Utah Jazz

[FF]

great win! for a moment there kala ko talo na...

 

any time you come back from more than 10 points is a great win. but unlike you ... i thought that they were goners fer sure after that 35 ( THIRTY - FIVE ) point first half .

 

next game : minnesota visits utah tom . followed by a much awaited showdown with the spurs on saturday. :cool:

[FF]

Happy Birthday Coach Sloan !

 

Sloan turns 65 today, with no sign of slowing down. In fact, he has no intention of retiring - though that doesn't necessarily mean he intends to coach basketball forever, either. "I'll work till I die. I may not be doing this, but I'm not going to go home and sit in a chair," said the NBA's second-oldest active coach (behind Golden State's Don Nelson). "Whatever I get involved in, I'm going to be doing something. I'm not a sit-in-front-of-the-television kind of person."

 

 

Never has been, never will be.

 

As the coach tenured with the same team longer than any other in American's four major professional leagues, and as the NBA's second-oldest head coach behind only Golden State's 66-year-old Don Nelson, Sloan has no time and little inclination to ponder the issue of whether or not he is happy he did not step aside when the temptation may have been there in recent seasons.

 

"I don't know how to answer your question," he said when asked about just that Tuesday.

 

"How glad or how sad — I don't know. It's just been basketball, and that's what I've always done, for the most part. I guess to say that I'm still coaching is the most important thing."

 

Besides, he suggested when asked if this season's 46-24 Jazz team only serves to confirm that he made the right decision by continuing into his 19th year in his current position, "I don't know if I made the right decision."

 

"I don't think anybody ever knows for sure," Sloan said. "I don't know."

 

That's right: The coach of a club that this year will be back in the playoffs for the first time since John Stockton retired and Karl Malone left Utah in 2003 isn't certain if he did the right thing by sticking around four years longer than those two future hall-of-famers.

 

That's because Sloan has doubts.

 

Doubts about the job he's done, even though some have him in line to win NBA Coach of Year honors for the first time in his 22-season career. Doubts about whether he's getting all out of the Jazz that is possible. Doubts that prompt him to pepper himself with questions of a different nature altogether.

 

Doubts that drive him, and that help make him as effective a coach as the Jazz's record suggests he is.

 

"Could I have done better here? Could I have done something here another way? Could I have done a better job of maybe substituting guys, and given them a better chance to be better? I think about those things," Sloan said, "rather than why I'm here or why I'm not here.

 

"I expected the team to be a very competitive team. Are they are good as I'd like for them to be? No," he added. "So, there's always a question about what I've done — and have I done the job that I'm supposed to do, or are they better than what they show? That's a question mark I think everybody has every time."

 

It's a question that presents itself season after season after season, and it's probably one that Sloan will take to his grave.

 

From wherever he happens to be toiling at the time.

[Marshall Bruce]

06-07 Northwest Division Champs.

 

Congrats Jazz fans. :mtc:

[FF]

Hay... I hope they can sustain this momentum... I would love to watch one full game kaso di ko maabutan yung coverage sa TV....

 

Carlos Boozer had 25 and 11 rebounds and Mehmet Okur added 23 points and 12 boards to help the Utah Jazz beat the Minnesota Timberwolves 108-102 on Wednesday night and clinch the Northwest Division title.

Okur, who rebounded from a stretch of four games where he averaged only eights points, made a 3-pointer with 2:58 remaining and then was fouled while attempting another with 33.8 seconds left.

 

He has earned a reputation for late-game heroics this season and delivered with two of the three free throws for a 101-95 lead.

Deron Williams, who had 22 points and 14 assists, and Derek Fisher combined to make 7-of-8 free throws in the last 25 seconds to secure the victory, which was Utah's seventh straight at home.

 

NOTES : lyssahot ... kahit replay mam pagtiyagaan mo. watch mo lang yung game na panalo tayo para sulit ... . we have reason to celebrate ! first division championship in seven long years ! hope we go deep into the playoffs

Edited March 29, 2007 by fellatio.flores

[FF]

06-07 Northwest Division Champs.

