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Game 58: Hawks 102, Jazz 91
Posted by: TACOREV on February 27th, 2013
The author's views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of the Utah Jazz.More of the same from the Jazz.
Another bad start, another terrible third quarter, the bench comes in and gets them back in the game, only to roll over and die in the fourth quarter and lose their third-straight game, falling to Atlanta (33-23, 15-13 away) at the Solution.
Al Horford’s 34 & 15 with five blocks led the Hawks, while Josh Smith put in 24/14/7. Jeff Teague finished with 19 & 7 and Devin Harris scored 12.
Jefferson had 26 & 11, but let’s face it. He was getting absolutely destroyed on the defensive end of the floor all night long. Horford and Smith were getting easy dunks and layups whenever Jefferson was in the game. ‘Flat out embarrassing’ is the main thing that comes to mind when I think of Jefferson pretending to put forth effort on defense — wait, did I say pretending? Whoops, my bad. He doesn’t even pretend. He literally stands there and does NOTHING while his man strolls down the lane for an easy dunk or connects on a wide open jump shot.
Favors went for 17 & 15 with three blocks, playing 38 minutes in Millsap’s absence (who missed the game due to an ankle injury sustained against Boston). Hayward and Foye each scored 11, as Foye tied Mehmet Okur’s record for most made 3-pointers by a Jazz player in a single season.
Earl “Corbin’s Main Man” Watson started again and did his usual absolutely nothing, while Tinsley got another DNP.
Carroll hyperextended his knee in the first half before returning in the fourth quarter, when he ignited a Jazz rally that eventually came up short. Dude plays hard and with effort consistently, which is what you want to see as a fanbase.
During that short rally, it was C4 plus Carroll on the floor and they came within eight after being down by as many as 20. Their defense was superb, not allowing any easy baskets.
Then, when I saw Jefferson jog over to the scorer’s table, I knew it was over. I told the people I was watching the game with to be ready for more of those easy dunks and layups from earlier on in the game, now that Jefferson was back in the game. Sure enough, I was right.
A much needed win turns into a third-straight loss, leaving the Jazz at 31-27, still 7th in the West. With Golden State and Houston both losing, we could have made some headway in the standings tonight, and it’s not getting any easier with the upcoming schedule: eight of the next 12 on the road, including eight of those 12 against playoff teams.
The last-place Bobcats (13-44) come to town Friday night, before the Jazz head out on a four-game road trip next week.
Jazz player of the game: DeMarre Carroll
Replies: 27
Views: 624
27 Responses
Al Jefferson looked terrible out there tonight. Sure he got 26 points but he looked lost on defense. Allowing layup after layup, jump shot after jump shot. I can’t take it anymore. Our peak with “Empty Numbers Al” is and always will be a first round exit. Hell I don’t know if we will even make the playoffs at this point.
Jazz were within 5 points and Earl turns it over, leaves his man wide open for a three, then gets a charge foul. All within one minute of each other… A seven point swing which turned a close game into a blowout. Garbage.
I hope when Mo comes back we play him and Burks at the point. Our squad would be much better if Tinsley and Watson just didn’t get to see the floor, they suck.
What else sucks? Jefferson, his defense was just awful. I just don’t understand why he cannot even put a hand up sometimes. His man was getting WIDE OPEN jumpers all night because he wouldn’t chase him off the wide open free throw line jump shot. Seriously, it has nothing to do with talent, he has a ton of it, its his effort, and a coach not calling him on his lack thereof.
Right on with everyone so far!!
This is a moot point now, but this is why I said Jazz cannot trade Sap and keep Al cuz Kanter and Favors can both play center and only Favors is a PF. Al cant guard Hordord, and Corbin puts Kanter out there to guard Smith on the 3 point land?! Al cant guard the 5, the 4, who the heck can he guard?! Rather than have Kanter and Favors play together where they played well with each other, Corbin HAS to play Al?!!!
Hayward cannot score with Al. Point blank!! Al dominates the ball, Hayward gets handicapped!! Hayward had only 11 points–7 of those points were scored in the 8 minutes Al was on the bench!!!!!! This is no coincidence!! Just why last game in OT Hayward struggled cuz iso heavy Al kills!!
