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Game 33: Jazz 106, Timberwolves 84
Posted by: TACOREV on January 2nd, 2013
The author's views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of the Utah Jazz.The Jazz roll past the Rubio-less T-Wolves at ESA, improving to 16-17 on the season.
Hayward scored 17, Kanter came off the bench for 15 & 8, Millsap had 14, and Jefferson and Tinsley each added 12.
Kevin Love led Minnesota with 13 & 10. Alexey Shved also scored 13, while former Jazzman Andrei Kirilenko finished with 12 & 7.
The victory snaps a three-game home losing streak for the Jazz, who are now 10-4 on their home court.
Minnesota isn’t a very good team, especially on the road, and without one of its best players in Rubio… so this is basically what is expected of this Jazz team at home.
Next up is the Suns on Friday in Phoenix, where the Jazz lost by 15 on Dec. 14.
Bad news: Mo Williams underwent surgery for his thumb injury, and will miss about six weeks. Looks like we’re only seeing the beginning of the unstoppable Tinsley/Watson combo.
Jazz player of the game: Enes Kanter
Replies: 17
Views: 508
17 Responses
I miss AK….
Good game on an injured wolf….
player of thr game: Kanter.
definitely player of the game Kanter. Hes legit. Hopefully Ty lets him play out his fouls so he learns to manage them.
Love was horrible. Him at full strength and Rubio would have been a different game. Were also lucky Shved couldnt hit anything. He was open and hes a good player
That’s no good for us & Mo.
I am so sick of watching the minute distribution that Corbin keeps rolling out there. What does favors have to do get more playing time. This is getting beyond ridiculous! he doesn’t get minutes in close games cause Corbin doesn’t trust him. He doesn’t get minutes in blowouts like tonight. How do they expect to develop him when he can’t get off the bench . He played 16 minutes. 16 minutes!!! Same goes for the Watson and burks situation. And don’t tell me that burks can’t play point for this team. What does our point guard do anyway? All I see them do is dribble at the top of the key and dump inside. Pretty sure burks can handle that. I haven’t been this fed up with the jazz in a long time, and they won! I should be happy right?! I was on the fence but I really think we need a new coach. Watson sucks. #firecorbin
@NA i think most of us agree. Wins shouldnt be frustrating. 16 min. for Favors is rediculous. Hes averaging about 21 min. a year and its his 3rd year. This logjam is hurting his game. FO needs to get on it.
#firecorbin
Maybe Favors should have a hissy fit like Millsap over the past two games and Corbin will get scared that he is losing a friend and give him minutes. The fact that Favors and Kanter can score in the Key playing with Watson is amazing. The defensive Point guard is pretty much able to take up space in the key as Watson is no threat at all from over 2 feet.
Yes. Corbin caves to veteran hissy fits. We’ve seen it with Raja, Howard, Watson.
Stil, I’m optimistic after wins. I saw some good things in this win. First, Tinsley played well. He played to his offensive strength, posting up. Surprising skill for a guard, but he took it to Shved snd Ridnour.
Second. Al was out there giving defensive effort. Harpring noticed it. I’ve noticed it the last few games. He’s also going to the hoop more and getting to the line more. He’s not great at either defense or drawing fouls, but I LOVE seeing effort from him.
Favors had THREE amazing offensive moves. He’s so athletic he made it look easy. Moves only a select few Bigs in the NBA can only dream of. Wow. Plus his great defense. Yes, he needs more minutes than 16. He needs more minutes than 22.
Kanters mid-range shot looks great and he’s beastly down low and I am AMAZED by the leap he has taken this year. Plus his toughness. He might just be my new favorite player snd the next Jersey I buy. ‘You can’t handle the Kanter!’ Did I do that right, Jazzaholic?
Millsap had two dunks on his first 2 shots off of moving the ball and passing. That is Jazz basketball. It carried through and Millsap finished 7-8 shooting.
