Bulls 101, Jazz 100
It was clear to everyone who attended Monday's pregame shootaround that the firings of Oklahoma City's P.J. Carlesimo and Washington's Eddie Jordan left Jazz coach Jerry Sloan a little unsettled.
Before the Jazz's last home game, Sloan was honored for his 1,000th victory as the team's coach. He sounded Monday as if his head was next on the chopping block, which we all know isn't the case.
Sloan's firing as coach in Chicago clearly still stings more than 25 years later. The firing of Jordan, in particular, also reinforced to Sloan that no matter how many injuries a team suffers, the expectations never change.
The Wizards have played without Gilbert Arenas and Brendan Haywood, yet still fired Jordan, the Eastern Conference's longest-tenured coach, after a 1-10 start. That clearly resonated for Sloan with the Jazz playing without Deron Williams and Carlos Boozer.
"You get comfortable in this business, it's hard to do that," Sloan said. "You see what happens around you every day and it makes it pretty difficult."
"People don't understand, when guys are hurt, your team's probably not going to be as good," Sloan added. "But that doesn't mean you keep your job. That gives them an excuse to get rid of you."
But Sloan didn't stop at that. Not even close. Talking about his players, he said, "Sometimes they don't understand that because it's easier to play for another coach that's on his way in here about a month from now or whatever the case may be.
"That's when you see teams start to fall off and not produce like they're supposed to produce. And when our team got beat like we did in San Antonio, you think your career's over. You can laugh or whatever you think about those things, but that's a serious part of my job.
"It always has been because I've been fired, I've seen those things happen where players start going behind your back and try to get to the owner or the general manager and tell him all the things that I can't do.
"I'm always concerned about that. I've got to fight back, too. I can't let people think it's not important. A lot of people think it's not important to win. You're not criticized probably for losing a little bit if you've got guys out. But that doesn't mean you can't get fired.
"Just look at what's happened the last couple days. I don't care what people say about security in this business, I've never felt totally secure my whole life about it. That's why I've always said it's a day-to-day thing.
"You don't know when players are going to say, ‘Ah, we'll get another coach.' You get four or five guys on the same page, maybe they have the same agent, they eat all together, they're all together all the time, you never know what can happen."
Sloan added that he didn't feel that was the case with the Jazz players. It still was an interesting commentary from a 66-year-old coach who's in his 21st season with the same team. And Sloan still hadn't punctuated his thoughts.
"I'm not going to go down easy," he said. "That's all there is to it. I'm not going to walk away easy. I'm going to fight them and battle them as long as I can. I owe that to our owner as long as I'm here. If I'm not here, then somebody else has to do it."
* * *
As for the game itself, the Jazz probably felt like there was a black cloud over EnergySolutions Arena all night. The shot clocks were broken from the very beginning of the game. The injury woes appeared to claim even Bear, who had a walking boot on his left ankle. He still was presented with two NBA awards during the second half.
It looked like the Jazz were thrown out of rhythm almost from the beginning because of the shot clocks. They spent the first quarter settling for pretty much every jumper that presented itself. When they got the ball inside, whether it was to Andrei Kirilenko, Ronnie Brewer or someone else, good things tended to follow.
They had a terrible time stopping Drew Gooden and Derrick Rose in the first half and gave up a 9-2 run to close the first half. They went into halftime training 53-45 as Rose went the length of the court for a layup just before the first half buzzer. Gooden and Rose combined for 31 of the Bulls' 53 points in the half.
The Jazz finally got things going in the third quarter as they started trapping both Rose and Gooden off the pick and roll. They forced six steals and five of them led to either dunks or layups on the fast break. Paul Millsap stripped Gooden on one play, Price hit the floor after the ball and gave it to Miles, who started the break and gave it back to Millsap for a layup.
Price had two dunks in the quarter and Brewer threw down a highlight alley-oop off a pass from Miles. The Jazz owned a seven-point lead late in the third after trailing by eight to start the quarter. You would have thought there was no way to lose considering the Bulls were fading in the second game of a back-to-back set.
Of course, you would have been wrong. For starters, the Bulls scored the last four points of the quarter to trail by a more manageable three going into the fourth quarter. They also made a couple of adjustments to the Jazz's swarming pick-and-roll defense that I thought made all the difference before the final frantic minutes.
The first thing they did was have a player - - either Andres Nocioni or Larry Hughes - - rotate out to the three-point arc on the weak side as the Jazz trapped the pick-and-roll. Nocioni hit one three-pointer this way and Hughes got to the foul line after Rose split the double-team and kicked out to him.
