Suns 118, Jazz 114
That had to kill the Jazz to put everything they had into Wednesday's game, trying to win on the road, trying to win on the second night of a back-to-back, only to come up short. Phoenix's Matt Barnes summed it up pretty well afterward, I thought.
"We knew we had to give more because they played last night," Barnes said. "We looked at each other a couple of times and said, ‘Where the hell are they getting this energy from?' because they were running us.
"We usually don't get tired in game and there were a few times they had us with our tongues out. They fought a hard-fought game, but we wanted this game more."
Not that we didn't know it was coming, but Wednesday's loss makes it official: The Jazz will finish the season with a losing road record.
Back in training camp, the Jazz voiced such determination to play better on the road this season. They obviously struggled on their November and December trips playing through so many injuries, but now it's a question whether they'll even be better than last season.
The Jazz finished 17-24 on the road last season and are 14-21 with six games remaining. In case you were wondering, the last time the Jazz posted a winning record on the road was 2000-2001, when they were 25-16.
They were 20-21 in 2006-07, but the fact remains that they are now 18 games under .500 (70-88) on the road the last four seasons. I'll call that the Deron Williams era, although obviously Williams is anything but the source of the Jazz's problems.
* * *
It was probably a combination of the two factors, but the Jazz collapsed in the fourth quarter when Carlos Boozer and Ronnie Brewer replaced Mehmet Okur and Kyle Korver with 7:38 remaining, the same time the Suns switched to a zone defense.
Boozer was 0-for-3 in the fourth quarter, including one shot that was blocked by Grant Hill. The Suns got out on the break after each of Boozer's shots, as well as a missed three-pointer by Mehmet Okur and a block/strip of Brewer.
Boozer played only 4:20 of the fourth quarter. Deron Williams hit two three-pointers against the zone to keep the Jazz in the game, but Jerry Sloan was not happy with the way his team handled the defense.
"The zone was very effective against us," Sloan said. "We didn't have enough patience to play against it, and we just took one pass and a shot so many times instead of trying to execute.
"We've always been very good [against] a zone, but we never did really solve it the way we thought we should be able to. But give them credit for being able to use it and we couldn't do what we wanted to do."
* * *
The Jazz came to Phoenix twice this season on the second night of a back-to-back set and lost to the Suns in both games by a combined six points. That's tough to swallow. As the Suns noted, the Jazz also are now 0-9 on the road against teams in the Western Conference playoff hunt. They have six more such games remaining.
They also went from giving up 86 points Tuesday against Houston to 118 points one night later in Phoenix. That's a 32-point swing, with the Suns also shooting 20.1 percentage points better than the Rockets.
* * *
Another stretch that hurt the Jazz came at the end of the third quarter. The Jazz had built an eight-point lead in the quarter, then given it away, then built a seven-point lead, then given it away again, and closed the quarter down 89-83.
The Suns got key minutes out of Louis Amundson - - who broke into the NBA with the Jazz, signing two 10-day contracts - - rookie point guard Goran Dragic and former No. 2 overall pick Stromile Swift.
Amundson finished with 10 points, five rebounds and two blocks in 19 minutes - - a far cry from the two statless minutes he had in his one game with the Jazz, which earned Amundson the No. 203 ranking by Kurt Kragthorpe in his Jazz countdown.
The Suns closed the third quarter with a 7-0 run to take an 89-83 lead into the fourth. Amundson had a tip in and blocked Boozer. Dragic drove for a layup and hit Swift inside for another basket.
Paul Millsap and Brevin Knight missed jumpers for the Jazz while Kyle Korver tried to throw a lob to Millsap that was stolen. Suns coach Alvin Gentry said after "again our little bench gang came in and they did a great job for us."
Credit Dragic, who looked like a scared puppy earlier in the season, for keeping the Suns in the game. He hit two three-pointers early in the fourth quarter, even as Williams hounded him on defense in a way you rarely see.
I'm also sure that Shaquille O'Neal never expected at this stage of his career to be on the floor with a lineup of Dragic, Alando Tucker, Jared Dudley and Barnes. That was the case for a stretch in the second quarter.
