time in his career, Al Jefferson may go to the playoffs. Yes, I could say the same thing about Gordon Hayward, Derrick Favors, etc., but Al's been in the league a while and his stints with the pre-KG Celtics and post-KG TimberWolves were exericses in futility. He thought he'd get when he was traded to the Jazz last year, but a Sloan retirement and D-Will trade killed that possibility. Now the Jazz are 34-30 and in the 8th spot with only two more games to play.
- Al continues to be great on offense and weak on defense. Yeah, Big Al gets his blocked shots, but his guy can often get those points back. He had 21 points tonight; Glen Davis had 17. The good thing about Al is he usually does outscore his guy, but it means other teammates had better be shutting their man down.
- The starting five dropped the ball in the first quarter, and Orlando also had a 15-0 run in the third. But coach Ty Corbin went to his big three lineup early (Millsap, Favors, Jefferson all on floor at same time) and it paid off. I love seeing that Derrick Favors had 36 minutes of playing time tonight (hence his 16 points and 11 rebounds). I am a believer that Favors would regularly be a 16-10 guy if he had the minutes.
- Orlando's one of the best 3-point shooting teams in the league and with no Dwight Howard they greatly relied on it. And since the Jazz are one of the worst at defending the 3, it was a perfect storm. The Magic were 15-38 from 3. My counter stat for that is that the Jazz scored 62 points in the paint.
- Paul Millsap had 18 and 9. If he'd had one more rebound, it would have meant he, Favors and Jefferson all would've had double-doubles.
- Jamaal Tinsley was crucial in getting the Jazz back in the game in the first half. He wound up with 9 assists in 18 minutes. Devin Harris had 7 assists.
- A win washes away many sins, and Harris & Gordon Hayward had their problems. Hayward had 6 turnovers but he had a clutch 3 late in the game that kept the Jazz in it and allowed them to get it to overtime. Harris was aggressive with the ball and ended up with 21 points. He also had the game-saving block on Jameer Nelson as time ran out in regulation.
- Enes Kanter looked good in his 12 minutes. He had 9 points and 2 rebounds.
- Jazz bench outscored Magic bench 39-10.
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