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Game 59: Jazz 98, Bobcats 68
Posted by: TACOREV on March 1st, 2013
The author's views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of the Utah Jazz.Enes Freaking Kanter.
A 20-20 game in his second career start leads the Jazz in an absolutely dominant performance.
Kanter finished with 23 & 22, to be exact, just destroying the Bobcats (13-45, 6-23 away) all game long. Carroll was great as well, scoring 19, while Hayward chipped in with 14. I was very impressed with Evans’ performance as well, as he contributed 14 & 9 as the third big off the bench. Also, Burks put in 10 & 7.
Byron Mullens led Charlotte with 12 & 7 and Ramon Sessions scored 11.
I know it was the lowly Bobcats, but boy was it just a joy to see the ball moving, everybody running the floor, the effort, the energy, the extra pass, everybody boxing out… beautiful. Just beautiful!
Favors struggled with foul trouble, putting in 8 & 7 before fouling out in just 21 minutes of play. That’s one thing he really needs to work on, staying out of foul trouble.
But man, Kanter. He was ruthless! Only downside was five turnovers, but that’s going to happen with young players. You’ve got to be ready to accept some youth mistakes, and in Kanter’s case, the payoff is more than worth it. Plus, I’d take a handful of young-guy turnovers over an entire game of sheer laziness on defense any day.
Which reminds me, did I mention Jefferson didn’t play? As Omar points out, the Jazz are now 7-1 without Big Lazy Al — 2-0 this season, outscoring both opponents on average 114.5 to 83.5. Yeah yeah, I know it was the Bobcats and Raptors, but we didn’t dominate either team with Al — beating Charlotte by 10, and needing 3OT’s to beat Toronto.
Millsap also didn’t play. Apparently he just had a child though, a baby girl he named Paular. Congrats Paul on the baby. That’s a weird name for a girl.
Speaking of babies, Foye had one today too, naming his little bundle of joy Pilar (also a girl… also a weird name for a girl). Foye also connected on one of his five 3-point attempts to pass Mehmet Okur for most 3-pointers made by a Jazz player in a single season. Congrats on the baby and record, Randy.
I never thought I’d feel so good after beating the Bobcats.
With the win, the Jazz improve to 32-27, closing out that 20-game stretch in which they played 15 home games with a 12-8 mark. Not that great, considering it was the easiest stretch of the entire schedule.
Next up, the Jazz get the tough road trip started at Milwaukee (28-28) on Monday. The four game road swing is the beginning of a stretch in which the Jazz play 8 of 11 away from ESA, including eight games against playoff teams.
Jazz player of the game: Enes Kanter
Replies: 20
Views: 632
20 Responses
Does anyone else think Kanter may end up being the better player between he and favors?
@Taco, I think Favors should get co-player of game for injuring Al!
In Al’s 5 DNPs….
12/30/11—Philadelphia 99 @ Utah 102 W
1/25/12—Toronto 111 @ Utah 106 L (2OT; end of regulation score Raptors 90 – Jazz 90)
1/30/12—Portland 89 @ Utah 93 W
3/17/12—GSW 92 @ Utah 99 W (1OT; end of regulation score GSW 87 – Jazz 87)
3/18/12—Utah 103 W @ Lakers 99
12/7/12—Toronto 99 @Utah 131 W
3/1/13—Bobcats 68 @Utah 98 W
Jazz defense allowed 93.8 (including 3OTs)!!
Favors seems to get in foul trouble a lot.
@ John, I could see Kanter being better than Favors. He seemed to work harder during this last offseason.
@john I was thinking the same thing. The effort and attitude of Kanter seems to be a lot better, on court at least
Funnest game I have watched in a long time. I think us fans needed this game to reassure us that the future is bright.
Typical Jazz. Beating the worst team in the NBA at home. Our starting center having 5 turnovers. Our bench, as always, out hustling the starters.
The starters +/-: +4,+8,+26,+8,0. Total= +46
The bench +/-: +14,+22,+28,+22,+18,+0= +104
How are we starting Favors over Evans? We need to trade Favors for an unprotected first, or just bench him and only play him 20 minutes or less until is contract expires, and let him walk.
On a serious note, Marvin was completely awful with no Al. With no Sap. With fluid offense. With everyone passing the ball. With everyone running the floor.
DeMarre Carroll is the definition of Jazz basketball.
(p.s. one last thing. I thought that +/- was based on points scored when a player is on the floor… If that were the case, wouldn’t we have won this game by 150 points?)
Because there are 5 players on the floor. The team goes up two points, 5 people go up two points…
So divide by 5…
Yeah, I thought about it more after I posted it. Since the site doesn’t allow an “edit” option, I look dumb.
None the less. The “bench” had more than double the “starters” +/-.
People have been crying about our 1st and 3rd quarters, and raving about our 2nd and 4th quarters.
1st quarter we were +12 and 3rd quarter we were -3. Total=+9
2nd quarter we were +11 and 4th quarter we were +10. Total=+21
The problem is our normal starters don’t even get us +1. It doesn’t matter so much as to which quarter you play better in, as long as you come out positive.