* * *
It's safe to say Mehmet Okur never expected to end up with the ball in his hands for the Jazz's biggest shot down the stretch. Williams missed a jumper and Okur came up with the rebound and passed back to Williams, who gave the ball right back to Okur.
Okur tried to drive on Matt Barnes and ended up getting himself completely turned around - - it looked like he used three hands trying to dribble - - and took an off-balance fadeaway. Okur definitely drew contact, but Barnes flailed his arms out to sell that it was marginal.
Jazz coach Jerry Sloan was furious no foul was called and furious prior to that when Paul Millsap was hit under the basket with no whistle, either.
* * *
Hard to believe the Jazz could lose when they had Phoenix in the penalty with 9:44 left in the third quarter and 8:10 left in the fourth. That means they were automatically going to the foul line for every whistle for nearly 18 minutes in the second half.
Of course, the Jazz didn't exactly take full advantage in going 16-for-27 at the line. Okur missed four free throws in the third quarter alone.
Williams, by the way, had a tough third quarter. He was knocked to the floor by a Grant Hill screen that he never saw coming and couldn't draw a whistle on several missed drives to the basket.
You could see Williams pleading his case to referee Steve Javie again and again in the third quarter, even showing Javie the marks on his arms where he thought he got fouled.
* * *
Had to laugh at the airport this morning when I saw TNT announcer Doug Collins, who could have been head coach of the Chicago Bulls this morning, but instead was getting wanded by security screeners just like the rest of us schlubs.
* * *
From here on out this season, I'm going to end these posts the same way. If the playoffs started today, the Jazz would be play No. 3-seeded Houston in the first round. The Jazz and Portland have identical 44-27 records, but the Jazz currently own the season-series tiebreaker against the Trail Blazers and would claim the No. 6 seed as a result.
Key games for Friday: There's only one given the NCAA Tournament, with Phoenix playing at Portland in the second game of a back-to-back set. A Portland victory would push the Jazz back to seventh place, putting them in line for a first-round series against San Antonio.
--Ross Siler
"We knew we had to give more because they played last night," Barnes said. "We looked at each other a couple of times and said, ‘Where the hell are they getting this energy from?' because they were running us.
"We usually don't get tired in game and there were a few times they had us with our tongues out. They fought a hard-fought game, but we wanted this game more."
Not that we didn't know it was coming, but Wednesday's loss makes it official: The Jazz will finish the season with a losing road record.
Back in training camp, the Jazz voiced such determination to play better on the road this season. They obviously struggled on their November and December trips playing through so many injuries, but now it's a question whether they'll even be better than last season.
The Jazz finished 17-24 on the road last season and are 14-21 with six games remaining. In case you were wondering, the last time the Jazz posted a winning record on the road was 2000-2001, when they were 25-16.
They were 20-21 in 2006-07, but the fact remains that they are now 18 games under .500 (70-88) on the road the last four seasons. I'll call that the Deron Williams era, although obviously Williams is anything but the source of the Jazz's problems.
* * *
It was probably a combination of the two factors, but the Jazz collapsed in the fourth quarter when Carlos Boozer and Ronnie Brewer replaced Mehmet Okur and Kyle Korver with 7:38 remaining, the same time the Suns switched to a zone defense.
Boozer was 0-for-3 in the fourth quarter, including one shot that was blocked by Grant Hill. The Suns got out on the break after each of Boozer's shots, as well as a missed three-pointer by Mehmet Okur and a block/strip of Brewer.
Boozer played only 4:20 of the fourth quarter. Deron Williams hit two three-pointers against the zone to keep the Jazz in the game, but Jerry Sloan was not happy with the way his team handled the defense.
"The zone was very effective against us," Sloan said. "We didn't have enough patience to play against it, and we just took one pass and a shot so many times instead of trying to execute.
"We've always been very good [against] a zone, but we never did really solve it the way we thought we should be able to. But give them credit for being able to use it and we couldn't do what we wanted to do."
* * *
The Jazz came to Phoenix twice this season on the second night of a back-to-back set and lost to the Suns in both games by a combined six points. That's tough to swallow. As the Suns noted, the Jazz also are now 0-9 on the road against teams in the Western Conference playoff hunt. They have six more such games remaining.
