Requiem for a Jazz Season

First, Game 4:

- The Jazz lost 87-81. Their shooting woes continued. Gordon Hayward, Alec Burks and Josh Howard were a combined 0-17 from the floor. The Jazz as a team were 0-13 from 3. The Spurs defense is really good, but not that good. The Jazz also missed 9 free throws. 9 missed free throws, lost by 6. Woulda, coulda, shoulda.

- Paul Millsap was a man fighting and fighting, but it was a stark reminder that he's only 6'7". He shot 4-17, but managed to grab 19 rebounds, and he was +11 in his 41 minutes. And when the Jazz were only down four with 20 seconds to go, he bobbled the pass from Harris, allowing Ginobili to steal it and run back for a layup to put them up six.

- Al Jefferson outplayed Tim Duncan. Unfortunately with Derrick Favors in the starting lineup, the Jazz had no bench. The Spurs bench outscored them 57-10.

Player Evaluations:

DERRICK FAVORS (soph) - The future. Their best defender, and he's good at going to the line. He needs to average 35 minutes a game next year and start all 82. He needs to improve his free-throw shooting.

GORDON HAYWARD (soph) - He got the playing time, but the playoffs showed he still has a lot of work to do. He needs to be more consistent and refine his outside shooting.

ALEC BURKS (rook) - He had a lot of DNP-CD's in favor of Raja Bell and CJ Miles. That won't happen next year. Not a bad rookie year; sky's the limit for him. I look forward to seeing what a full off-season will do for him.

ENES KANTER (rook) - Very, very raw. He's good at holding his space and rebounding. But he hasn't played that many games in his life. A worthy project, but still a project.

PAUL MILLSAP (1 year remaining) - He's the heart of this team and now one of the longest-tenured members. Gone are D-Will, Boozer, AK and Memo. Paul's about hit his ceiling. He had career highs in steals and rebounds. He will win you some games, but you're not getting out of the first round if he's the best player on your team. But if he's your third, look out.

AL JEFFERSON (1 year remaining) - Offensively he was the Jazz's best player. His problem is that he never got to the free throw line and was inefficient in his possessions. Sure, he'd score 20, but it'd take 21 shots to get there. My guess is either he or Paul will be moved for a shooter, but the Jazz may try to keep all of them and starting Paul at the small forward. Jefferson said he'd like to finish his career in Utah.

DEVIN HARRIS (1 year remaining) - Took him half the season to figure it out, but he played well down the stretch. He's not the prototypical Jazz point guard, but it's up to Corbin and company to make Harris's strengths work for them.

EARL WATSON (1 year remaining) - They could have used his tenacity in the playoffs but injury ended his season. Good guy to have on the team, even though his skills are obviously diminishing.

RAJA BELL (1 year remaining) - Clearly has a problem with coach Corbin and he wants to get moved. I'm sure the Jazz will oblige if they can find someone willing. If they can't, they'll probably amnesty him. Last thing a young locker-room needs is a veteran cancer. And it's not all his fault. He thought he was signing with a Deron Williams-led playoff team. He doesn't want to be on a young, rebuilding team.

JAMAAL TINSLEY (team option) - All indications are that he's a great locker room guy. He got destroyed in Game 4, and the only way I see them bringing him back is if they wind up throwing in Watson in a multi-player trade.

CJ MILES (free agent) - Based on his exit interview, seems pretty clear he won't be back. He's been with the Jazz since 2005, but he has issues with Corbin, his 3-pt shooting was his worst in five years, and he went from 12.8 ppg to 9.1.

DEMARRE CARROLL (free agent) - The 27th pick in the 2009 draft has finally found a home. He was a key ingredient in the Jazz winning down the stretch just to make the playoffs. He's a hustle player.

JOSH HOWARD (free agent) - The experiment was great before his injury mid-season. He wasn't quite the same in the playoffs. He won't be back.

JEREMY EVANS (free agent) - The Slam-Dunk champion just can't get on the floor. Carroll was cut by the Nuggets, came in, and worked his way into the starting line-up. I don't see the Jazz keeping him. They could, because his alley-oops are fun, but there are better options out there.

BLAKE AHEARN (free agent) - He did what they needed him to do. They'll probably invite him to summer league, but my guess is they go a different direction for their third point-guard.

As to coach Tyrone Corbin, he still hasn't had a full off-season to plan and prepare.  Apparently his communication isn't as good as Jerry Sloan's, but many were willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.  He helped this team overachieve, let's what he can do with a full season.

