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Game 15: Jazz 105, Nuggets 103
Posted by: TACOREV on November 26th, 2012
The author's views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of the Utah Jazz.After an abysmal first half that had many of us raising torches of protest, the Jazz fire back with a fantastic third quarter and ride that momentum to a 105-103 victory over Denver.
Jefferson and Favors played together for most of the fourth quarter, both coming up big for the Jazz. Jefferson, playing some of the most aggressive basketball I’ve seen him play since joining this Jazz team, had 28 & 5, while Favors finished with 19 & 7, with two blocks.
Foye, Tinsley, and Marvin combined for a barrage of huge 3-pointers in the third quarter that keyed the comeback.
Millsap finished with just 5 & 5 in 24 minutes. Is it looking more and more like he’ll be dealt?
The McNuggets finish with six guys in double figures, led by Kenneth Faried’s 21 & 9. Ty Lawson had 16 & 9, while Danilo Gallinari and Corey Brewer each added 12. Andre Iguodala scored 10 before getting ejected in the second half.
Fortunately, Kosta “Combover” Koufos didn’t completely embarrass us again.
The Jazz maintain an unbeaten 6-0 record at home, with an 8-7 overall mark.
Now back onto the dreaded road for the next three, starting with New Orleans on Wednesday, followed by Oklahoma City on Friday and Houston on Saturday. Can the Jazz win any of these games?
Jazz players of the game: Al Jefferson and Derrick Favors
Replies: 16
Views: 609
16 Responses
I was thinking the same thing about Millsap. Also, who is this j. Tinsley bloke who can shoot. I havent seen him until the last two games
Jefferson and Favors play very well together. It let’s Jefferson be the focal point of the offense and Favors can really help hide Jefferson’s weakness on the D. It’s great.
Carroll should be on the floor more when Jefferson it on to help even further hide his bad D.
Hayward needs to shoot better. If he is shooting bad, he needs to drive and get fouled. He needs to not go 1/8 more often than not.
Way to pull out the W at home. And for Jefferson leading the charge.. kudos.. Helped to have Iggy ejected.
Millsap is out of position and out of sync, he is not a starter or a 3, bring him off the bench and start Favors from here on out. Favors is earning it.
The combo of Millsap and Al is complete garbage!!! Favors does cover for Al, which sucks for Millsap cuz Millsap doesnt get the benefit of playing with Favors, all his minutes are with Al. But ya Millsap looked like he had lazers of hate for eyes!!! I think Millsap might be gone soon.
The biggest blow was Iggy getting ejected he was the Nuggets best match up against Jazz all game. Nuggets dont have a closer, and the Jazz finished the game with 3 bench players—-ALL OF WHICH PLAY GREAT D!!! Usually Jazz finish with Al, Millsap, and Foye who are not good defenders, so all that helped Jazz win.
But again, Jazz give up 35 points in the first, and allow 76% ?!!!!!! Shooting in the first half!!! Better teams, especially on the road, Jazz will get rocked. Cannot continue this bad habit. Favors needs to start and finish. And I would like to see Millsap get some time with Favors before we trade him. I bet Sap numbers jump and Al D gets exposed if he doesnt play with Favors.
We still look slow and non-athletic starting line up this needs to change.
Another stellar game by Hayward…….
Hayward is one of the best assets the Jazz have and your going to ridicule him? He plays against the top tier talent in the league, he holds them to below season average numbers consistently and your wanting him gone??? that makes no sense…
Way to fight and come back for the win Jazz!! Favors growth spurts are enormous. He’s making clutch free throws to win the game, but I was really impressed with a couple plays where he just attacked the rim when he knew he didnt have a shot but knew he could draw a foul in the situation from what the defense was showing. Pretty good leadership by Al tonight. Tinsley… ha ha im not surprised. Hes a baller.
Hayward is still a good defender and willing passer, even on his 1-8 shooting nights. You can’t say the same for Al or Foye, who become worthless on the court if they shoot 1-8. Still, Hayward should be hitting those open looks. Two or three tonight looked good but rimmed out, so its not like he’s bricking everything. Next game they’ll fall in.
1) OMG mr Corbin…. give Caroll more minutes man!!! ur defense SUCKS!
