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Game 43: Lakers 102, Jazz 84
Posted by: TACOREV on January 25th, 2013
The author's views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of the Utah Jazz.The Jazz get dominated by the Lakers in L.A.
Dwight Howard led the Lakers with 17 & 13 and Metta World Peace had 17 & 5. Steve Nash and Pau Gasol each added 15, while Kobe Bryant finished with 14/14/9.
LAL (18-25) had lost four in a row and 10 of 12 before easily beating Utah.
The Jazz were led by Favors’ 14 & 5 and Hayward’s 13. Jefferson scored 12, while Millsap and Foye each put in 10.
Very frustrating game. Jefferson — in addition to his lazy defense, lazy boxing out, and lazy in-transition basketball — went 5-for-14 from the field, following up last game’s 5-for-17 performance. He has really, really been hurting the team a lot more than he has been helping it. Favors, meanwhile, goes 5-for-5 from the floor.
Then there’s Watson, who somehow gets 21 minutes of playing time and goes 1-for-5 (his only made FG being a fast break layup). Realistically, Watson should not be in the NBA. Last year he was a borderline third-string PG, at best. This year he is significantly worse, yet still plays over 20 minutes a game. And if your argument is, “Well they don’t have anyone else to play backup PG,” then how about using one of all those great assets we keep talking about to get ourselves someone better?
Or, we could just be content with our current mediocrity. I guess we’ll see in the next few weeks as the trade deadline approaches.
The Jazz, now at 23-20 on the season and 9-16 on the road, will have to bounce back quickly with the Pacers coming to town tomorrow night to start up a four-game home stand.
Jazz player of the game: Derrick Favors
Replies: 24
Views: 530
24 Responses
Did our bigs forget how to box out? Jesus….
Favors and Kanter are ready. Counting down the days until the trade deadline.
#UnleashFavors! 5/5 from the field 4/4 from the line!
Came here to say Favors, Hayward,and Millsap were the only reason this was close.
Jefferson was awful.
Watson was awful.
Marvin was awful.
Play Foye at backup pg if you have to, Watson, while a solid defender, is so atrocious on offense that he kills all hope when in. Twice in a row in the 2nd quarter he missed Hayward cuts that would have given him layups. 1 of those passes Ostertag would’ve been able to make.
Marvin came out with no interest to start the game which is why MWP carried the Lakers early on. Ty even switched Millsap onto him because Marvin was doing such a bad job.
With that being said, there isn’t much we can. We have about 2 weeks before the trade market heats up. Until then, you can bet the Jazz will showcasing the guys they have available.
You guys are pretty tough on Watson. Why is it ok for Tinsley to jack up as many shots as he does when there are other players on the court with a hot hand?
2 things LA need under D’Antonis system
1) Fast transition players
2) outside shooters to compliment Howard’s post play (see daily trade clean slate post) we help LA accomplish that and get rid of Watson, Tinsley AND Al at the same time.
Frustrating! Al makes me lose my voice every game! His lazyness is only amplified by the 2 back up bigs that come in and Destroy! And Watson, well there is not enough bleeps I can say about him. Corbin should be slapped in the face for even playing him. Its Moronic how he is using him. Wasting space while Hayward, Burks, Foye Do his job at pg. Whats his Job out there? To create space with his deadly 3 pt shooting when he just stands there at the top corner 3pt line? Is he going to slash to the basket? Its laughable! Nobody even guards him. 4 on 5. Plus, sorry Andy he is really bad on D. Slow and gets lost all the time. Also why does Tinsley think he is Kobe al the sudden? Know your role and get the damn offense going sooner. Please let the days until the trade deadline go fast!
#firecorbin
#ditchmarvin
I for one wasn’t expecting the win to against LA to come easy. Anyone who plays for the Lakers plays with enough pride that they weren’t going to allow the Jazz to come in and sweep the regular season away. No one that wears the yellow and purple were going to allow that to happen for the first time on their watch.
That said Corbin made some bad errors again. That Jazz have got some good wins against the Lakers recently for a few main reasons. Hayward is a good defensive match up against Kobe. Hayward doesn’t exactly stop Kobe from doing his thing but he does make him work for it. This is one game that Hayward should have been brought out of the bench and started. The LA bench is horrible but the starters can more than make up for that at any time no matter how bad the team may be playing. Not playing Hayward on Kobe is one thing but allowing Burks, Foye and Watson to be the last point of defense on Kobe on a couple of occasions was painful to watch. Kobe just shot uncontested shots over them. They don’t have the height to get close. Simple easy point for Kobe makes the game all the harder to recover from.
