Sunday report
Talked to Jerry Sloan before practice about the Jazz's recent pattern of slow starts. It's been a problem more on the road than at home and probably won't be an issue Monday, when the Jazz will feed off their crowd and probably blow away the Warriors.
Sloan did acknowledge that he and his coaching staff have had regular discussions - - including Sunday - - about moving Andrei Kirilenko back to the starting lineup and bringing C.J. Miles off the bench.
But Sloan would rather keep playing Kirilenko as a sixth man, where he can play multiple positions thanks to his versatility. The Jazz also right now can't afford to start Kirilenko and lose both him and Paul Millsap to early foul trouble.
The biggest issue seems to be that playing Miles and Ronnie Brewer in the same lineup accentuates the inexperience of both. The Jazz came out Friday against the Lakers and settled for jumpers, almost afraid to go inside against Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum.
"That's what pressure does to you," Sloan said. "When guys start pressuring you, you want to try to prove you can get a shot off instead of staying with your offense.
"This is not a problem that's new to our business or the way we try to play. It's something that happens a couple, three times a year.
"A lot depends on your personnel. When you get against bigger teams or bigger players, sometimes you have a tendency to want to take them outside and play against them. You lose confidence in the offense when you do that."
Talking about the slow starts, Deron Williams said the Jazz have had a tendency to execute poorly, forget plays and get confused on defense. "That's just a matter of maturing, growing up, getting a little bit better," he said.
Of course, it's probably all going to be a moot point Monday night against a Warriors team coming off road losses to Oklahoma City and Minnesota. Those two teams, in case you were wondering, are a combined 12-55 this season.
* * *
Carlos Boozer is still scheduled to undergo surgery on his left knee Friday in Los Angeles and will stay in Southern California to do rehab work afterward.
Boozer was riding a stationary bike Sunday, which he has been encouraged to do to stay in shape while out.
There's been some questions about why the surgery wasn't scheduled immediately after the most recent MRI exam. It turns out Boozer suffered a burn on his knee when he put a hot pack on it while the Jazz were in Boston last month.
The burn turned into a blister, which increased the possibility of an infection with the surgery. It is expected to have healed by the end of the week, which is why the surgery was scheduled when it was scheduled.
Boozer said doctors believe they will only have to clean out the knee and remove a loose particle causing pain in the back of his knee. Both Boozer and the Jazz are not expecting doctors to find something more serious with the surgery.
The particle, by the way, is about the size of a fingernail. The Jazz will wait to set a timetable until after the surgery, but the expectation is that Boozer will miss about a month.
Boozer described the course of the injury. For four days after hurting his knee, Boozer could hardly bend his leg. He made so much progress from there that he even set a target date for his return, which he again described Sunday as putting his foot in his mouth.
When he couldn't work out without pain, however, Boozer had to consider other options.
"They need me back and I'm doing everything I can to get back," Boozer said. "I tried to rehab it. It didn't work. I've got to go get surgery. Hopefully, that's the answer and I'll be back out there to help my team win, finish the season off and get us in the playoffs and stay in the playoffs. We're kind of bouncing in and out of it right now."
--Ross Siler
Sloan did acknowledge that he and his coaching staff have had regular discussions - - including Sunday - - about moving Andrei Kirilenko back to the starting lineup and bringing C.J. Miles off the bench.
But Sloan would rather keep playing Kirilenko as a sixth man, where he can play multiple positions thanks to his versatility. The Jazz also right now can't afford to start Kirilenko and lose both him and Paul Millsap to early foul trouble.
The biggest issue seems to be that playing Miles and Ronnie Brewer in the same lineup accentuates the inexperience of both. The Jazz came out Friday against the Lakers and settled for jumpers, almost afraid to go inside against Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum.
"That's what pressure does to you," Sloan said. "When guys start pressuring you, you want to try to prove you can get a shot off instead of staying with your offense.
"This is not a problem that's new to our business or the way we try to play. It's something that happens a couple, three times a year.
"A lot depends on your personnel. When you get against bigger teams or bigger players, sometimes you have a tendency to want to take them outside and play against them. You lose confidence in the offense when you do that."
Talking about the slow starts, Deron Williams said the Jazz have had a tendency to execute poorly, forget plays and get confused on defense. "That's just a matter of maturing, growing up, getting a little bit better," he said.
Of course, it's probably all going to be a moot point Monday night against a Warriors team coming off road losses to Oklahoma City and Minnesota. Those two teams, in case you were wondering, are a combined 12-55 this season.
* * *
Carlos Boozer is still scheduled to undergo surgery on his left knee Friday in Los Angeles and will stay in Southern California to do rehab work afterward.
Boozer was riding a stationary bike Sunday, which he has been encouraged to do to stay in shape while out.
There's been some questions about why the surgery wasn't scheduled immediately after the most recent MRI exam. It turns out Boozer suffered a burn on his knee when he put a hot pack on it while the Jazz were in Boston last month.
The burn turned into a blister, which increased the possibility of an infection with the surgery. It is expected to have healed by the end of the week, which is why the surgery was scheduled when it was scheduled.
Boozer said doctors believe they will only have to clean out the knee and remove a loose particle causing pain in the back of his knee. Both Boozer and the Jazz are not expecting doctors to find something more serious with the surgery.
The particle, by the way, is about the size of a fingernail. The Jazz will wait to set a timetable until after the surgery, but the expectation is that Boozer will miss about a month.
Boozer described the course of the injury. For four days after hurting his knee, Boozer could hardly bend his leg. He made so much progress from there that he even set a target date for his return, which he again described Sunday as putting his foot in his mouth.
When he couldn't work out without pain, however, Boozer had to consider other options.
"They need me back and I'm doing everything I can to get back," Boozer said. "I tried to rehab it. It didn't work. I've got to go get surgery. Hopefully, that's the answer and I'll be back out there to help my team win, finish the season off and get us in the playoffs and stay in the playoffs. We're kind of bouncing in and out of it right now."
--Ross Siler
5:38 PM
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1 Comments:
Not sure why Sloan should get credit for faulty logic. Maybe Miles is best suited to stay in the starting lineup, but why not start AK for the less experienced Brewer, then? Brew is doing well, but Kiri is doing better. Just because you start a player doesn't mean you'll play him more minutes. And if CJ has a better defender in AK alongside him, then maybe he'll make fewer mistakes or even learn a thing or two.
Sloan has barely tried Williams-Miles-Kirilenko-Millsap-Okur at all this year--all of 17 minutes. This combo has a negative point differential, but it's not much worse than the current starting lineup. Oh, and Millsap + Kirilenko are the best duo that the Jazz have anyway, so they should play together as much as possible. They help each other to reduce fouls because they are good defenders.
BTW, if you start a player, he can still play multiple positions. But AK is best suited to SF anyway. Koufos is almost as effective at the 4 as the 5, and (perish the thought) Collins isn't a bad player at center for 5 minutes at a time. Neither is Harpring at SF.
As for the foul concerns, Kirilenko has had 5 or more fouls only once this season--against the Lakers on Friday. So if anything, the Jazz are not playing AK enough. If you want to save him for the end of the game, fine. Sub in Brewer or even Harpring for a few minutes at a time.
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