 

Congrats Jazz fans. :mtc:

 

thanks MB. but there's bigger fish to fry in the 2006-2007 nba season. short term ... breaking a FIVE game road losing streak ... and guess who's It ? against the Spurs no less. Medium term : getting homecourt advantage versus the rockets. Long term : getting into the second round of the playoffs. everything after that is gravy ! :cool:

Edited March 29, 2007 by fellatio.flores

[FF]

Wooo Hoooh ! Jazz- Spurs on ESPN at 8 am tom, Sat , 31 March 2007. spongebobby , Lyssahot ... you can't miss this !

[FF]

Spurs Trample Jazz !

 

Manu Ginobli led the charge from the bench as the beat the jazz 102-93. The spurs outrebounded ( 40-34 ) , outshot ( 52-43 % ),

out defensed ( 9 blocks + 9 steals vs. 9+8 ) and out-assisted ( 24-20 ) the jazz .

 

man if we play like this we'll surely be "out" by the first round.

 

game notes : led by manu, the spurs bench outscored their jazz couunterparts 50-10 ! the loss also extended utah's woes as they are now 0-6 over the past road games. it doesn't look any better with the rockets lickin their chops this sunday as the jazz visit the toyota center.

[FF]

Buti na lang pala di ko napanood -- talo pala.

 

Next time na lang and thanks for the tip, fellatio!

 

 

yup too bad we lost . sige til next time !

[FF]

Jazz Hang Tough , Come Back to Ground Rockets !

 

Mehmet Okur scored 20 points and Carlos Boozer added 13 as the Utah Jazz overcame a late deficit for an 86-83 victory over the Houston Rockets on Sunday.

 

With the victory, in a game that will likely be a preview for the first round of the playoffs, the Jazz remain ahead of the Rockets in fourth place in the Western Conference standings.

 

Houston led 77-70 before Utah scored five straight points to get within two with 3:10 remaining. The teams exchanged a pair of baskets before a three-point play by Matt Harpring gave Utah an 82-81 lead with 1:35 remaining.

 

Boozer was fouled on a layup and made the free throw to extend the lead to 85-81 with 43 seconds left. Tracy McGrady pulled Houston within two on the next possession and the Rockets got the ball back after a miss by Boozer.

 

But Rafer Alston badly missed a 3-point attempt with about 10 seconds left and Houston was forced to foul. Okur made only the first to give the Rockets a chance to tie, but McGrady missed a 3-point attempt at the buzzer.

 

Yao Ming led the Rockets with 35 points and 16 rebounds, and also blocked four shots. McGrady added 20 points.

 

Deron Williams added 12 points, 11 assists and five rebounds for Utah. Gordan Giricek and Harpring added nine points apiece.

 

 

Game Notes :

The Jazz broke a five game road losing skid and ended with a 5-5 record over the last 10 games. With the win , the Jazz also ended the Rockets six-game winning run. In the playoff standings , the Jazz remained 1.5 games ahead of the Rockets in their race for home court advantage. The two teams meet again on 18 April at the Energy Solutions arena.

Edited April 2, 2007 by fellatio.flores

[peep_tom]

Congratulations Utah for Winning over Houston. Nice game by Okur

[peep_tom]

Double Post

Edited April 2, 2007 by peep_tom

[FF]

Congratulations Utah for Winning over Houston. Nice game by Okur

 

salamat p.t. and may i say that your lakers didn't do too bad themselves :cool: houston is tough as the jazz don't have anyone to match up with yao. luckily t-mac was having one of his rare off nights or else we would've been toast

[FF]

Sloan Retiring ?

 

This might be the last season for Utah Jazz coach Jerry Sloan, who recently turned 65. This is more than speculation. Sloan has pondered retirement most recent summers, except that this time it has become conversation within the Jazz, and people who know him well suggest they could see him finally stepping away. If Sloan retires, it is virtually an automatic that Phil Johnson, a former Kings coach, will be offered the job.