No one is going to convince Corbin to play it any differently unless he has no choice, but playing Jefferson against the starting unit of the Lakers rarely works. If he misses a couple of early shots against the Lakers length his offense disappears. I don’t know how many times I watched him score like 11 to 14 points against the Lakers when we’ve needed him to score more. Favors and Kanter both generally have better games against the Lakers than Jefferson. Call it the naivety of youth, but they just seem to go out and play hard, whereas Jefferson seems to let it get in his head that their length is going to bother his shot.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Corbin allows the opposition to flow with his lack of timeout interventions. A number of times his team was in trouble as the Lakers went on a run, and too many times he allowed that run to go on to long before intervening. Help Your Team Corbin!
Anyway I’m getting fed up hearing it. Watson is making some mistakes, his individual offense scores aren’t good but he is also the player that runs with the second unit that usually outscores the opposition and gets the team back into the game. He is bringing the likes of Hayward, Favors and Kanter along, and his probably doing more than Corbin to make them ready to step up when the time comes. He has being doing that since the day he got here. Remember how Watson ran the second unit the year Dwill had his hissy fit with Hayward. Watson meanwhile was digging the starters out of first quarter holes, whilst groming the young guys to play hard and trust themselves all while he had nothing but a couple of rookies and the likes Of Fes and a couple of journeymen to work with. Then when Dwill left he kept those rookies fighting on with what was a nothing season.
Ever since his injury last season I don’t think Watson has been the same player but he still is able to run an offense with that second unit. That second unit works hard to get this team back into games or big leads in games becomes they respect his more than we as fans do.
Every backup point guard makes mistakes. I would still rather have Watson here than Ronnie Price. Price was a nice enough guy but he was about energy and individual showmanship rather than trying to run an offense with a team of players around him. Would I rather have Calderon here as my backup PG, absolutely but at this moment of time we don’t have that option.
Not sure how many people heard this yesterday. But DL interview on 1280 they were talking about playing time and what not. He basically said in a round about way if Ty did not play the vets the minutes they were getting and start them he would lose them in the locker room!
So here is my question. We say we are teaching these kids that you have to earn your time. You do not just get it blah blah blah. But they are not earning it if that is the case. If no matter what you say that you are going to lose these guys then that is teaching the kids all the wrong things. Am I wrong in thinking that? I mean we are saying well we will put you guys on the back burner for these guys. Well why are we doing that? It is not like it is 5 all stars playing in front of them. Every vet in front of them has not earned anything in this league to show they are “stars”. Not one of the wings in there whole careers has put up numbers like Hayward is putting up. So why are we catering to the guys that are average and not leading us anywhere other then an 7th-8th seed?
It is just frustrating and will be even more frustrating when these guys just walk because they do not give a crap about this organization because they did not give a crap about them
@Dallan. DL is on the radio for a reason. He is slightly more in the know than the general fan is but he’s not an expert either. If players were able to run the ship like that then that says something about Corbin’s communication skills and respect from the players. Any coach that has good communication with his players can say to an individual I need you to play this role for me today and its imperative for our victory today. Do we ever hear any player in San Antonio complain about their starter minutes, their role? Know because everyone understands what Pop expects from them. Everyone in San Antonio knows its about the victory and not individual stats. Maybe that was a bad example Pop is old and gets respect for the championships he’s contended for. Did we hear complaints from Harden at OKC when he played off the bench? No. Again it was about the mentality of the club and what every person could do for the organization. Build the right mentality and everyone buys into it. When the message is confused then people start worrying about their minutes, their stats.
I worry for tonight against the Pacers. The Pacers aren’t a great side but the suffocating defense they play is going to cause Utah problems if Al doesn’t get it going.
I’ve noticed when we have back to back games, our starters usually mail it in for the first game… particularly Big Al. There was no effort on his part, it was pathetic. Especially with it being the Lakers, our most hated rival, there is no reason to not bust your tail and play hard. And the leash he is given on offense is ridiculously long, if that was any other player huckin up 18ft jumpers like he was, they’d find themselves sittin on the bench, but he is allowed to keep playing. Its stupid. plain n simple. its just stupid
Al is straight trash! Howard is struggling, Gasol is struggling….whats the cure…..oh ya…..Al sorry ass D!! At this point Id trade Al for a 2019 2nd round pick just to keep him off the Jazz.