Which brings me to my next point:
Jazz are down 19 (79-60) with 1:23 in the 3rd when Favors enters for Al, okay, when Al returns at 8:48 in the 4th (lol Taco we had the same feeling of impending doom) the score is 82-71—-THAT IS AN 11- 2 RUN!! Just like last night C4 and JYD dominated on D to make rhis a game!! Then Horford went off and got 16 points from 8:48 mark when Al enters…..uugghhh!!!
Jazz need to trade Al and get some assets fo……oh wait to late….nevermind, Im sure when Jazz beat Bobcats the sentiment will be, “see thats why Al is a top 5 cener and Watson is sooo good for the Jazz” lol, oh ya Hortford looks like another Center Id rank ahead of Al, anyway. Im pissed! Bench Corbin Fire Al trade KOC its all mix up whatever!!
I tell you, I never wisg for injuries but damn I thought for a second….
Oh ya LMAO, Al schooling Burks about Defensive??!!! That was surreal!! Lol! Ive seen it all. Next game Watson works on Haywards shooting form?!
Bench VS Starters +/-
Starters -61 VS Bench +10
(Favors @ -4)
Bench 3-0 since trade deadline.
I was at the game. These things absolutely killed us as you guys are saying. But you get to see things you don’t see on the T.V I will share some of those
1) When we go to Al time after time to start off the game EVERYONE gets visibly frustrated. It takes everyone out of their flow. That is on the coach.
2) Hayward CHEWED Al butt at least twice for his defense and Al just like raised his hands like oh well what do you want me to do?
3) Al every time he gets burned on defense he just shakes his head and puts his head down. It is ridiculous!! He acts like poor old me and does not even try after 3-4 times of being burned.
4) We can talk all we want about Smith getting 24 but 8 came against Kanter, he played SF against Demarre and Hayward and some more were off Dunks where Teague penetrated, Favors stepped up and he would just dump it behind him. That is not on Favors. That is on the Pg for allowing easy penetration and also on the guy supposed to rotate behind Favors. Usually that is Al. Cause he should be the other guy guarding the paint. It does not matter who it is though. Rotations were not on him they were on others.
correction
Starters -65 Bench +10
Al & Watson must be supplying drugs to Corbin, that’s the reason why they are playing most of the mins. Apart fr that I can’t find a better reason why Watson starts almost every games and scoreless.
No arguing that Al was the biggest handicap on the court tonight. I think he showed again the value of Millsap over himself.
I don’t think Corbin can be blamed tonight. He tried a bunch of different things and they just didn’t work. We were short handed without 2 starters and that hurt us. Don’t tell me you guys thought Burks played good defense tonight, because he got killed on dribble drives just as much as Watson. Watson has proven himself as having much more hustle than Tinsley which is why I think he is getting DNPs. Favors and Kanter struggled when they had to guard Josh Smith, who is really a 2 in a big body. Millsap matches up much better there.
High point of the night was the filthy blocks by Favors/Hayward. Favors played just the way we expected in one of his only starts of the season. He was also able to stay out of foul trouble which was a great sign.
At this point, it looks like the Jazz are getting a lottery pick this year whether it be their’s or GS, so I guess that’s another thing to be happy about. Other than that the game was pretty depressing to watch.
So while Raja gets paid 3 mil to sit at home, Al Jefferson gets paid 15 mil to never play defense, never get chewed out or benched, and encouraged to take as many shots as he can…
talk about a lazy asses dream job! Jazz management sure knows how to employ people.
When I saw Big Al twisting his ankle with 4-5 minutes in the game, I thought there was still a chance to rally … but he stayed in the game being diminished and ruined the last chance the Jazz had. While being a fantastic low-post scorer with moves that you could write a book with, Al is hurting his team big time now.
I dream of the following line-up: Mo Williams, Gordon Hayward, Demarre Carroll, Paul Millsap, Derrick Favors. What are coach Corbin’s dreams ?