 

Source : Sacramento Bee

[FF]

Jazz Fall to Blazers !

 

The Jazz have played either up or down to the level of their opponent most of the season, and Wednesday night was no exception.

Utah's Jarron Collins, left, attempts to defend Portland's Travis Outlaw as he drives to the hoop. (Rick Bowmer, Associated Press)

Rick Bowmer, Associated Press

Utah's Jarron Collins, left, attempts to defend Portland's Travis Outlaw as he drives to the hoop.

This time, it was down — and Utah went down because of it, falling 94-89 at the Rose Garden to Northwest Division cellar-dweller Portland.

The 48-26 Jazz, who as a result failed to gain any ground on Houston in their battle for homecourt advantage in a probable 4-5 seed first-round playoff series between the teams, indeed may have been guilty of taking the now 30-44 Trail Blazers a bit too lightly.

"I'd be sad to have to say that, but with 18 turnovers and 23 points (yielded because of those miscues) it looked like we were playing the ballgame with gloves on at times: the way we handled the basketball, the way it went through our hands, the way we turned it over," coach Jerry Sloan said after his club — playing its third outing in a string of four straight on the road — lost for the seventh time in its last eight games away from home.

"It doesn't make any difference where you are — you can't afford to have turnovers in the ballgame like we did," added Sloan, whose Jazz are 22-12 this season against teams .500 or better and 25-15 against opponents under .500. "You just give the other team too many opportunities."

Chiefly taking advantage for Portland was Blazers Rookie of the Year candidate Brandon Roy, who finished with a game-high and career-high 29 points — 25 in the second half — and made 7-of-8 shots from the free-throw line in the final one minute and three seconds.

[FF]

Jazz On Their Way to a Fumbling Finish ....

 

That six-game winning streak the Utah Jazz put together in late February and early March, and the three home wins they had March 24-28, may have put the Jazz in good NBA standing.

But those wins may also have been costly.

"I think a lot of people thought we were playing well," said Jazz coach Jerry Sloan, whose team has befuddled itself in losing three straight games to teams who won't make the NBA playoffs and has a tougher assignment tonight at 8:30 p.m. at 37-40 Golden State — a team fighting desperately for a playoff berth.

"I tried to tell these guys (and) they got a little upset with me the other day ... I said we've won some ballgames by 15-20 points, and they wondered why I was upset."

He was piqued because, though they were winning, "We were playing exactly like we were (Saturday) night (when Utah lost a 22-point lead and a 106-103 game at home to Seattle, which brought only two regular starters to EnergySolutions Arena).

"(We're) not really getting a lot of stuff done" — now and even a few weeks ago, when - in Sloan's mind - they were winning in spite of themselves.

"We just haven't been able to finish games," he said, thinking of Friday's cave-in at Sacramento, in which a 17-point lead melted into a 107-103 loss, and Saturday's, when a 22-point lead wasn't enough to save the Jazz from themselves.

"We really haven't competed that hard for a while. It hasn't been that important to us," Sloan charged, harkening back to that darned win streak that apparently bred some complacency.

"We have to learn to compete harder and not be satisfied by just hanging in there. That has happened to us all year long, but since we won some games, it falls on deaf ears," Sloan said.

Even forward Matt Harpring said the Jazz might become complacent when they have big leads. "Maybe. I don't really have an answer," he said.

"We cannot play this way in the playoffs," added center Mehmet Okur, "so we've got to be more focused. We've got to figure out what's going on right now because we are not like last few games. We are better than that."

 

Notes : The Jazz better figure out a way to break out of the funk. Losing is always bad for morale but losing "won" games have a way of bringing the team spirit a lot lower.

[revi]

Jazz On Their Way to a Fumbling Finish ....

 

Notes : The Jazz better figure out a way to break out of the funk. Losing is always bad for morale but losing "won" games have a way of bringing the team spirit a lot lower.

 

Well, f.f., Jerry Sloan must now get some of Greg Pop's tongue-lashing style of motivation... hahaha!!! It works for the Spurs, it might just as well work for your Jazz..