The Bulls also hit the glass hard, with lumbering Aaron Gray scoring twice on offensive rebounds. After Luol Deng missed a shot, Tyrus Thomas sailed in for the rebound and gave the ball back to Deng for a layup as the Bulls took a 78-75 lead. They went on a 10-0 spanning the end of the third and start of the fourth quarters.
They also gave Rose the freedom to split double-teams and generally attack whenever the Jazz tried to trap him. As much as Nocioni hurt the Bulls with a lane violation and two fouls in short succession, he also drew a key foul on Paul Millsap with 3:04 remaining that left the Jazz in the penalty.
The Jazz had only eight available players by the end with Brevin Knight and Matt Harpring injured and Millsap having fouled out. As well as Ronnie Price played after replacing Knight in the fourth quarter, he was overmatched against Rose, who scored eight of the Bulls' final 10 points. Sloan didn't want anything to do with my question about missing Williams for the matchup after the game.
The EnergySolutions Arena crowd didn't take too kindly to the call on Millsap for his sixth foul. It looked pretty clear on the replay that Millsap put a hand on Rose's hip as he was in the air on his drive. Dan Crawford made the call and is one of the NBA's top referees. I have to assume it's an automatic whistle when he sees something like that. Still, Millsap had 21 points and 10 rebounds and deserved to foul out on something a little more blatant, you'd think.
There was so much to get into with the game story, I didn't specifically mention it, but the Jazz did have a rebound bounce their way as well down the stretch. Before Larry Hughes' buzzer-beater, the Jazz took a 100-99 lead as Brewer pulled down the rebound of Mehmet Okur's missed three-pointer and fed C.J. Miles for a layup with 11.8 seconds left.
Just a wild game all around. The injuries seem to be catching up with the Jazz, who obviously didn't want to open a four-game homestand with a loss like Monday's. The silver lining is that Williams is on track to return Wednesday. Even if he's at 85 or 90 percent, Williams will help boost all of his teammates just by being on the court.
* * *
Jazz coach Jerry Sloan made a curious comment after the game. He charged that some of his players took off as if to start a fast break as Rose missed his shot in the final seconds and the long rebound sailed right to Hughes. Sloan backed up his statement by saying he'd just seen a replay.
I watched a replay of the final shot about five times on ESPN.com and I'm not sure I see the same thing. Miles did leave Hughes on the perimeter, but it was to crash after the rebound inside. Okur, Kirilenko and Brewer are all 10 feet or closer to the basket. Price is out of the picture but comes back into it, rather than vice versa.
"I always teach fast break without the ball, " a frustrated Sloan said.
* * *
Talked to Matt Harpring (strained lower back) and Brevin Knight (sprained left index finger) after game. Harpring said he was going through his normal pregame warm-up routine when his back gave out.
"I was just posting up and just moved a certain way and it just caught me," Harpring said. He added that he never has been bothered by back problems in the past. Harpring is day-to-day and hoping his back relaxes with some of the medication he's been given.
Knight, meanwhile, hurt his hand as Nocioni stripped him of the ball. X-rays were negative after the game. Knight thought he could get the feeling back in his hand, but after two trips up and down the court, his hand wasn't feeling any better.
"When I couldn't bend it again, I knew it was time to come on out," said Knight, who is also day-to-day.
* * *
The Jazz called the Elias Sports Bureau to figure out where Paul Millsap's 179 consecutive games played ranked among active NBA players. Turns out, he's eighth. Here's the list, with the totals going into Monday's games.
1. Andre Miller, Philadelphia, 461; 2. Tayshaun Prince, Detroit, 425; 3. Dwight Howard, Orlando, 341; 4. Derek Fisher, L.A. Lakers, 261; 4. DeShawn Stevenson, Washington, 261; 6. Michael Finley, San Antonio, 249; 7. Samuel Dalembert, Philadelphia, 203; 8. Millsap, Utah, 178; 9. Ricky Davis, L.A. Clippers, 138.
* * *
Great quote from Mehmet Okur, who was asked if he celebrates Thanksgiving at the pregame shootaround. "No we don't. I like turkey, though," he said, before adding. "Country first, then bird."
--Ross Siler
Before the Jazz's last home game, Sloan was honored for his 1,000th victory as the team's coach. He sounded Monday as if his head was next on the chopping block, which we all know isn't the case.
Sloan's firing as coach in Chicago clearly still stings more than 25 years later. The firing of Jordan, in particular, also reinforced to Sloan that no matter how many injuries a team suffers, the expectations never change.
