Jazz 112, Knicks 104
Some debate among the writers after Monday's game about whether the following Jerry Sloan quote was fit for print:
"It seems like the last couple games have been pretty similar," Sloan said. "We get into a situation where we have a big first half and it's always scary because when we played them [New York] over there, we had a big first half.
"I told them at halftime, 'You've got to come out, execute your offense, try to make some stops on the defensive end,' which none of that really happened.
"Got them right back in the ball game and when it got down to nut-cracking time, we had to defend better, had to try to keep them from getting on top of the basket and then we had to execute.
"Execute to get the ball where we wanted to go, not just take shots with the clock running down. I thought we did a good job of that to be able to win the game."
Nut-cracking time? It apparently means different things to different people - - judging from our conversation after the game - - but the only thing we could agree upon was that Sloan wasn't talking about ballet.
* * *
Sloan was also asked about the third quarter, which New York won 32-19, and what the Knicks did to hold down the Jazz after a 67-point first half.
"Nothing," Sloan said. "We just kind of stood around and didn't execute the offense. There's a difference between moving on it and just kind of flopping around.
"Anytime one guy just comes at half-speed when you're trying to execute a play - - it's kind of a timing theme - - you've got to to move off of it. One guy doesn't and they jam you up and then you don't have anything so you throw the ball back out and you're back over to square one. That's stupid basketball."
So now we have nut-cracking time and stupid basketball. Pretty well sums up the Knicks game.
* * *
Another question for Sloan, this time about having to play his starters so many extra minutes in the front end of a back-to-back with Portland on deck. Deron Williams and Carlos Boozer both played 42 minutes in the game.
"It shouldn't hurt them," Sloan said, repeating the words. "They're not 40 years old. If they're 40 years old, you might say it should be a problem.
"You should play better on the second night of back-to-back than you do in the first because there's just a little bit of a edge off. You should be able to - - most of the time - - to shoot the ball better."
The only problem with this thinking is that all the evidence has been to the contrary this season. The Jazz are 3-14 in the second game of back-to-backs and have been road kill in losses to Denver, Portland, Orlando and others in such circumstances.
* * *
After the television cameras were gone, I asked Sloan about not calling timeout as the Knicks erased the Jazz's 24-point lead in the second half. By the time the first TV timeout came with 5:59 left in the third quarter, the Jazz had seen their lead trimmed to 12.
The Jazz had blown a big lead against Phoenix only two nights earlier, but Sloan defended his decision not to call timeout. He said he would have ordered up the same play in a timeout as he did during the game.
"I don't call timeouts just because the score changed all the time," Sloan said. "Once in a while I will, but I think that's an important thing to learn is to how we do it. What am I going to tell them? A different play?"
What about just stopping another team's momentum?
"They should be able to stop that by running the same play," Sloan said. "We could come back and run the same play whether we use a timeout or not use a timeout. I don't like to use my timeouts just for that.
"That's like giving them a handful of candy. As soon as they eat it, they come back and want more. I don't play that with them all the time. I've never done it since I've been in coaching.
"I don't go by all the rules that everybody has, you've got to do this and this, and I probably make mistakes with it. I think players have got to learn. What are we going to do if we call a timeout? We just ran a play. If we're going to run it half-speed, that's what we did."
* * *
Kyle Korver said the Jazz were fine for the back-to-back as long as they didn't go to overtime against the Knicks. He summed up pretty well what happened in the third quarter and into the fourth quarter as the Jazz ended up falling behind.
"I thought we came out at halftime and played pretty well for a few minutes," Korver said. "We just kind of let up for whatever reason. They're a team that's very, very streaky. They started hitting shots, they started taking us out of what we wanted to do.
"They were switching a lot of things, and if you're not really cutting hard on those switches, it's kind of tough to get shots. Deron's taking a lot of shots with 1, 2 seconds left on the clock. It kind of kills his rhythm and then it kind of kills our rhythm, too."
* * *
Looking over my notes from the third quarter, the Jazz gave back that lead in stages. It started with a 10-0 run that saw Chris Duhon hit a three-pointer and Mehmet Okur head to the bench only 2:40 in after picking up his fourth foul.
Deron Williams missed three consecutive jumpers - - he went 3-for-11 in the second half - - and C.J. Miles missed a three-pointer and threw away a pass looking for Carlos Boozer inside. Nate Robinson scored as part of a three-point play make it a seven-point game.
The Knicks then scored the first five points of the fourth quarter to tighten that vise a little more. The Jazz were called for 18 fouls in the second half, with New York shooting penalty free throws the final 7:35 of the third quarter and 9:04 of the fourth.
* * *
Back in November, the Jazz lost to the Knicks in the sixth game of the season. They didn't see them again until late March, the 73rd game of the season. Needless to say, the Knicks went through some changes in that time.
From the November game, Jamal Crawford, Zach Randolph, Anthony Roberson and Mardy Collins are all gone. New faces Monday were Al Harrington, Larry Hughes, Jared Jeffries, Chris Wilcox and Eddy Curry.
* * *
Curry's obviously had a difficult season on and off the court, but he looked enormous in Tuesday's game. It wouldn't have been a shock to hear that he weighs 350 pounds right now. Curry had three points and a rebound in seven minutes against the Jazz.