[FF]

Well, f.f., Jerry Sloan must now get some of Greg Pop's tongue-lashing style of motivation... hahaha!!! It works for the Spurs, it might just as well work for your Jazz..

 

Slump Continues as Warriors Chop Jazz !

 

Long-suffering Golden State Warriors fans have seen their favorite team fail to make the playoffs an NBA-active-streak-high 12 straight times, and the Warriors went into Monday's game against Utah facing an uphill battle to avoid making it 13.

Golden State Warriors' Jason Richardson, top, dunks in front of Utah Jazz forward Carlos Boozer during the second half of Monday's game in Oakland. The Warriors got lots of uncontested shots and won easily.

 

Golden State Warriors' Jason Richardson, top, dunks in front of Utah Jazz forward Carlos Boozer during the second half of Monday's game in Oakland. The Warriors got lots of uncontested shots and won easily.

As unlucky as all that sounds, it almost makes the Jazz's current woes — and they are rather plentiful — pale in comparison.

Unless, that is, you happen to be Jazz coach Jerry Sloan, who has had a multitude of worries on his mind lately — and left here with even more.

That's because Golden State had little trouble beating Utah 126-102 late Monday, marking the Jazz's fourth straight loss, their fifth in their last six games overall and their ninth among their last 10 road outings.

Those are streaks of ineptitude marked by a mountain of maladies that had Sloan — whose Northwest Division-champion club begins postseason play later this month, probably against Houston, which beat Seattle on Monday to take a half-game lead over Utah for homecourt advantage in a probable 4-5 seed first-round series between the teams — quite concerned even before taking to the floor against the Warriors.

"Are we gonna be tough enough to fight back and try to put together a team that's gonna compete when we get to the playoffs?" he wondered. "If we aren't, we're gonna be in and out pretty quick."

 

Notes : You're sooooooo right bos revi ! c'mon booze , memo , deron , ak , fish and the rest of the gang .... show some PRIDE ! Winning is contagious but a losing streak like this one is a kiss of DEATH .

[TidusJanus]

what a great game...for the Warriors! hehehe

 

 

Well, the Warriors are playoff hungry and the Jazz were just what they needed to feed off.

[FF]

what a great game...for the Warriors! hehehe

Well, the Warriors are playoff hungry and the Jazz were just what they needed to feed off.

 

easy meat ... that's us

[FF]

Denver Dumps Jazz !

 

With the exception of the first half of the first quarter — when the Jazz quickly fell behind by a dozen points to the Denver Nuggets — Jazz coach Jerry Sloan was pleased with much of what he saw from his team on Wednesday night.

Still, it wasn't enough for the Jazz to end their season-long losing streak. Denver's 115-106 victory was Utah's fifth loss in a row.

"I thought our guys finally played hard," said Sloan. "They played with a great deal of intensity after about the first five minutes of the ball game. They fought back. We made a couple of mistakes, but you've got to have a break or two here or there and we didn't come away with any."

Sloan was quick to point out that his team is young and not experienced in NBA playoff-like atmospheres. But the most postseason savvy Jazz player points his own way when asked what has been wrong with the team in recent weeks.

"We're just not getting it done right now, and I'll take a lot of that responsibility or accountability myself," said veteran guard Derek Fisher, who has played in 117 playoff games while a member of the Lakers. "I'm not performing up to par. I'm not making shots, not making plays I'm capable of making."

Fisher was just 2-for-10 from the field on Wednesday night.

"When you are part of a team you are expected to carry your weight and right now I'm not doing it," said Fisher. "One of the reasons I was brought in here was to help the team win key games, big games and to help the team by making plays in the fourth quarter and seconds halves and it's just not happening for me right now. I feel bad I'm not doing the job for my team and helping us win more games."

Sloan certainly didn't single out Fisher — or any other Jazz player — as a reason for the team's recent woes. He did, however, admit that the team's swoon is frustrating.