Jazz lose Game 1 to Spurs 106-91

- The San Antonio Spurs have the best record in the West for a reason.

- Armchair-quarterbacking, I don't think it was smart to move Josh Howard into the starting line-up. Sure, he's a better player than DeMarre Carroll, but Carroll in the starting lineup is what helped the Jazz end the regular season on a five-game win streak. Howard missed all four of his shots and had two turnovers in 16 minutes. He has playoff experience up the yin-yang, but he's been injured and they need to reintegrate him more slowly. I'd bring him off the bench for Game 2.

- Al Jefferson did a decent job on Tim Duncan, who at times played like the Timmy of old. Al finished with 16 and 9 while Duncan had 17 and 11. The default criticism of Big Al tends to be his defense, and it is a weakness, but no one outside of Derrick Favors played decent defense last night.

- As a Jazz fan, I miss the days when Deron Williams would neutralize Tony Parker. Devin Harris is not as capable. Tony Parker seemed to get whatever he wanted.

- This is the first playoff game of Tyrone Corbin's career. I'm sure he'll learn from this. I just wonder why the big front court line-up of Millsap/Favors/Jefferson didn't make an appearance until the third quarter. Maybe he was saving it, surprise the Spurs with it.

- Gordon Hayward was 12-12 from the free-throw line. I love that. And upon further reflection, hayward had a nice defensive game too. Ginobili wound up shooting 3-10 from the field.

- The Jazz had 16 turnovers.  The Spurs only had 10.

- In Game 2, I'd love to see DeMarre Carroll start, and about seven minutes in, sub him out for Derrick Favors.  Play Harris, Hayward, Millsap, Favors, Jefferson.  Beginning of the second, go to Tinsley, Burks, Howard, Favors, Kanter, see how that goes.

Jazz beat Magic in OT 117-107

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.

Jazz beats Mavericks in triple-overtime

My eight-year-old Evan loves watching Jazz games with me, probably more than any other child right now. I've taken my oldest two to Jazz games, but when I was able to get tickets for last night's Dallas Mavericks game, I figured it was a good time for him to have his first live game experience. And my record's on the line. The Jazz are 22-1 when I attend, dating back to 1990. That loss came to the Thunder when Russell Westbrook outplayed Deron Williams.

So the Jazz have been the walking wounded lately, with Josh Howard, Raja Bell, CJ Miles and Earl Watson all out. Jeremy Evans was available to play but he never made it into the game. DeMarre Carroll went from a 10-day contract to the starting lineup, and Blake Ahearn has this John Crotty thing going for him that will probably results in him sticking around the rest of the season.

The Jazz's playoff hopes are in the balance. Duh-duh-DUHMMMMM!

We had nosebleed seats, but I took us down a few rows and no one ever showed up to say those were their seats.

Some game observations:

- Devin Harris has played much more freely now that he feels he has the greenlight to shoot three's. Or maybe it's just the comfort of being on a team again that has playoff hopes. Those dark Nets days couldn't have been good for the psyche.

- The Mavs kept Jason Kidd glued to Gordon Hayward. I know GH ended up with 24 points, but it took him 54 minutes to get there. Kidd did a good job of crowding GH and not letting his teammates pass to him. Kidd only had 4 steals, 3 of which were errant Jazz passes.

- Paul Millsap had the defensive assignment on Dirk Nowitzki most of the night, and all the effort was there, but Dirk's five inches taller, and Sap couldn't do anything to stop him. All he could do was make it difficult.

- Dirk got a couple big boos when he barrelled right through DeMarre Carroll, and the refs called Carroll for the foul.

- Delonte West is a knucklehead. After a foul was called, he walked over to Hayward and gave him a wet willie, and like pro-wrestling refs, none of them saw it. The crowd reaction was so strong, the refs said, "Huh, we should go to the monitors and review something." The crowd started chanting "Throw him out!" but he only got a technical. West got booed every time he touched the ball for the rest of the night.

- Jazz fans love their rookies, but Alec Burks was 0-6 tonight.

- Al Jefferson was an offensive beast. 28 points, 26 rebounds. He ate Brendan Haywood and Ian Mahinmi alive. The Mavs seemed to have a game-plan of triple-teaming Big Al early, but Al's learned to pass back out, and Harris and Hayward were hitting their 3's.

