<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Throughout his career, Andrei Kirilenko has been a walking statistical sheet. He has always put numbers in the various categories that mean success in basketball ? points, rebounds, assists, blocked shots, steals. Lately, though, those numbers are not adding up. His last double-double was Dec. 15. The last time he came close to one of those five-by-five games that he became known for last season was Dec. 17 with seven points, six boards, six blocks and six assists but no steals. Saturday night against Miami in EnergySolutions Arena, Utah Jazz coach Jerry Sloan looked at the box score and publicly noted that Kirilenko had no steals, no blocks. Kirilenko himself admitted his defense has been off and that Heat wingman Jason Kapono made 3-pointers over him as Miami handed the Jazz their third straight loss, 119-110. For the second straight game, just two of many this season, shooting guards had their way with the Jazz. And the 24-13 Jazz face that very problem again today at 11 a.m. MST at the Verizon Center against the 20-16 Washington Wizards when Gilbert Arenas pits his 29.7-points-a-game habits against a Utah that does not seem capable of holding him to that. Especially when, like Miami's Dwyane Wade (32 points) had Kapono to dish to, Arenas has Caron Butler averaging 20.8 points on the wing. Kirilenko has in the past done a pretty good job defending Kobe Bryant, and he took a pretty good turn on Ray Allen in overtime at Seattle Friday night, but Sloan is looking for more help defensively at those swing positions, where two-guards Derek Fisher and Gordan Giricek have their hands full with big, quick scorers.</div> <div align="center">Source</div>
I somewhat agree. Kirilenko has gotten many 0 block games lately. I want to see him get 7 blocks, 5 steals, 5 assists, and 8 rebounds again.