This is perpetuated by a lot of the fanbase, media, and those close to the organization, the FO, etc. Jazz beat up on bad teams (usually East bad teams), and everyone starts to talk about how far Corbin has come as a coach, blah, blah, blah, and how Millsap and Al are the best frontcourt players on the team and that is why they start, blah, blah, Tinsley and Watson are doing an admirable job, etc…..but the truth is that is against bad teams. “How can we trade our leading scorer (even though he takes a ton of shots;” “Al defense has really improved;” “Tinsely and Watson played well tonight;” “Jazz are on a winning streak (against the worse teams on a home stand);” “Jazz are in playoff position (5-15 against teams with winning records);”
Al NEVER shows up when it matters (Sap is undersize but at least he fought against Gasol and scored his points going to the rim in the paint; whereas Al is a Small Forward will bad 3 point range). I am soooo tired of Al, that was the last game I could stand; Al makes me physically sick. How do get paid 15M to play basketball?! and you still can’t play with any heart?! WTF! There are people that get paid less and take more pride in their work. Al is just a punk softy. Im sick of him. No one can come out here and talk about how the Jazz “NEED” Al?! KOC should have dump his butt in the offseason but no that would involve KOC being proactive and initiating a trade. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Lakers go on a massive streak now, Jazz keep Al, and the Lakers beat the Jazz out for the 8th spot, and KOC will say, “you wouldn’t have liked the trades we were offered,” and then Omar will say, “did they offer ONE SINGLE FUTURE 1st round pick?—cuz then I would have loved that trade, so long as Al is off the roster,”
Im so pissed. If Jazz don’t trade Al, and keep playing Watson, I do not see why the Favors and Hayward would even want to stay. Corbin obviously has no clue on how to be a winning coach. Tibs is playing without Rose an MVP, and the Bulls are still competitive…..Bulls will over Favors the max they can, and why wouldn’t Favors want to go play with him MVP DRose…..or Watson?! Damn.
Al since the day he put on a Jazz uniform has never put much effort into his defense early in games, he likes to saves his energy for scoring early in the game and put in an effort on defense at the end of games, if its needed. This game was out of control mid way through the first quarter. Lakers players struggling for confidence after losing so much in the last 10 games were getting easy shots. I could take big Al missing a few wayward shots but he let the Lakers find a rhythm right out of the locker room. As Al has done for 2 years now. Look back at how many 1st quarter the Jazz have won wince Al became part of the Jazz rotation. His lack of defensive energy early in games is stupid. Against a team struggling for any confidence it was just plain criminal.
Had Favors started in Al’s place I suspect he might have missed a few shots but he would have at least contested Howard instead of giving Howard some easy buckets right at the beginning of the game.
Now people are defending Watson too? Have our aspirations sunk so low?? Watson is “bringing along” the young players??? Now I’ve heard everything.
No, Watson is a HUGE detriment to the second unit. He can NOT run an offense to save his life, he turns the ball over, and then there’s the whole matter of posing absolutely ZERO scoring threat, to the point where most teams literally don’t even bother guarding him.
Does playing 4-on-5 help in “bringing along” young players in today’s NBA? That would be a resounding NO. Foye, Hayward, even Burks are without question much better alternatives at backup PG. But Corbin’s love affair with the vets is too strong to get him to see clearly.
What frustrates me about Al is when he is motivated he can bring defense. If he goes on a scoring run and the game is close he suddenly adds effort to his defensive game. He doesn’t suddenly become a great pick and roll defender. But he will suck up defensive rebounds and stops the opposition getting second chance points. Last season Al really struggled against Dallas, then the Jazz had to beat Dallas to have any chance of getting to the playoffs. Lose and the Jazz season is finished. Win and they keep the dream alive. Woe and behold that game Al grabbed more defensive rebounds than I saw the whole season. He was on a mission and his defense that day helped his offense.
Al relies on his offense and it hurts this team. If he has a good scoring night the team generally does well, if he throws up a large number of shots without belief the team struggles badly but it would struggle half as badly if he brought the defensive effort on early in games. Step in the way. Contest a shot. Grabbing a loose ball isn’t hard to do. All that could disrupt the early rhythm of an opposing attacking player, keeping the game close.
