<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Jerry Sloan started the day by delivering a rather pointed message. Mehmet Okur ended it by aiming, firing and leaving the Seattle Sonics with a memo to remember. Image August Miller, Deseret Morning News Utah Jazz's Mehmet Okur celebrates his game-winning shot against the Seattle Supersonics. Okur's 3-pointer with 1.6 seconds left stood up as the game-winner Saturday night, allowing the league-leading Jazz to beat the Sonics 109-107 and perhaps cure the ills Sloan seemed so concerned about just hours earlier. Emphasis on ... "perhaps." "Well see next game," said Jazz point guard Deron Williams, who delivered Okur's game-winner ? but obviously is still stinging from a 132-102 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday, one which marked Utah's third loss in a difficult four-outing stretch to that point. "We thought we cured it with the San Antonio win (Wednesday)," Williams added, "and we got beat by 30." The 14-4 Jazz appeared en route to being a big winner Saturday, taking a 14-point lead early in the fourth quarter before the Sonics ? perhaps sensing their opponent was showing signs of playing for the sixth time in nights ? made them sweat this one out. Seattle shooting guard Ray Allen, unable to follow in the 52-point footsteps Kobe Bryant left on the Jazz's backs Thursday, started just 2-of-10 from the field before finally heating up to finish 8-of-19. Allen wound up with a game-high 33 points, 20 of which came in the fourth quarter, including back-to-back treys that put the Sonics up by four with less than three minutes left. After an exchange of free throws got the Jazz back to within one at 105-104, 24-point team high scorer Carlos Boozer scored with the rebound of a missed Williams jumper. Allen answered by driving past Andrei Kirilenko, though, and the Sonics were back ahead. Eschewing a timeout, as is Sloan's practice, the Jazz raced downcourt under the coach's command of "Go." Williams was going to shoot, but at the last moment he spotted Okur open on the far left wing. "Right place, right time, you know?" said Okur, adding, "I just put my hands in the air" to get Williams' attention. Once the Jazz point had it, he did not hesitate to pass. "He has hit so many big shots for us," Williams said after Okur, the Jazz's scoring leader last season, finished with just 12 points Saturday. "He can struggle all game, (but) it doesn't matter, he'll take that big one." It was indeed big for the Jazz, who were instructed Saturday morning by Sloan ? his words ? to "Make sure you've done your job before you start pointing fingers at anybody." Sloan, in fact, had all sorts of questions about the Jazz before they faced the now 7-11 Sonics. "Are these guys just gonna try to tease us one day, and not play the next? That's the thing that's a huge concern. Because I see a tremendous amount of ability. But it takes a lot more than just that to be able to win," he said. "You've got to be able to work with each other, and pull for each, and basically put everything you've got in it. If you want to win. "If you don't," the Jazz coach added, "then you have all the little sideshows that go with it, (that) destroy a team about as fast as anything." Sloan suggested that in the past week he's seen trouble signs. "Are we gonna think about basketball, or are we gonna think about somebody else making a mistake?" he asked. "I've seen some of that, some of the looseness that goes along with not being ready to play." Sloan also hinted at what he was trying to help his club avoid. "You lose three or four games, and one guy gets their little group together, and the other guys get their little group together, and then you have little group sessions," he said. "It's never about themselves. It's always about somebody else." For at least one night, though, it was about much more than that. It was about rookie Paul Millsap contributing a 16-point, 10-rebound double-double off the bench. It was about former starters C.J. Miles and Ronnie Brewer not playing at all, and about rookie Dee Brown playing a career-high 19 minutes and setting a terrific tone even while struggling with his shooting. It was about veteran Derek Fisher getting his first start of the season, at shooting guard, and joining Brown in helping make sure Allen did not get too early of a start on what Bryant was able to accomplish.</div> Source I didn't see anyone post this, so I decided to get the forum revived since Stockton isn't here.
Yeah. I watched the first half but ended up going out and missing the second half. Something I really regret..... Memo is clutch. Millsap came up big too. Let's hope Jazz get another W against Milwaukee tonight.
<div class="quote_poster">Marbire Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Yeah. I watched the first half but ended up going out and missing the second half. Something I really regret..... Memo is clutch. Millsap came up big too. Let's hope Jazz get another W against Milwaukee tonight.</div> You should feel lucky for missing it, we blew a big lead in the 4th and Sonics couldn't miss a three at the end. We would of loss if we called timeout, instead they inbounded fast while the Sonics were celebrating and Wilcox left Memo alone. Then Ray Allen missed the 3 at the end luckily