- I was cheering for the Mavericks to win last year.  I have a Mavs championship hat my son bought me.  Mavs put up a good fight, but they also reminded me of why I like cheering against Dirk, the way he flails his arms like a wounded stork, the way he storms like a giraffe in a china shop to draw contact.  He and Manu Ginobili have that in common, cept Dirk's a lot taller.  If the Finals were a Mavs-Heat rematch, I think I'd have to cheer for the Heat.

- Very proud of all five guys in the starting line-up.

- There are still times I wish coach Corbin would put Favors in more for defensive posessions, as he is the best big-man defender on the team, but Corbin's still feeling his way as a head coach. This coming off-season is going to be the first real off-season where he can plan all year, and we can get an idea of what he can really do.

- After the game, Evan was able to get a high-five from Big Al.



Other stuff:

- I can't imagine head-coach Mark Jackson is happy with what his owner and GM are doing to his team.  If the Warriors don't end in the bottom seven, as in the top seven of the lottery, they lose their first-round pick (to the Jazz, hence my focus).  So from the trade deadline on, they've been doing everything they can to tank the season.  Blatantly, openly, shamelessly.  They shut down David Lee with a "groin strain."  Richard Jefferson now has right-knee tankinitis (I read that on Twitter, sorry I don't remember who coined it).  The starting five for the Golden State Warriors last night were Charles Jenkins, Klay Thompson, Dorell Wright, Jeremy Tyler and Mickell Gladness.  How can you charge fans money to watch that game?  The owner deserved to get booed.  This year.  Maybe Andrew Bogut and Steph Curry will be restored to full health next year and they'll be brilliant.  But Grantland's historical takedown of the Warriors is the best write-up I've seen on that poor fanbase.

- I have to figure if the Clippers make it out of the first round of the playoffs that Vinny Del Negro's job is safe.  Pat Riley's not the GM there, so yeah, he ought to be good.  I just see how the Clips destroyed the Thunder defensively in the second half.

- The Jazz are now only a half-game behind the Suns and Rockets for the eighth spot, and the Jazz have the easiest row to hoe ahead of them of the three.  The Jazz play the Dwight-less Magic and the Suns at home, and they have a home-and-away with the Blazers, who have as many wounded players as the Jazz, but one of them's LaMarcus Aldridge.

- Whoever gets the eighth spot will likely be swept by the Spurs, but hey, the #1 Western seed has lost before, and playoff experience is playoff experience.

Big Al with Big Game

Quick thoughts on the Jazz 105-90 win over the Pistons.

- This is a game they should win. They were at home, and none of the East lottery teams are any good.

- Raja Bell wasn't with the team in Chicago after a "personal matter." Word came out it was Raja Bell unhappy with his minutes and his role on the team under coach Ty Corbin. Apparently they worked things out, because Raja Bell started. Not only did he start, but he played 27 minutes, fourth most on the team behind Al Jefferson, Paul Millsap and Devin Harris. He finished with 1 point and 4 rebounds.

Paul Millsap contributed 12 points and 10 rebounds.
Copyright 2012 NBAE
 (Photo by Melissa Majchrzak/NBAE via Getty Images)

- Alec Burks was a DNP-CD. So the lesson to Alec is, go complain to coach.

- But hey, they won! Al Jefferson's grandmother passed away. With a heavy heart, the big man answered with 33 points, 12 rebounds and 2 blocked shots, including his first 3-point shot of his career, a hilarious buzzer-beater.

- CJ Miles is a streaky shooter, but tonight he hit his streak. He had 15 points, including 3 3-pointers. The Jazz as a teams hot 7-11.

- Gordon Hayward had 8 points but only got to play 20 minutes. Derrick Favors had 6 points in 16 minutes, Enes Kanter had 2 points in 9 minutes.

- You remember how Deron Williams would circle certain games to make sure he shut superstars down? He defends Chris Paul better than anyone in the league, for example. That's the attitude Gordon Hayward needs to have to get back in the starting lineup. And that's how I hope Devin Harris treats Steve Nash on Wednesday.

- No one could guard Rodney Stuckey. He had 29 points.

- I could have sworn Ben Wallace retired last year. Can't believe he's still playing.

- It seemed like Greg Monroe and Jonas Jerebko had better games than what their stat lines indicate.

Utah beats Denver on the road

- This was the best win of this young season for the Jazz. Forget their horrendous 0-2 start. They've gone 8-2 since.

