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.