They also went from giving up 86 points Tuesday against Houston to 118 points one night later in Phoenix. That's a 32-point swing, with the Suns also shooting 20.1 percentage points better than the Rockets.
* * *
Another stretch that hurt the Jazz came at the end of the third quarter. The Jazz had built an eight-point lead in the quarter, then given it away, then built a seven-point lead, then given it away again, and closed the quarter down 89-83.
The Suns got key minutes out of Louis Amundson - - who broke into the NBA with the Jazz, signing two 10-day contracts - - rookie point guard Goran Dragic and former No. 2 overall pick Stromile Swift.
Amundson finished with 10 points, five rebounds and two blocks in 19 minutes - - a far cry from the two statless minutes he had in his one game with the Jazz, which earned Amundson the No. 203 ranking by Kurt Kragthorpe in his Jazz countdown.
The Suns closed the third quarter with a 7-0 run to take an 89-83 lead into the fourth. Amundson had a tip in and blocked Boozer. Dragic drove for a layup and hit Swift inside for another basket.
Paul Millsap and Brevin Knight missed jumpers for the Jazz while Kyle Korver tried to throw a lob to Millsap that was stolen. Suns coach Alvin Gentry said after "again our little bench gang came in and they did a great job for us."
Credit Dragic, who looked like a scared puppy earlier in the season, for keeping the Suns in the game. He hit two three-pointers early in the fourth quarter, even as Williams hounded him on defense in a way you rarely see.
I'm also sure that Shaquille O'Neal never expected at this stage of his career to be on the floor with a lineup of Dragic, Alando Tucker, Jared Dudley and Barnes. That was the case for a stretch in the second quarter.
* * *
It's safe to say Mehmet Okur never expected to end up with the ball in his hands for the Jazz's biggest shot down the stretch. Williams missed a jumper and Okur came up with the rebound and passed back to Williams, who gave the ball right back to Okur.
Okur tried to drive on Matt Barnes and ended up getting himself completely turned around - - it looked like he used three hands trying to dribble - - and took an off-balance fadeaway. Okur definitely drew contact, but Barnes flailed his arms out to sell that it was marginal.
Jazz coach Jerry Sloan was furious no foul was called and furious prior to that when Paul Millsap was hit under the basket with no whistle, either.
* * *
Hard to believe the Jazz could lose when they had Phoenix in the penalty with 9:44 left in the third quarter and 8:10 left in the fourth. That means they were automatically going to the foul line for every whistle for nearly 18 minutes in the second half.
Of course, the Jazz didn't exactly take full advantage in going 16-for-27 at the line. Okur missed four free throws in the third quarter alone.
Williams, by the way, had a tough third quarter. He was knocked to the floor by a Grant Hill screen that he never saw coming and couldn't draw a whistle on several missed drives to the basket.
You could see Williams pleading his case to referee Steve Javie again and again in the third quarter, even showing Javie the marks on his arms where he thought he got fouled.
* * *
Had to laugh at the airport this morning when I saw TNT announcer Doug Collins, who could have been head coach of the Chicago Bulls this morning, but instead was getting wanded by security screeners just like the rest of us schlubs.
* * *
From here on out this season, I'm going to end these posts the same way. If the playoffs started today, the Jazz would be play No. 3-seeded Houston in the first round. The Jazz and Portland have identical 44-27 records, but the Jazz currently own the season-series tiebreaker against the Trail Blazers and would claim the No. 6 seed as a result.
Key games for Friday: There's only one given the NCAA Tournament, with Phoenix playing at Portland in the second game of a back-to-back set. A Portland victory would push the Jazz back to seventh place, putting them in line for a first-round series against San Antonio.
--Ross Siler
1:59 AM
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1 Comments:
In the Eastern Time Zone, the past two Jazz games have finished up after 1:00 a.m. The Phoenix match sure seemed a lot later.
Tough loss. It looked like Korver was wide open for an Okur pass at the end. But that's easy for me to see.
Hopefully we didn't deplete the Suns so much they can't go into Portland and get the upset.
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