Jazz 106, Clippers 88
If you look at the box score from Friday's game, you'll see the Jazz won all four quarters against the Clippers. The difference, though, was the first quarter, which the Jazz finished with a 34-23 lead even with Deron Williams on the bench in foul trouble.
Take away that quarter and the Jazz were only seven points better than the Clippers in the other three. Credit Ronnie Brewer and Andrei Kirilenko for hitting their jumpers, Carlos Boozer for going 6-for-7 and Matt Harpring for a key three-point play against Tim Thomas.
Most of all, credit Jason Hart for living up to his claim that he could do more with more minutes. Hart had two jumpers at the end of the quarter as the Jazz went up by 11 and stole the ball from Sam Cassell as the Clippers worked for a last shot.
The Jazz outscored the Clippers by 20 points in the 24 minutes Hart played. For a while, it looked like Hart was determined to show up the Clippers' Nos. 1-3 point guards in Cassell, Brevin Knight and Dan Dickau.
"I thought Jason had an excellent game of pushing the ball up the floor for us," Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said. "I thought he did a good job defensively trying to keep people in front of [him]. Just played a good all-around game."
* * *
One play in the third quarter pretty much summed up for me the difference between the Jazz home and away. Cassell had the ball on the wing, but Hart got him turned around enough that Mehmet Okur saw the chance to trap Cassell into a turnover.
Okur left his man, Chris Kaman, only to watch as Cassell found Kaman out of the trap. But Boozer slid over to help just as Kaman got the ball. Instead of an easy basket, Kaman realized he had a barrier in his path.
Kaman saw Cuttino Mobley come open outside at the top of the key and tried to pass the ball back outside to him. But Andrei Kirilenko read the play perfectly, picked off the pass and took it for a dunk.
That's how you rotate on defense. I mentioned the play to Boozer after the game and he acknowledged how good the Jazz looked on it. That play shows you just what the Jazz could be defensively and where the standard should be set.
* * *
Think the Clippers aren't starting to get a little exasperated?
Here was coach Mike Dunleavy's postgame quote: "I was disappointed in mentally where we were and that we didn't do a better job of covering their plays. We know their stuff pretty well and we let them get easy scores. We were not sharp mentally. It was like we didn't even have a shootaround today."
* * *
Sloan was bothered enough by Thursday's loss to Denver that he went back and watched tape of the game, just to make sure there wasn't anything he missed or anything he could have done differently.
"When I see guys that can't run the floor, that's in their bodies," Sloan said. "You can use your head and talk people into thinking, 'Hey, I'm really busting my can,' but if you sit there and look at it, you can see.
"If you want to take each individual player and say, 'Are you running hard in this position?' If he told you the truth, he'd probably tell you, 'No, I'm not.'"
Sloan went on to talk about how the Jazz never can afford to be walking on the floor. That goes both for getting back on defense and cutting hard on offense and moving to get open. Sloan was asked what he could conclude after watching his players move Friday.
"What that tells me is we don't have the same concentration at home as we do on the road," Sloan said. "That's my opinion. Everybody's in on it. Maybe I'm playing the wrong guys. I don't know. I'm not infallible in that situation."
* * *
More Sloan:
"Somewhere there has to be a passion to play this game on the road. If it's a job for you, why do it? Get a job where you can get off at 5 and you're home the rest of the evening and can prop your feet up and don't have to work.
"I know it's corny, but it's really been kind of disheartening to see us play on the road the way we have."
--Ross Siler
Take away that quarter and the Jazz were only seven points better than the Clippers in the other three. Credit Ronnie Brewer and Andrei Kirilenko for hitting their jumpers, Carlos Boozer for going 6-for-7 and Matt Harpring for a key three-point play against Tim Thomas.
Most of all, credit Jason Hart for living up to his claim that he could do more with more minutes. Hart had two jumpers at the end of the quarter as the Jazz went up by 11 and stole the ball from Sam Cassell as the Clippers worked for a last shot.
The Jazz outscored the Clippers by 20 points in the 24 minutes Hart played. For a while, it looked like Hart was determined to show up the Clippers' Nos. 1-3 point guards in Cassell, Brevin Knight and Dan Dickau.
"I thought Jason had an excellent game of pushing the ball up the floor for us," Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said. "I thought he did a good job defensively trying to keep people in front of [him]. Just played a good all-around game."
* * *
One play in the third quarter pretty much summed up for me the difference between the Jazz home and away. Cassell had the ball on the wing, but Hart got him turned around enough that Mehmet Okur saw the chance to trap Cassell into a turnover.
Okur left his man, Chris Kaman, only to watch as Cassell found Kaman out of the trap. But Boozer slid over to help just as Kaman got the ball. Instead of an easy basket, Kaman realized he had a barrier in his path.
Kaman saw Cuttino Mobley come open outside at the top of the key and tried to pass the ball back outside to him. But Andrei Kirilenko read the play perfectly, picked off the pass and took it for a dunk.
That's how you rotate on defense. I mentioned the play to Boozer after the game and he acknowledged how good the Jazz looked on it. That play shows you just what the Jazz could be defensively and where the standard should be set.
* * *
Think the Clippers aren't starting to get a little exasperated?
Here was coach Mike Dunleavy's postgame quote: "I was disappointed in mentally where we were and that we didn't do a better job of covering their plays. We know their stuff pretty well and we let them get easy scores. We were not sharp mentally. It was like we didn't even have a shootaround today."
* * *
Sloan was bothered enough by Thursday's loss to Denver that he went back and watched tape of the game, just to make sure there wasn't anything he missed or anything he could have done differently.
"When I see guys that can't run the floor, that's in their bodies," Sloan said. "You can use your head and talk people into thinking, 'Hey, I'm really busting my can,' but if you sit there and look at it, you can see.
"If you want to take each individual player and say, 'Are you running hard in this position?' If he told you the truth, he'd probably tell you, 'No, I'm not.'"
Sloan went on to talk about how the Jazz never can afford to be walking on the floor. That goes both for getting back on defense and cutting hard on offense and moving to get open. Sloan was asked what he could conclude after watching his players move Friday.
"What that tells me is we don't have the same concentration at home as we do on the road," Sloan said. "That's my opinion. Everybody's in on it. Maybe I'm playing the wrong guys. I don't know. I'm not infallible in that situation."
* * *
More Sloan:
"Somewhere there has to be a passion to play this game on the road. If it's a job for you, why do it? Get a job where you can get off at 5 and you're home the rest of the evening and can prop your feet up and don't have to work.
"I know it's corny, but it's really been kind of disheartening to see us play on the road the way we have."
--Ross Siler
1:05 AM
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