Our Utah Jazz have gone a meager 1-4 since starting the season 5-0, and finished this last Eastern Conference road trip on a 3 game losing streak.
The rough start isn’t the biggest concern for the Jazz. It’s their players.
The Jazz took advantage of their light schedule early on, but without a leader on the floor it has been pretty obvious that the Jazz can’t go far. They need Deron Williams to be healthy and to lead this team.
Both Kirilenko and Okur have been out for a couple of games also, Kirilenko with an injury and Okur dealing with an illness in the family, so the weight of these loses cannot be put on the absence of Williams alone. The Jazz have plenty of talent and should be able to beat the subpar teams in the league with some back-up players. Even an injury-battered Jazz team should have been able to beat the Charlotte Bobcats, but the Larry Brown-led Bobcats outlasted the Jazz 104-96.
Deron Williams has been very limited so far this season, coming back to play two games on the road in the wake of Memo Okur’s absence, which we’ll get to later. Matt Harpring also came back from an ankle injury, only to get back to bench after two limited games (9 and a half minutes averaged per game) on the floor. However, Harpring looked pretty good tonight against Phoenix. Andre Kirilenko has also been out of the lineup with a dislocated index finger on his shooting hand.
Okur has traveled to Turkey and back, taking care of his ill father. Okur did not play tonight against the Phoenix Suns. Both Harpring and Williams sat out tonight too.
Kirilenko was back in the lineup tonight, but it did not matter too much.
The team looks soft and has no drive without Deron Williams on the floor. If there was ever any question about whose team this is, I hope the rough start to this season answers some of those questions.
I find it interesting that one of the Utah Jazz’s fiercest rivals in the NBA, the San Antonio Spurs, are going through the same sort of start to their season. Without the leadership and play-making ability of Manu Ginobli and Tony Parker the Spurs (4-5) look very average (and are currently losing to the Clippers in L.A.).
Like I said in my first post, I work for KJZZ and the Utah Jazz. I have not been down to Energy Solutions Arena for a home game since the preseason. However, I worked the one road game (shoot Jazz Live from ESA pregame, halftime and postgame), and it was actually the one road game they won, Philadelphia. I’m not working another home game until December 11th, I’m hoping (would say praying but might get wrong response from my Utah readers) that the team will be healthy by then.
I’ve been writing this entry during work, while watching the game. I just read over the whole thing and see that I have yet to mention how they are playing tonight after ripping them for being injured.
The 3rd quarter has just come to an end and the Jazz are beating the Phoenix Suns 83-77. Nash and some of the other Suns are in foul trouble, but the Jazz are playing a lot better at home (surprise, surprise).
In the 4th they exploded, as they did in the 2nd quarter, and pulled this one out against a very good Phoenix Suns team. They played the best they had all night in the last 4 minutes of the game, where the tough games are won.
Brevan Knight looked very good running the point tonight, he needs to get more minutes. The Jazz don’t play as efficiently with Price running the point.
Millsap came up HUGE tonight against Shaq. Millsap blocked Shaq, which started a fast break in the middle of a 13-0 run by the Jazz.
In the end all that matters is that the Jazz pulled out a great win against a very good Western Conference team.
Keywords: Deron Williams, Kirilenko, Knight, Millsap, Shaq, Utah Jazz