The Wizards have played without Gilbert Arenas and Brendan Haywood, yet still fired Jordan, the Eastern Conference's longest-tenured coach, after a 1-10 start. That clearly resonated for Sloan with the Jazz playing without Deron Williams and Carlos Boozer.
"You get comfortable in this business, it's hard to do that," Sloan said. "You see what happens around you every day and it makes it pretty difficult."
"People don't understand, when guys are hurt, your team's probably not going to be as good," Sloan added. "But that doesn't mean you keep your job. That gives them an excuse to get rid of you."
But Sloan didn't stop at that. Not even close. Talking about his players, he said, "Sometimes they don't understand that because it's easier to play for another coach that's on his way in here about a month from now or whatever the case may be.
"That's when you see teams start to fall off and not produce like they're supposed to produce. And when our team got beat like we did in San Antonio, you think your career's over. You can laugh or whatever you think about those things, but that's a serious part of my job.
"It always has been because I've been fired, I've seen those things happen where players start going behind your back and try to get to the owner or the general manager and tell him all the things that I can't do.
"I'm always concerned about that. I've got to fight back, too. I can't let people think it's not important. A lot of people think it's not important to win. You're not criticized probably for losing a little bit if you've got guys out. But that doesn't mean you can't get fired.
"Just look at what's happened the last couple days. I don't care what people say about security in this business, I've never felt totally secure my whole life about it. That's why I've always said it's a day-to-day thing.
"You don't know when players are going to say, ‘Ah, we'll get another coach.' You get four or five guys on the same page, maybe they have the same agent, they eat all together, they're all together all the time, you never know what can happen."
Sloan added that he didn't feel that was the case with the Jazz players. It still was an interesting commentary from a 66-year-old coach who's in his 21st season with the same team. And Sloan still hadn't punctuated his thoughts.
"I'm not going to go down easy," he said. "That's all there is to it. I'm not going to walk away easy. I'm going to fight them and battle them as long as I can. I owe that to our owner as long as I'm here. If I'm not here, then somebody else has to do it."
* * *
As for the game itself, the Jazz probably felt like there was a black cloud over EnergySolutions Arena all night. The shot clocks were broken from the very beginning of the game. The injury woes appeared to claim even Bear, who had a walking boot on his left ankle. He still was presented with two NBA awards during the second half.
It looked like the Jazz were thrown out of rhythm almost from the beginning because of the shot clocks. They spent the first quarter settling for pretty much every jumper that presented itself. When they got the ball inside, whether it was to Andrei Kirilenko, Ronnie Brewer or someone else, good things tended to follow.
They had a terrible time stopping Drew Gooden and Derrick Rose in the first half and gave up a 9-2 run to close the first half. They went into halftime training 53-45 as Rose went the length of the court for a layup just before the first half buzzer. Gooden and Rose combined for 31 of the Bulls' 53 points in the half.
The Jazz finally got things going in the third quarter as they started trapping both Rose and Gooden off the pick and roll. They forced six steals and five of them led to either dunks or layups on the fast break. Paul Millsap stripped Gooden on one play, Price hit the floor after the ball and gave it to Miles, who started the break and gave it back to Millsap for a layup.
Price had two dunks in the quarter and Brewer threw down a highlight alley-oop off a pass from Miles. The Jazz owned a seven-point lead late in the third after trailing by eight to start the quarter. You would have thought there was no way to lose considering the Bulls were fading in the second game of a back-to-back set.
Of course, you would have been wrong. For starters, the Bulls scored the last four points of the quarter to trail by a more manageable three going into the fourth quarter. They also made a couple of adjustments to the Jazz's swarming pick-and-roll defense that I thought made all the difference before the final frantic minutes.
The first thing they did was have a player - - either Andres Nocioni or Larry Hughes - - rotate out to the three-point arc on the weak side as the Jazz trapped the pick-and-roll. Nocioni hit one three-pointer this way and Hughes got to the foul line after Rose split the double-team and kicked out to him.
The Bulls also hit the glass hard, with lumbering Aaron Gray scoring twice on offensive rebounds. After Luol Deng missed a shot, Tyrus Thomas sailed in for the rebound and gave the ball back to Deng for a layup as the Bulls took a 78-75 lead. They went on a 10-0 spanning the end of the third and start of the fourth quarters.
They also gave Rose the freedom to split double-teams and generally attack whenever the Jazz tried to trap him. As much as Nocioni hurt the Bulls with a lane violation and two fouls in short succession, he also drew a key foul on Paul Millsap with 3:04 remaining that left the Jazz in the penalty.
