<div align="center"> <div align="center"><font color="DarkRed"><font color="Black">@</font></font> </div> <font color="DarkRed"> </font> <div align="center"><font color="Blue">The New Jersey Nets</font> (22-16) @ <font color="DimGray"><font color="DeepSkyBlue">The Utah Jazz</font> <font color="Black">(20-21)</font></font> Time: Monday, January 23rd, 9:00 PM Location: <font color="DeepSkyBlue">Delta Center</font> </div> <div align="center"><font color="Blue"><font color="Black">TV: Yes Network</font></font> <font color="Blue"><font color="Black"> Radio: WFAN 660 AM</font></font> </div> <font color="Blue"> </font>[div=50%]The Jazz have not been playing thier best basketball this season. They have been attempting to overcome injuries to major players like Kirilenko and Boozer (who has not yet played this season). The Jazz in my view a playoff team nevertheless, and are a team to be reckoned with. They have a tremendous playing Kirilenko, a quickly improving Okur and solid players in Deron Williams, Gordan Giricek, and Matt Harpring. Projected Starters Point Guard: <font color="DeepSkyBlue">Keith McLeod </font>[imgl]http://www.nba.com/media/playerfile/keith_mcleod.jpg[/imgl] This is not a dominant player for the Jazz in an way, but he is an important role player who runs the Jazz for a chunk of the game. Deron Williams however gets a larger chuck of playing time on average. It should not surprise anyone if Deron get more minutes than ussual at this position. The Jazz might want him to learn from playing against Jason Kidd. Shooting Guard: <font color="DeepSkyBlue">Gordan Giricek</font> [imgl]http://www.nba.com/media/playerfile/gordan_giricek.jpg[/imgl] This guy is predominantly a shooter. He has been shooting horrendous this season, but no one know when he will get his touch back. Gordon plays some defense and does some of the Jazz's passing. For half the game he is replaced by Harpring. Small Forward: <font color="DeepSkyBlue">Andrei Kirilenko</font> [imgl]http://www.nba.com/media/playerfile/andrei_kirilenko.jpg[/imgl] Pardon me for over-rating him perhaps, but I am a big of this guy. Kirilenko does everything for the Jazz. He passes, he rebounds, he scores, he blocks shots, and does the dirty work. This season he was allocated to the bench in the beging, but that did not last for long. This season he has been averaging almost three blocks a game, 1.75 steals per game, and a career high 4.6 assists. The scary thing for any team going against him is that he always finds a way to be productive. Power Forward: <font color="DeepSkyBlue">Mehmet Okur</font> [imgl]http://www.nba.com/media/playerfile/mehmet_okur.jpg[/imgl] Okur has been a very pleasant surprise for the Jazz this season. He has put up almost 18 points per game, pulled down rebounds and has even played some very good defense. He ussually has very good games for stretches of about 8-9 games, and it looks like he has just started on another stretch. Center: <font color="DeepSkyBlue">JARRON Collins</font> [imgl]http://www.nba.com/media/playerfile/jarron_collins.jpg[/imgl] Jarron Collins is not starting for the Jazz, lets just hope that Collins can come into play because it is always interesting to watch two brothers go at it. It would be kind of great to have this Twin on the Nets as well because he, just like Collins plays defense and boxes out fairly well. <font color="DimGray"> <font color="DeepSkyBlue">Jazz: Keys To The Game</font></font><font color="Sienna"> </font> 1) Get Okur or Kirilenko the ball and get them going offensivly. These are the main offensive threats for the Jazz. If both of them can get it going, then the rest of the team will be in much better position to capitalize on the attention given to these two. 2) Play defense, especially on the inside. If the Jazz can lock down the Nets' penetration and paint scoring, then the Nets will end up shooting from long range and at the same time shooting themselves in the foot. The Jazz certainly have what it takes to accomplish this due to Kirilenko and Okur in the low post. 3) Rebound. The Nets cannot be taken easily on the rebounding end. The Jazz can't afford to get out rebounded, as it is an important part of thier team. [/div]After a dominating performance at home against the Celtics, the Nets travel to Utah to see if they can win two in a row. For them this will be a tough game. Utah is not too far from being 50% in the win/loss column and does not care whether the Nets have a better record. The Nets will need to be extra alert in this game and push themselves to defend two big players in Okur and Kirilenko. The Nets can win this one if they focus. Will they focus? Projected Starters Point Guard: <font color="Blue">Jason Kidd</font> [imgl]http://www.nba.com/media/playerfile/jason_kidd.jpg[/imgl] Kidd is as usually will be relied on to pass the ball around. In this game, I would not be surprised it he drives the ball and dishes off to Krtic frequently. The reason that he would do this is to draw the shot blockers and feed Krstic. If there is one guy that needs to help the Nets not rely on jumpshooting, it is Kidd. Shooting Guard: <font color="Blue">Vince Carter</font> [imgl]http://www.nba.com/media/playerfile/vince_carter.jpg[/imgl] He has to do in this game what he has done in the Nets' wins this season: score. He defensive assignments will not be too overwhelming, so he should be able to focus more of his energy in attempting to score. He will pass as well, in accordance to Frank's excellent offensive system. Small Forward: <font color="Blue">Richard Jefferson</font> [imgl]http://www.nba.com/media/playerfile/richard_jefferson.jpg[/imgl] Richard will be relied upon to play a lot of defense in this game. However, the type of defense that he will play is going to on the hustle side of things. He will have to prevent Kirilenko from doing too many things that give Utah the ball. i.e. dirty work and rebounds. Jefferson is accustomed to get rebounds and has done a great job of that this season. In this Jefferson will have to try extra hard to get rebounds over Kirilenko. Power Forward: <font color="Blue">Jason Collins</font> [imgl]http://www.nba.com/media/playerfile/jason_collins.jpg[/imgl] Hopefully the position that Collins plays is only on paper, for it will be fun to see him and his twin brother box each other out. Besides this, Collins has been hurting with his knee. He did not play in the last game, but expects to play tonight. Let's just hope that he can play. Center: <font color="Blue">Nenad Krstic</font> [imgl]http://www.nba.com/media/playerfile/nenad_krstic.jpg[/imgl] The question is, who will Krtic play on defense. Will the Nets bring him out on Okur, or will they keep him on the interiour on Jarron? Considering that Krstic is not the get rebounder, he would probably step out on Okur, and challenge the guy's shots. Krstic is very important for the Nets in this game offensivly, because he is tall enought to perhaps have less chance of being blocked by Kirilenko. <font color="Blue">Nets Keys To The Game</font> <font color="Black">1) Do not settle for the jumpshot. I know that Kirilenko is waiting to block any thing that goes in his direction, but jumpshooting is often times not the answer. 2) Krstic needs to play the defensive game of his life and shutdown Okur. I know that this is not likely to happen, but Krstic at least has to believe that it very likely that he can shutdown Okur. 3) Someone needs to defend Harpring off of the bench. Utah cleverly bring Harpring off of the bench to play against other team's benches. The Nets Planinic is most likely the guy who will be asked to stop this guy, and he needs to play his best defense. </font></div>
Nice preview. This was an awful game. It was ugly from the beginning. The Nets just couldn't make shots from anywhere. The only bright side is Kidd has his 70th triple double with 17 points 12 rebounds and 10 assists.