……
PG: Watson
SG: Watson
SF: Watson
PF: Al
C: Al
@Omar – LOL so true
I’m really just disappointed. Does everyone realize this was Derrick Favors FIRST game all season that he got more than 30 minutes besides the early November Toronto triple-overtime game?
D-Fave logged 38 minutes and put up a line of 17 pts (on 11 shots), 15 reb, 3 assists, 3 blocks.
Get Al off the freakin court. Get Hayward on it, get Favors on it, get Kanter more minutes. Get Burks on the court instead of Tinsley and Watson.
How is Ty such an idiot?
Here’s the good news though, when we win a game, someone will jump on here and say:
“Where’s all the Ty Corbin haters now!?”
Just like they always do. Also, they will go on and on about how glad they are we didn’t trade anyone. But then when we play teams that actually are playoff teams, they are no where to be found because we are unable to beat playoff teams. We should have made a deal. At this point it feels like we are tanking like the warriors did last year. I hate that!
Oh also, you don’t have to score so much if you don’t give the other team wide open jumpers and dunks all game.
What i dont understand is not putting Marvin in the post more often. Especially last night with Korver guarding him, 6′9 240 vs 6′6 210 HUGE size difference and yet plays continued to be ran through Al, who was getting worked by the other Al.
Corbin does not understand what exploiting matchup advantages means and the sad thing is, thats exactly what a coach is paid to do, particularly a coach at the highest level.
@Steve, I thought the same thing, but Marvin didn’t play especially good. Also, our bigs can’t spread the floor so I don’t think that would have worked very well unless the Hawks went super small and played Korver at the 4.
Positives from tonight revolve around Big Al. 1st, David Locke actually called out how bad Jefferson was playing defensively. 2nd, Jefferson left the arena in a boot. Maybe he will miss a couple games and we can see how ready the young guys are.
@Steve – You don’t understand it because your brain is more logical than Corbin’s.
I just watched David Locke’s thing on how Al is in all the worst defensive lineup pairs, but is also in all the best offensive lineup pairs, and vice versa with Enes and Derrick. So basically we have a 110-110 ish game with Al and we have a 99-99 game with Derrick/Enes.
The problem I have is that Al isn’t getting any better offensively or defensively any time soon. But Enes and Derrick ARE going to improve offensively, given development time on the court. They’re young, improving, and we just need to roll with them and let them develop! The other thing is the TYPE of offense Ty runs. Corbin tries to fit Enes and Favors games into the Al Jefferson box, when their games have different strengths. They can run in transition. Favors is much better at taking the ball to the rim. We SHOULD HAVE traded AL for more scoring punch from the perimeter, so the scoring load isn’t so much on Kanter and Favors to begin with. A point guard who can shoot a three would be a nice start. I’m really disappointed in the Jazz, from the front office to Ty to Ty’s main guys on the Jazz, Watson and Al. What a letdown.
Big Al def…. OMG
@Millslapped: “Empty Numbers Al”
I like it! Also, “Big Lazy Al.”
@Omar: “Next game Watson works on Hayward’s shooting form?!”
HAAHAAH!
@KC: “How is Ty such an idiot?”
It’s one of the mysteries of the universe, much like Stonehenge and crop circles.
I don’t think I could go to Lagoon on its busiest, longest-liniest day of the summer and end up standing around doing nothing as much as Al Jefferson did last night.
@KC Haha, its sad we all do
@Andy, thats exactly why you put Marvin in the post, so he can play well! Guarenteed Marvin is a better shooter from 3-8ft than 18-23ft… every player is! haha But those longer shots are the only shots we get Marvin, and its pathetic.
It doesn’t matter if Jefferson is on this team or not. Tyrone Corbin is a raging jackass. With him as coach, we lose. Period. Jefferson or no Jefferson.
#Firecorbin
@Nick
Typical Corbin lover. You are giving him much more credit than he deserves.
I thik UJ360 has become a support group!!! hahaha, thanks a lot Jazz FO, Corbin, Al.
Can you get PTSD from watching Al’s D for 2+ years???
@Kevin LOL
On another front I see where the Kings have bought out Aaron Brooks. It also said he would be eligible for playoffs. How I don’t know. I thought they liked Brooks.Weird..