"The lessons learned the past two or three weeks have kind of destroyed a little bit of a great season," said Sloan. "Our goal was to make the playoffs, but look at where this team could have been if we would have had a little better effort on three or four more occasions. Where would we be?"

Houston, Utah's first-round playoff opponent, is now 1 1/2 games ahead of the Jazz in the race for homecourt advantage. The Jazz are hopeful, however, that they can get back on track before the playoffs with four regular season games remaining.

"We've established ourselves as a competitive basketball team," said Fisher. "We still believe that that team is still in there. It just hasn't been around lately. But I don't think anybody in this locker room will quit on this team. We are all here as a team and we are going to stand up and face this adversity."

 

Notes : Will the Jazz suffer a sixth straight loss ? It depends if Dallas rolls over and takes it easy as it prepares for the playpffs.

With Houston now 1.5 games up on its race with the Jazz for homecourt , the Jazz MUST win or face opening the playoffs at the unfriendly confines of the Toyota Centre.

[FF]

Dallas Takes The Big Easy ... Gift Jazz with Victory

 

The way the Utah Jazz have been playing, they weren't about to discount their 104-89 victory over the Dallas Mavericks on Friday night just because Jason Terry, Jerry Stackhouse and Erick Dampier sat out.

 

"They still have (Dirk) Nowitzki," noted Matt Harpring.

 

"And Josh Howard. That's two All-Stars," added Deron Williams.

 

Having lost five straight and six of seven, and with time running out on their chances of having home-court advantage for their first-round playoff series against Houston, the Jazz were thrilled with any victory.

 

"I don't care if it's 5-on-0, as long as we got a win," Derek Fisher said. "We understand and respect the fact Dallas had a couple of guys out. That doesn't take any feel-good away from us."

 

NOTES : With a full game lead on the Jazz , the Jazz Rockets game on the final day will be one of the few games worth watching on the last day of the regular nba season.

[FF]

Phoenix Burns Utah... Dim Jazz Hopes For Homecourt Playoff Edge

 

The Jazz started the evening knowing that winning their final three games of the regular season was all they had to do to secure homecourt advantage in their upcoming playoff series with the Houston Rockets.

 

Utah's Carlos Boozer shoots over the defense of Phoenix's Amare Stoudemire on Saturday in EnergySolutions Arena.

But by the time they were done fumbling what was in their hands by bumbling their way through a 126-98 loss to the Phoenix Suns on Saturday night at sold-out EnergySolutions Arena, a defeat leaving everyone from owner Larry H. Miller on down fuming about just how terrible they played, the Jazz needed help.

In more ways than one.

"It's been pretty rough for us lately," starting point guard Deron Williams said after Utah (49-31) lost for the sixth time in last seven outings. "You know, we haven't been playing basketball. It looks like we don't even know how to play basketball."

Yet Williams holds out hope that the Jazz's 4-5 seed first-round postseason series with the Rockets, which will start sometime next weekend, will open in Salt Lake City and not Houston.

"I think we're capable of winning the next two games," Williams said. "We've just got to turn it on. As for Houston, we've just got to hope they lose."

Twice, actually.

Here's how the homecourt-advantage picture quite clearly stands after the Jazz fell to the 61-19 Suns and Houston beat Oklahoma City on Saturday night:

For Utah to have the homecourt edge in their best-of-seven series, the Jazz must beat Portland and Phoenix must beat Houston on Monday, followed by a Jazz win over the Rockets in Wednesday's regular-season finale for both clubs at EnergySolutions.

Anything else, and the series starts at the Toyota Center in Houston with Tracy McGrady, Yao Ming and the rest of the Rockets having homecourt advantage.

 

NOTES : The Jazz : When they're good ... they're very good. But when they're bad ... they're horrid ! Just hoping that the Jazz shake off the blues when they meet the Rockets .

[FF]

Jazz Break Skid with Win Over Blazers ... Lose Homecourt to the Rockets.