The Jazz had only eight available players by the end with Brevin Knight and Matt Harpring injured and Millsap having fouled out. As well as Ronnie Price played after replacing Knight in the fourth quarter, he was overmatched against Rose, who scored eight of the Bulls' final 10 points. Sloan didn't want anything to do with my question about missing Williams for the matchup after the game.
The EnergySolutions Arena crowd didn't take too kindly to the call on Millsap for his sixth foul. It looked pretty clear on the replay that Millsap put a hand on Rose's hip as he was in the air on his drive. Dan Crawford made the call and is one of the NBA's top referees. I have to assume it's an automatic whistle when he sees something like that. Still, Millsap had 21 points and 10 rebounds and deserved to foul out on something a little more blatant, you'd think.
There was so much to get into with the game story, I didn't specifically mention it, but the Jazz did have a rebound bounce their way as well down the stretch. Before Larry Hughes' buzzer-beater, the Jazz took a 100-99 lead as Brewer pulled down the rebound of Mehmet Okur's missed three-pointer and fed C.J. Miles for a layup with 11.8 seconds left.
Just a wild game all around. The injuries seem to be catching up with the Jazz, who obviously didn't want to open a four-game homestand with a loss like Monday's. The silver lining is that Williams is on track to return Wednesday. Even if he's at 85 or 90 percent, Williams will help boost all of his teammates just by being on the court.
* * *
Jazz coach Jerry Sloan made a curious comment after the game. He charged that some of his players took off as if to start a fast break as Rose missed his shot in the final seconds and the long rebound sailed right to Hughes. Sloan backed up his statement by saying he'd just seen a replay.
I watched a replay of the final shot about five times on ESPN.com and I'm not sure I see the same thing. Miles did leave Hughes on the perimeter, but it was to crash after the rebound inside. Okur, Kirilenko and Brewer are all 10 feet or closer to the basket. Price is out of the picture but comes back into it, rather than vice versa.
"I always teach fast break without the ball, " a frustrated Sloan said.
* * *
Talked to Matt Harpring (strained lower back) and Brevin Knight (sprained left index finger) after game. Harpring said he was going through his normal pregame warm-up routine when his back gave out.
"I was just posting up and just moved a certain way and it just caught me," Harpring said. He added that he never has been bothered by back problems in the past. Harpring is day-to-day and hoping his back relaxes with some of the medication he's been given.
Knight, meanwhile, hurt his hand as Nocioni stripped him of the ball. X-rays were negative after the game. Knight thought he could get the feeling back in his hand, but after two trips up and down the court, his hand wasn't feeling any better.
"When I couldn't bend it again, I knew it was time to come on out," said Knight, who is also day-to-day.
* * *
The Jazz called the Elias Sports Bureau to figure out where Paul Millsap's 179 consecutive games played ranked among active NBA players. Turns out, he's eighth. Here's the list, with the totals going into Monday's games.
1. Andre Miller, Philadelphia, 461; 2. Tayshaun Prince, Detroit, 425; 3. Dwight Howard, Orlando, 341; 4. Derek Fisher, L.A. Lakers, 261; 4. DeShawn Stevenson, Washington, 261; 6. Michael Finley, San Antonio, 249; 7. Samuel Dalembert, Philadelphia, 203; 8. Millsap, Utah, 178; 9. Ricky Davis, L.A. Clippers, 138.
* * *
Great quote from Mehmet Okur, who was asked if he celebrates Thanksgiving at the pregame shootaround. "No we don't. I like turkey, though," he said, before adding. "Country first, then bird."
--Ross Siler
12:56 AM
| 
3 Comments:
It was definitely a disheartening loss. I thought our guys played their collective hearts out and to lose the way they did...well, Im sure they didnt sleep to well last night.
The injuries this season are unfathomable. I wonder at what point in the season will the Jazz have a full healthy squad. And I wonder how long it'll take the Jazz to start gelling again once Williams returns...Im sure there'll be a drop off of sorts.
How 'bout some news on Boozer...just sayin'.
You have to wonder if Sloan was trying to send a message to the front office...
What a weird basketball game. If nothing, it certainly added a few clips for the Ronnie B./Ronnie P. YouTube highlight mixes.
I agree with you Ross. It did not look like Miles was trying to get down the floor for a fastbeak oopourtunity. It looked to me like he was trying to crash the boards. That still was the wrong things to do. On a long jump shot from Rose he sould have boxed out his man (Hughes). Alas, he did not and that was the game.
Post a Comment
<< Home