Im going to enjoy this win but also still keep things in context. Yes, we’re beating injured tier 3 teams at home, and even some tier 2 teams, and we had a good home win over a tier 1 Spurs team, but I’m still all for taking a calculated risk, freeing the logjam, getting a decent backup PG or young PG for the future and draft pick assets in a trade, and a coaching change. We shouldnt be 11th in the West with the talent we have on this roster, we should be fighting for 5th or 6th. Teams like Minnesota, Golden State, Houston shoukd not be better teams than ours.
Anyone else blown away by Kanters court awareness in this game??
I personally liked it when Kanter got that steal and took it strait to the rack . I love his passion he is playin right now . I also love it when he just stands there when those guys try and push him around . He is standing his ground this year . It is so cool to see .
I think that Favours and Kanter needs more minutes they are showing that they want it by the way they are playin .
This was a good win for us . The Jazz as a whole played more like a team that wanted to win . Like Harpring said if we play like this we will win more games .
I have to beleive that there is more to the picture than we as fans can see . Corbin is still trying to mix it up , sure he has alot to learn , and sure he could give more minutes to the young guys . But I think that he is trying , give him the benefit of the doubt at least till the end of season .
Go Jazz !!!
Someone else mentioned in a previous post that Corbin may not be playing Favors because of his plantar fasciitis. I’ve had that before and it hurts like crap just walking around, and it took several months before it started feeling better. Favors may have some lingering effects and Corbin may be limiting his playtime for fear of aggravating the condition.
… but still #hireharpring
I’m not buying the fact that he’s not playing Favors because of his plantar fascitis. Did you see the moves that Favors made last night. You don’t make those kinds of moves if your heel is killing you. Corbin has no idea what is he doing, and doesn’t know how to develop players. Why should we give him the benefit of the doubt. We’ve seen enough to know what he gives us as a coach and it’s not good enough.
#firecorbin
If Kanter stops getting rebounds and then taking the ball down low, he will improve a lot and be a way bigger threat. I missed this game, but to me thats been his one downfall. He brings the ball down and gets it slapped away and no ones calling fouls on it. Just needs to rebound and dunk it hard.
Other than that, hes impressed me and been a good pick.
Lol, @disco: “over two feet” TWolves are pretty awful, and Watson still cant score.
Totally agree NA! Im looking big picture: Al, Tinsley, Millsap, Watson impacted the game against TWolves at home, but Jazz will not be playing them or likes in the playoffs. Look at the rosters of the top 5 teams in league. Rarely does Tinsley have a size advantage and rarely does Watson play poor defensive PGs. I gonna temper my enthusiasm, @Suns and @Nuggets should be a true test.
I totally not on board with the slow burn development idea: Jazz are beating pretty bad teams, so its okay to give Favors and Kanter a total of 36 minutes combined (which has been their average for the most part). No where is it written that rookies contracted players have to sign with team drafted them. And yes I am fully aware they get more money, but maybe theyd take less money to play for championship contender (maybe Favors signs with the Heat?? SOMEHOW). And absolutely not is a team with Al and Millsap at 30+ minutes a contender. Unless KOC has a commitment from CP3, I dont see how all that free cap space benefits Kanter and Favors averaging a combined 36 minutes per game?
So basically Jazz are giving starter minutes at 30+ to 2 players Jazz wont resign in order to let them walk to have a ton of cap space to sign a player that plays in LA and will probably be in West finals and that will not sign with Jazz—a team that has two of its best players (Hayward and Favors) in last year of contract with a team that 1) will look complete different considering all the expiring 1 year contacts, or 2) will be almost exactly a roster of resigned vets that barely missed or made playoffs…..this is the play???! I dont get it.
Kanter was fantastic last night… unfortunately it’s being reported that he suffered an ankle injury and is questionable for Friday night’s game.
Kanter’s ALWAYS been a beast. I maintain that he is the one all star on this team.
@ taco love his energy like he wants to win . I wish the starters would get that to .
I mustve missed him hurting his ankle . I hope it is not to serious .
@ Nick Knows All , I beleive that Kanter could be an all star in the near future . He is growing leaps and bounds up to this point .
Anyone see Burks making some good passes last night? His ball handling makes me drool. I still think we would be a better PG than Waston.