Utah Jazz

[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.

[clubber_lang]

First, the two debacles against the Rockets. Now this:

 

Sam Mitchell edged out Jerry Sloan for the Coach Of The Year Award.

 

Oh well, the Raptors were the surprise team of the year. Sloan is the Scorsese of the NBA...

[howard_the_duck]

Sloan should never retire until he wins that coach of the year award.

 

Sana may honanary coach of the year din

[FF]

First, the two debacles against the Rockets. Now this:

 

Sam Mitchell edged out Jerry Sloan for the Coach Of The Year Award.

 

Oh well, the Raptors were the surprise team of the year. Sloan is the Scorsese of the NBA...

 

well ... maybe the season ending tailspin accounted for a lot in the voter's minds ...

[FF]

Sloan should never retire until he wins that coach of the year award.

 

Sana may honanary coach of the year din

 

imho ... his best chance was this year. with the season ending slump and the backto back defeats against houston , some jazz jazz fans are saying its time for a change ...

 

http://www.retiresloan.com/2007/04/on-this...lenko_6804.html

 

http://blogs.sltrib.com/jazz/2007/04/is-sl...tting-tired.htm

[FF]

jazz rockets on star sports at 8 am tom , may 4 . see you guys there !