If you look at the +/- numbers for the usual starters alone and take out Big Turk and D-FAV then
Foye, Marvin, and Watson against the WORST team in the NBA
were a meager +10.
Combine the normal bench players and they pulled the weight with a +88.
I was expecting more from Marvin Williams with AL and Paul out this should of been one of his games to turn it on.
Too bad this isn’t last years schedule with 4 games in 5 nights and Al missing a few more games.
I love Favors, but it’s obvious that Enes have better fundamentals and can be more regular at high level than Derrick, Derrick is gifted but still is more on the energy side, but when the energy is not here he seems to have nothing left and can be a real ghost on the court sometimes, Enes still have his shoot or FT attacking the basket to do something……. but they are still very very young bigs with a possible very great future in front of them if they do what it have to be done
Against an horrible team, this game has been a pretty good revelator of the true actual value of many jazz players:
- Kanter … has shown his potential form the technical viewpoint (shot quality, footwork, moves, defensive rotation, box out). Few players in the whole NBA have realised a 20-20 performance this season. With the correct attitude he seems to be able to show, he can be a borderline all star, if not an all star. Just keep working.
- Favors … well, seems to hit consistently the 22 minutes of play per game, whatever the reason. Too many reaching -and therefore unnecessary- fouls. Derrick is years behind Enes to what concerns the basketball technique. Just being an athlete is not enough.
- Marvin Williams … doesn’t know if he is a too big/slow shooting guard or a too light power forward. You don’t see in him the light you can see in …
- Carroll … definitely a keeper and one of the offseason’s priority to my opinion. He makes things happen and is turning into a cheaper version of AK.
- Evans … hey this guy can shoot jumpers ! We may have been afraid of including Jeremy in the rotation, now we won’t.
- Murphy … when your team is upp by 30 and you have the chance to come into the game with 5 minutes left, you try to play basketball with humility and contribute. Don’t try to shoot every ball to make mom and dad happy.
- Tinsley … wtf.
- Watson … wtf.
Actually when you come in you want to make yourself happy and make a shot. It has nothing to do with mom and dad.
Also if his teammates are anything like mine have been in the past, they encourage you and even on occasion try to get you the open shot.
When your team is up by 30 and you don’t play at all, you try to show that you can play so that when someone goes down they look at you to come in the game, also we were up by 30. Who cares if he tosses up a couple shots. Maybe Carroll shouldnt have driven to the basket so many times and tried to include his teammates.
Apples to Oranges I guess.
For me, Murphy has not showed any basketball-related talent in the few minutes he had on the court this season. With so little time, you try to prove you can be a team player, you don’t try to over-showcase yourself. You take the correct learning curve, probably the one Carroll took earlier in his career.
Derrick just needs extended time to adjust his game and cut down the fouls. When he only gets 20 minutes, he doesn’t have to adjust his game.
GIVE HIM THE TIME!
Ty takes him out (“fouls him out”), when he hits 5 fouls anyway, because he doesn’t bring him back in. Any excuse to bring a starter back in.
Jazzaholic
Jazzaholic
Problem is they led by twenty way early in the game. Get Tinsley/Watson out of there, move Burks to the point and let Murph have a decient chance and not garbage time..
You wanna know why the starters are horrible? Because the Bobcats have more talented PG,SG and SF then we do. So guess what its not Kanter and Favors fault that the other three guys next to them suck. But guess what? They did something that no other team has done this whole year!! Hold the Bobcats to a single digits in a quarter. Ya that is right with how bad the Bobcats are the Jazz youth who “suck” held the Bobcats to the lowest scoring quarter they HAVE HAD ALL YEAR!!
Favors was not great last night but he was getting the raw deal from the refs. He kept getting hacked on the offensive end and then on defense two of the fouls including the one that he fouled out on were not fouls. I love how he has an off game and gets hammered and he is “not ready” when all I have seen on here is how Kanter is not ready that is why Al plays. Al and Paul have off games every other game and Favors has one in his 3rd year and he is a bust?? GIVE ME A BREAK!! How about the game before when he put up 17-15?? Maybe if we stuck him with a legit NBA PG and not two guys that should not even be in the D-League he could do something. He is not the type of guy that is just going to set himself up. Which is fine cause that is what Kanter does. We dont need two guys of the same clothe because they do not compliment each other. If we had a PG to run some freakin P&R and get into the lane it would be awesome!!
All I can say is I do not want ANYONE to ever say we can not score without Al! It is beyond false. The ball moves and is spread out and that was with HORRIBLE players out there. If we had a decent roster outside of 6 people we would have been even better.
@Dallan–Amen!
Favors is best playing off the ball. Watson is straight garbage! !!
@Colton. Really! Why are we starting Favors over Evans! I love how Derrick has one bad game and it’s time to throw in the towel. Letting Favors walk at the end of his contract would be one of the biggest mistakes the franchise could ever make. As he proved in the Milwaukee game he is a legit power forward in this league. Not one front court player for the Bucks could hang with him, if it wasn’t for Corbin having a man crush on Millsap Favors would have easily went over thirty points.