 

Carlos Boozer scored 26 points and the Utah Jazz tied a season high for points in a 130-93 win over the Portland Trail Blazers on Monday night.

 

Utah won its 50th game of the season, but will still open the playoffs on the road. Houston clinched home-court advantage by beating Phoenix earlier today. The Jazz and Rockets close the regular season Wednesday night in Utah.

 

NOTES : Kudos to the Phoenix Suns who battled the Rockets to the dying seconds in a loss in Houston. With the Rockets now holding homecourt advantage, I wonder if coaches sloan and van gundy will let their teams rest easy during Jazz - Rockets game this thursday ?

[FF]

Going into the playoffs ... the jazz must regroup if they are to have any chance of beating the rockets and getting into the 2nd round. here's travis heath of hoopsworld has to say :

 

As Jerry Sloan was wrapping up his postgame comments after last Friday's win in Dallas, a loud crash was heard in the arena. With severe weather present most of the day in Dallas, this prompted Sloan to quip: "Was that a tornado or what?" Well Jerry, it might have been a tornado or it might have been the sound of the freight train which darned near squashed the Jazz over the course of the past month.

 

Now that the dust has settled, the good news is Utah played so well early that they still have a chance to turn it around come playoff time. Whether they are able to do that or not remains to be seen.

 

Perhaps the most interesting part of Utah's struggles the past month or so is how it started. In a seemingly innocuous game against a depleted Miami HEAT squad, the Jazz had a double digit-lead and looked to be well on their way to another win. Right about that time, the HEAT came back and managed to pull-out a dramatic 88-86 victory. At the time, it seemed like the loss was no big deal and the Jazz would quickly get over it. What actually happened, though, was a different story altogether.

 

"Yeah, that (loss in Miami) pretty much started it," Deron Williams said. "We had that game . . . I'm not going to say we had it won because we didn't, but we were pretty much in control of that game for most of that game until the fourth quarter. We just lost it, and it seems like we lost a lot of our confidence with that game. It's been pretty much down hill from there."

 

Confidence is a difficult thing to figure out, but one thing is certain: a team must have it to win games in the playoffs.

 

"I think the confidence has dropped in us a little bit," Williams continued. "We're not playing the same basketball that we were when we were successful. We're not doing those same things. We're not helping each other out as much. We tend to get a little selfish on the offensive end at times and just stand around and watch guys. That's not the type of team we are. We execute, and when we execute we're at our best -- we're cutting hard, screening and guys are getting open from that. We feed off of that. We haven't been making plays down the stretch or getting stops when we need them."

 

This lack of confidence and execution has led to Utah struggling late in games.

 

"We haven't been doing a good job of closing out teams lately," Williams explained. "We've had several games where we were up double-digits in the third and fourth quarter and we've let it slip away."

 

Jazz fans are hoping that all of the games their team has let slip away of late isn't a sign that their season is on the verge of doing the same thing.

 

As noted earlier, the good news is Utah is in the playoffs and will be facing-off with an opponent which is far from invincible in the first-round. That said, Utah needs to regain their early season swagger and their patented execution on both ends of the floor if they hope to get by Yao, McGrady and company.

 

"We have to see if we can put ourselves back together to be a little bit more competitive like we were at one time," Sloan asserted.

 

History has taught us that it's very hard for an NBA team to pull a "Mr. Potato Head" and put themselves back together again heading into playoff basketball. However, confidence is a funny thing, and if the Jazz can find some between now and this weekend . . . anything is possible.

[FF]

Houston beats Jazz as T-Mac Heats Up in 2nd Half !

While the Jazz were hoping to reverse their late-season meltdown in Game 1 of their first-round NBA playoff series with the Houston Rockets, it was McGrady who turned everything around.

Held without a basket the entire first half, the seven-time All-Star found his rhythm in the second - scoring 16 of his 23 points in the third quarter alone to lead the Rockets to an 84-75 comeback victory in front of a sellout crowd of 18,195 fans at Toyota Center on Saturday night.

"He just got hot," the Jazz's Deron Williams said.