- Paul Millsap's a stud. 26 points, 12 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 block and 1 steal. He and Al Jefferson are the best 4/5 Jazz combo since Boozer/Okur during the WCF run.

- Another night where Earl Watson ran the offense better than Devin Harris. Still, both ended up with 7 assists apiece. Name the last time a team won the NBA Finals when the point guard was the best player on the team. Pretty sure it was Isiah Thomas's Pistons.

- Al Jefferson had a couple times he forced up shots in a double-team but for the most part one of the best improvements of his game has been learning to pass out. These guys are buying into the team concept of unselfish play.

- Jazz had six blocks. Felt like more. One reason Gordon Hayward is valuable is his length. He's 6'8" and is splitting his time between the 2 and the 3. He's turned into an effective shot-blocker in his own right.

- Alec Burks was a bundle of energy and wound up with 10 points, but he was also +12 on the floor. Watson led the team with a +15.

- The old Raja Bell is back. The tough guy who commits hard fouls and hits outisde jumpers when needed. Even he had a block.

Jeremy Evans skies for a putback dunk.

- Another impressive note: they did this without Josh Howard, who still has a left quad strain.

- Really hope Jeremy Evans gets in the dunk contest.

- Enes Kanter played 11 minutes, but Derrick Favors played only 7 minutes.

- The Jazz shot 51.8% from the floor, holding the Nuggets to 42.7%. The Nuggets were 26-39 from the free-throw line; the Jazz were 14-20.

Jazz suffocate D-Will's Nets

D-Will shot only 3-15
from the field.

- Really hated that Deron Williams got more boos than cheers at his intro. Mehmet Okur got a big cheer so at least there was some class on display.

- The Nets' offense is indecipherable. Lots of iso's, 1-on-1's. The strategy seems to be Deron Williams breaks down the defense. If he can't make something happen, he passes out for someone else to shoot a long 2, if they miss then Kris Humphries tries to grab their rebound.

- Raja Bell is getting better with every game. This was the type of output Kevin O'Connor was hoping for when he signed him.

CJ Miles shoots over his former teammate Mehmet
Okur.  Miles finished with 17 points off the bench.

- Deron Williams' shooting has been off ever since he got traded. Is it his wrist injury? Is it the offensive scheme? Is it the fact that defenses can focus on him because he does have talented teammates to pass to?

- Was hoping Devin Harris would have a bigger game, but here's a key stat: Harris finished with 6 assists, D-Will had 5.

- Nice to see Gordon Hayward rediscover his range. He was 2-2 from 3-pt land. It was also interesting how much D-Will and Hayward guarded each other. It was as thought Coach Corbin was teaching Hayward to overcome his fears.

- Two years ago today, Sundiata Gaines hit the game-winning 3 to beat LeBron's Cavaliers. Sunny D hit two three's in tonight's game, but they didn't have near the impact.

- Derrick Favors needs more time, but it's hard to take it away from Paul Millsap and Al Jefferson. The Jazz are 7-4 because of them.

- Rookie Enes Kanter had 8 rebound in under 19 minutes of play.

In other sports:

- The 49ers-Saints playoff game has to go down as one of the all-time great playoff games in history. I was very happy for Alex Smith and Vernon Davis.

- The Patriots-Broncos game was exactly the blowout I expected.  Tom Brady can try to get to his fifth Super Bowl, and Tim Tebow can go home and wonder if John Elway will use this as an excuse to find a different quarterback.

Depleted Jazz beat Raptors

I wouldn't blame too much on injuries usually, but considering the Jazz were missing Andrei Kirilenko, Paul Millsap, Mehmet Okur, Francisco Elson and Ronnie Price, they've been pretty thin. Tonight was a night for the rookies to show what they can do, and they didn't take full advantage.

Gordon Hayward was pretty good on his man, and he had one great sequence where he blocked a shot, recovered it, then threw an assist to Al Jefferson for an easy lay-in. Otherwise Hayward went scoreless.

Derrick Favors will get there, but tonight wasn't his night. He ended with 3 points.

This was a night where Al Jefferson (34 pts/8 rbs), CJ Miles (23 pts/7 rbs), and Devin Harris (23 pts/5 asts) showed up and few others did. Who was next in scoring? Raja Bell with 5 points.

Jazz win 96-94 with a thrilling tip-in by Big Al at the buzzer. Jazz probably have to go 12-5 to end the season if they want to make the playoffs. Looking at their remaining schedule, I'd say they'd be lucky to go 9-8.