2) HORRIBLE first 2 quarters… Foye is not a defender is a role bench player, and Hayward sucks 2 of 3 games…. Carroll is the answer.
3)Favors a monster….
4) Jefferson did hes job.
5) Kosta who? he is a Utah hater???
6) Give Burks minutes over Watson man… cmn! Watson makes this team a ridiculous experiment, or Hayward on Watson minutes as pg like he did in college.
7) Jazz player of the game: Tinsley… (God bless him)
Last night Millsap and Jefferson proved to me who should be staying and who should be leaving…and that person is Millsap, unfortunately. At the start of this year I would never have said that but he hasn’t been getting it done on the road or at home. Over the road trip, Millsap was consistently ineffective, while Jefferson was inconsistently effective. I’d rather take Jefferson. With him and Favors starting, that frees Favors for starter minutes, while inadvertently giving more minutes to Kanter coming off the bench. If needed due to injury, just have Marvin Williams be the stretch PF… I hate to say it, but I believe Millsap is the odd man out.
Not that we’ve concluded that we trade Millsap, the problem I see now is what positional player do we trade for? What positions need filling or rounding out? What players could we give up with Millsap if needed? These are questions we need to consider as we contemplate trades… Here’s my view:
Positions We Need:
PG – I want a young, athletic, pass first point guard to backup Mo Williams. Someone who can be the passing counter punch to Mo’s scoring one. This might come in the form of a draft pick or a straight up trade.
SF – One could make a case that we need another scoring punch in the three position. Marvin is a good all around player but if we had a shooter/defender at this position, our bench could be very strong, giving lots of room for Kanter and Favors.
Expendable Players:
Earl Watson – He’s a good guy but not a good shooter and an average defender. He brings lots of energy but we could easily find a younger, more skilled player who brought the same.
Jamaal Tinsley – He’s getting up there in the years, doesn’t score well anymore (with the exception of last night), and gets worked over on defense.
Demarre Carol – I like this guy even though he doesn’t score. He defends pretty well and runs the floor hard. The only way I would trade him is if we had a backup who was just as hard working on D but could shoot quite well.
One other problem we have is the SG position. We have Hayward who needs minutes. Then there’s Alec Burks who really needs more playing time in order to develop. We also have Randy Foye who, as poor of a defender he is, makes shots at a highly effective rate. How do we balance these guys? I honestly do not know… Hayward can score and defend so he is a must for us. Alec doesn’t shoot well, Foye does. Foye can’t defend, Alec can. I think we keep them both and utilize them with the situation. Corbin needs to be smart enough to put Alec on Kobe not Foye and put Foye in when there’s three seconds in the game…
I have to give props to Tinsley and to Al because I’ve been a loud detractor that their shooting is inefficient. One game doesn’t change everything, but Tinsley had 15 points on 6-9 shooting and 3-6 from three. That’s good shooting. Al had 10-15 shooting and was taking it to the rim and getting fouled. That’s 67% shooting and 10 free throws. If he plays like that, and plays some defense, we’ll win a lot of games. So props to those two.
BTW Favors shot 75% on 6-8 and made 7-9 free throws, which is also excellent.
There are a lot of PGs I like…but their teams like them too. Rondo, Irving, Lillard, Bledsoe, Jennings, Holiday. Calderon would probably be gettable.
Rondo would never stay in Utah, Irving would take alot to get, same with Holiday. Lillard, Bledsoe, Jennings and Calderon are gettable. But Jennings has too many off games and Calderon is not good enough to be a long term PG
@Adam: When you say “we’ve” are you talking about you and the mouse in your pocket??
This is my biggest problem with Al. Where has this been all year? He throws out these great games every 15 games. But we need more then that. Where was this passion on the road while we were losing? We saw this last year as well. If and this is a big IF he can continue to play like this that is great. But over the years he has shown this is not the case. So lets hold off on the keep Al until this road trip we are about to embark on.
If we could get him to play like this all game that is great. But we have seen this year where it takes a huge run to get the starters engaged. We can not have to be down 15 for someone to have a fight and killer instinct.
@L.K.Anderson, “we’ve,” as in Jazz Nation. Those are my opinions, I state them as fact, but obviously they aren’t…