--Ross Siler
"It seems like the last couple games have been pretty similar," Sloan said. "We get into a situation where we have a big first half and it's always scary because when we played them [New York] over there, we had a big first half.
"I told them at halftime, 'You've got to come out, execute your offense, try to make some stops on the defensive end,' which none of that really happened.
"Got them right back in the ball game and when it got down to nut-cracking time, we had to defend better, had to try to keep them from getting on top of the basket and then we had to execute.
"Execute to get the ball where we wanted to go, not just take shots with the clock running down. I thought we did a good job of that to be able to win the game."
Nut-cracking time? It apparently means different things to different people - - judging from our conversation after the game - - but the only thing we could agree upon was that Sloan wasn't talking about ballet.
* * *
Sloan was also asked about the third quarter, which New York won 32-19, and what the Knicks did to hold down the Jazz after a 67-point first half.
"Nothing," Sloan said. "We just kind of stood around and didn't execute the offense. There's a difference between moving on it and just kind of flopping around.
"Anytime one guy just comes at half-speed when you're trying to execute a play - - it's kind of a timing theme - - you've got to to move off of it. One guy doesn't and they jam you up and then you don't have anything so you throw the ball back out and you're back over to square one. That's stupid basketball."
So now we have nut-cracking time and stupid basketball. Pretty well sums up the Knicks game.
* * *
Another question for Sloan, this time about having to play his starters so many extra minutes in the front end of a back-to-back with Portland on deck. Deron Williams and Carlos Boozer both played 42 minutes in the game.
"It shouldn't hurt them," Sloan said, repeating the words. "They're not 40 years old. If they're 40 years old, you might say it should be a problem.
"You should play better on the second night of back-to-back than you do in the first because there's just a little bit of a edge off. You should be able to - - most of the time - - to shoot the ball better."
The only problem with this thinking is that all the evidence has been to the contrary this season. The Jazz are 3-14 in the second game of back-to-backs and have been road kill in losses to Denver, Portland, Orlando and others in such circumstances.
* * *
After the television cameras were gone, I asked Sloan about not calling timeout as the Knicks erased the Jazz's 24-point lead in the second half. By the time the first TV timeout came with 5:59 left in the third quarter, the Jazz had seen their lead trimmed to 12.
The Jazz had blown a big lead against Phoenix only two nights earlier, but Sloan defended his decision not to call timeout. He said he would have ordered up the same play in a timeout as he did during the game.
"I don't call timeouts just because the score changed all the time," Sloan said. "Once in a while I will, but I think that's an important thing to learn is to how we do it. What am I going to tell them? A different play?"
What about just stopping another team's momentum?
"They should be able to stop that by running the same play," Sloan said. "We could come back and run the same play whether we use a timeout or not use a timeout. I don't like to use my timeouts just for that.
"That's like giving them a handful of candy. As soon as they eat it, they come back and want more. I don't play that with them all the time. I've never done it since I've been in coaching.
"I don't go by all the rules that everybody has, you've got to do this and this, and I probably make mistakes with it. I think players have got to learn. What are we going to do if we call a timeout? We just ran a play. If we're going to run it half-speed, that's what we did."
* * *
Kyle Korver said the Jazz were fine for the back-to-back as long as they didn't go to overtime against the Knicks. He summed up pretty well what happened in the third quarter and into the fourth quarter as the Jazz ended up falling behind.
"I thought we came out at halftime and played pretty well for a few minutes," Korver said. "We just kind of let up for whatever reason. They're a team that's very, very streaky. They started hitting shots, they started taking us out of what we wanted to do.
"They were switching a lot of things, and if you're not really cutting hard on those switches, it's kind of tough to get shots. Deron's taking a lot of shots with 1, 2 seconds left on the clock. It kind of kills his rhythm and then it kind of kills our rhythm, too."
* * *
Looking over my notes from the third quarter, the Jazz gave back that lead in stages. It started with a 10-0 run that saw Chris Duhon hit a three-pointer and Mehmet Okur head to the bench only 2:40 in after picking up his fourth foul.
Deron Williams missed three consecutive jumpers - - he went 3-for-11 in the second half - - and C.J. Miles missed a three-pointer and threw away a pass looking for Carlos Boozer inside. Nate Robinson scored as part of a three-point play make it a seven-point game.
The Knicks then scored the first five points of the fourth quarter to tighten that vise a little more. The Jazz were called for 18 fouls in the second half, with New York shooting penalty free throws the final 7:35 of the third quarter and 9:04 of the fourth.
* * *
Back in November, the Jazz lost to the Knicks in the sixth game of the season. They didn't see them again until late March, the 73rd game of the season. Needless to say, the Knicks went through some changes in that time.
From the November game, Jamal Crawford, Zach Randolph, Anthony Roberson and Mardy Collins are all gone. New faces Monday were Al Harrington, Larry Hughes, Jared Jeffries, Chris Wilcox and Eddy Curry.
* * *
Curry's obviously had a difficult season on and off the court, but he looked enormous in Tuesday's game. It wouldn't have been a shock to hear that he weighs 350 pounds right now. Curry had three points and a rebound in seven minutes against the Jazz.
--Ross Siler
1:10 AM
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