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Game 51: Bulls 93, Jazz 89
Posted by: TACOREV on February 9th, 2013
The author's views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of the Utah Jazz.The Jazz drop a close one at ESA after Chicago (30-20, 15-9 away) knocks down clutch free throws to seal its victory.
Carlos Boozer scored 19 and Nate Robinson had 18 & 9 to lead the Bulls. Luol Deng’s 15 & 10, Taj Gibson’s 14 & 8, and Joakim Noah’s 12 & 11 also were key in Chicago’s win.
Jefferson led the Jazz with 32 & 13, logging 41 minutes, while Millsap scored 21 and Foye pitched in with 14 & 6.
Another one the Jazz let get away from them late, after coming from behind and taking the lead in the fourth quarter.
Wasn’t the argument for keeping and playing Jefferson his effectiveness in scoring down the stretch? Don’t get me wrong, he played a solid game, even scoring the first eight Jazz points to start the fourth quarter to get us ahead by four.
But after that point, the 9:10 mark, he didn’t score again. Not once. Yes, his 32 points were big, but he failed to make something happen late when we needed him most, when he was supposedly the guy to bring us through in close games.
This was also another example of us getting too dependent on Jefferson. He’s a guy that generally demands the ball to be effective, and while he was effective for much of the game, the effectiveness of his teammates was diminished. Take Jefferson out of the equation and the ball moves more fluidly; we don’t play “entry pass to Al, now stand and watch” ball.
Point guard play was pretty lousy tonight, with Tinsley logging a donut for points scored in 32 minutes of play — not to mention getting destroyed by the journeyman Nate Robinson on the defensive end — and Burks not playing quite as well as he had in the previous couple of games.
We’re now 12 games into the Jazz’s 20-game stretch in which they play 15 home games. They’re at 8-4 so far, now falling to 28-23 on the season and 19-6 on their home floor.
Tomorrow night they face the Kings in what could be their final trip to Sacramento.
Jazz player of the game: Al Jefferson
Replies: 6
Views: 306
6 Responses
I didn’t finish watching this game til about 12:30 and I was ready to get another comment deleted. I’m glad you gave myself time to cool off to post this, haha.
Anywho. This should have been a win. Plain and simple.
I wish that Corbin would’ve taken Jefferson out of the game at the 9:10 mark in the 4th just so you, Omar, and Dallan would have had to cry yourselves to sleep for Al Jefferson playing a fantastic game
(love you guys). Alas, Thibodeau is a smart coach and made adjustments/inspired his team.
This whole season I’ve wrecked my brain trying to argue against the fact that Corbin is in fact clueless. Yes, he makes decent adjustments at times, those adjustments are common sense. HOW (as a sane individual) do you play Tinsley against Nate Robinson when he is making wide open shots? It doesn’t matter if Burks makes a single point, he can stop Nate Robinson from making wide open shots by simply stopping Nate Robinson from being wide open.
Why in Gods name did Corbin sub Millsap into the game for Favors in the fourth quarter? There was a fantastic combo of offense (Jefferson) and defense (Favors) that was working well. I honestly think that Corbin thought “Oh no, Jefferson missed a shot. We can only win a game with offense. Millsap is better than Favors at offense, we need to put Millsap back out there, it’s not like Chicago can score.”
On the plus side, Favors has some FILTHY dunks at the beginning of the game.
One last thing. And I may still be a tad biased to Jefferson. I watched the game on ESPN hoping that I could try to hear some non biased reporting. They did not have a single bad thing to say about Jefferson. Even that white guy at half time that was SLAMMING the Lakers was complimenting Jefferson all over the place. Is every single person that is actually paid by the NBA In love with Al Jefferson, or am I just going crazy?
<3 Colten
No your not crazy Colten. They never really watch Jazz games just look at stats! Good post Taco everything was said by you and Colten that I already think.
Haha, Colten! Where the heck is Dallan?!
Al played well, Ill give him that, but again he doesnt have a strong 4th quarter. Bulls resfused to help on Al, and it looked to me that they were giving (daring) him the 15+ foot jump shots. To Als credit he was hitting them most game. If I was Jazz FO, Id be going out of my way to trade Al before Kings game!! His stock looks super high stat line. Trade him ASAP! We could probably trade straight up for Kemba.
Bulls started to help on Al late, and went to the P&R late and got FTs or layups. Late in games teams know how to get a bucket on the Jazz.
I think Burks played a really good overall game. He settle for the 3 late too much, but thst might be with playing on court w Al. But Burks made some sweet passes and showed he can play the P&P w Al. Id like to see that with Favors P&R and Kanter P&P. Played great D on Nate! Notice how many Offense fouls opposing teams get when Burks is playing D….off screen and in post ups. Its cuz Burks is super active.
Tinsley and Watson are at BEST a 3rd string PG. So when either gets near 30 minutes, especially against good teams, dont expect the Jazz to win many of those games. When Hayward returns, Tinsley and Watson should never see court. Idk why Corbin is hell bent on having to have a player with the title “PG” in the game no matter what?!
Favors dunks were sick!!! He needs 30+ minutes per night. Kanter needs more than 7!!
*maybe not straight up, but get NO bad contact coming back. Maybe Diop w Kemba?
I was watching the ESPN broadcast and they all thought Big Al to Spurs would be a great get for them. They kept saying they needed low post scoring to give OKC and Miami trouble.
I think this was a game we lost due to Mo Williams injury. Tinsley just didn’t have it against the Bulls. I think Burks was a better choice and played MUCH better defense on Robinson, but Corbin rode Jamaal for the majorityof minutes. The bench isn’t as effective without Hayward’s playmaking. After watching the Nuggets demolish the Bulls the bight before, I thought our play was much more slowed sown in comparison (due to Tinsley at point and Jefferson on the block) snd that our slow play is exactly how Thibs wants it to be to win games with defense. Once again, Corbin has no strategy to beat a specific opponent and counter the way they play, even thiugh our depth provides the tools to do that. We COULD play fasy and athletic, but that wouldve required Al less minutes and Tinsley less minutes, which is blasphemy in Ty’s mind.
No use repeating what everyone else said but wouldnt it be nice to have a scoring threat at PG. I thought Burks had a nice passing game, probably better than Tinsleys in this game. I cant believe how badly refs f#ck over Favors on a nightly basis. That move on Noah was awesome but the refs, as they do most nights, bail out the defender. The other issue I have is with Kanter, he showed some nice moves, didnt finish every time but who does. He also kept his body in front of his man, but possibly gave Boozer too much room. He did the right things but gets hooked, whereas Millsap’s D was atrocious on Boozer the entire night but he was kept in. You’d think that Millsap would want to show up the guy who used to be ahead of him on the roster.