I’m sorry but I remember the days when Ronnie Price was the backup PG, and he would run at speed get a couple of points but inevitably get a few turnovers to go with it. He didn’t work with people. He was a run and gun backup PG. This second unit we have now is getting close to 40 points a game, despite Watson’s lack of individual threat. The players know they where they have to be and they trust one another and work hard for one another. Yes Watson isn’t the greatest player himself but he is part of the reason that that unit works so hard for one another, that second unit have been guided by him from the moment thay put Jazz uniform on. At 17 minutes a game he isn’t the threat to this team. Corbin’s lack of help from the sidelines over 48 minutes hurts this team. Jefferson’s lack of defensive effort for 25 of his 32 minutes hurts this team. Would I look for someone better than Watson? Damn right! But he’s not the reason this team is losing games they shouldn’t lose.
No doubt Corbin is the core problem for this Jazz team, with Jefferson being a major issue as well. But shoddy PG play is up there on the list, and Watson is almost half of that equation. Plug in any competent PG in his place and that second unit improves dramatically over what it already is.
Ronnie Price? Ronnie Price is irrelevant. Might as well start bringing up Brevin Knight and Keith McLeod.
I bring up Ronnie because he is still running and gunning in Portland. That second unit in Portland is the reason why the Trailblazers are sliding back so badly. Our second unit by contrast gets us back into games, builds up leads, and makes mistakes when the pressure is on, but what second unit doesn’t.
@Steven your exactly right. It does start with Corbin. Everyone says oh he is a young coach but so was TT when he took over the Bulls and Marc Jackson seems to be fine with the losing culture. Heck even David Lee plays defense and he has never played defense. He is a younger coach then Corbin is.
Also Everyone now is like see Al did something good on defense cause it happens two or three times a game and points that out. But the other 65 possessions he sees and deals with he sucks at so that is great for 3-5 possessions he can put forth effort, But as soon as we start forcing things into Al is when everything goes to crap. When Al left the game during the Wiz game we go on a huge run and were blowing them out. Then Al comes back and everything bogs down
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I question anyone basketball IQ that thinks Watson should be on the team let alone in the NBA. Are you serious? Are You watching the same games I am? This blows my mind! He has some of the worst stats in the ENTIRE NBA. The guy is pure gargabe and has been for awhile! Jesus he is not even running the point anymore!!! Hayward Burks and foye are when they are in with him. IT IS MORONIC Corbin! Watson is useless. 4 on 5! He just stands there not being any kind of threat! Someone else more productive could be taking those mins to even better the second unit.
Yeah Watson was ok pre-injury last year. But only because he had Evans to pass alley oops to. Not since.
Watson can bring the ball up the floor and pass alley oops well and fight through screens well. That’s the end of his skills.
Here is a Watson possession:
Dribbling slowly, top of the key, look for the alley oop pass. Since we resigned Jeremy Evans to keep a bench spot warm, no alley oop opportunity comes.
No alley oop, so he picks up his dribble, even though theres no pass quite available yet.
Let me interject how terrible it is to pick up your dribble. Especially with Watson, who shoots 15% from three. He now cannot move. His only option is to pass. He can’t move sideways to get a better passing angle. Basically, he becomes a guy who no longer needs to be guarded.Now, any good coach would either A) bring a guy up to crowd and double team him, or B) deny the pass to the other four guys with your five guys and clog the paint with your fifth defender (who no longer has to guard Watson). Its basically the worst thing you can do as a PG trying to run an offense; its a turnover waiting to happen.
Ok so on with the play. Usually Earl is bailed out by Hayward, who comes off a downscreen to get free and receive the pass. Now that we’ve wasted 10 shot clock seconds, Hayward now has the ball and makes a play. Or they didn’t front Al and he does his thing after the pass. Side Note: Al doesn’t turn it over much, but isn’t forcing a last-second three from Tinsley or Watson the same thing?
So seriously. Watson is not good.
LOL!, the Wizards have as many wins against teams with winning records as the Jazz do?! Heat, OKC, Hawks, Nuggets, Bulls, and the Blazers (21-21) twice?! Wizards have more wins against teams with no losing records than Jazz do…..ya…..don’t trade Al and keep Corbin.