GAME THREAD: NBA: UTAH (6-2) at TORONTO (4-3)

Re: NBA: UTAH (6-2) at TORONTO (4-3)

a13x, if you didn't catch the game, don't subject yourself to that last sequence. It was beyond terrible and it'll probably give me nightmares tonight.

I'm usually a TJ Ford apologist. Not to the extent of Doug Smith and MLSE's talking heads, but for the most part I tend to argue that the majority of TJ's shortcomings/problems arise from a lack of structure in our offensive gameplan and just poor coaching. However, that last sequence just makes me doubt myself like crazy. I don't think I've ever seen such a boneheaded game-ending move from a PG since Chris Childs' infamous heave. Not only did he make the wrong move (shooting an offbalance long-range shot with defenders in his face), but Ford did this 3 times in a row. I mean, it takes a special type of selfishness/idiocy/arrogance (I don't know what to call it) to attempt such a terrible move that many times in a row and ultimately follow through with it, despite the fact that you'd already keyed every defender in the immediate vicinity on you. How many players were open? How much better are they at shooting the ball than you? How the hell don't you realize this if you're our starting point guard? I don't know, I can't see plays like that too many more times before I start calling for Calderon to start.

And the funny thing is, prior to that play, I wouldn't necessarily have been frustrated with a loss. I thought we played sloppily through the first three quarters, but similar to the Boston game (there were many parallells now that I think about it) we were able to bring Utah down to our level. Considering the matchup difficulties and the fact that the Jazz are clearly the better team, I was pleasantly surprised with our effort. We showed a surprising rebounding effort: Humphries and Rasho were beasts, but even Bosh (and Bargnani during a small stretch) were tough down low. We played better than average defense (Moon being spectacular) and got stops when we really needed it. And Chris Bosh at the end of the game was simply outstanding. I don't think I've seen him that explosive and effective since the Orlando game last season (where he dropped 41). Its definitely encourgaging that he's healthy again and able to dominate (albeit in a short stretch) against a very good defensive team.

Now for the negatives. Aside from the TJ Ford debacle (I can't mention it again), we lost Rasho to an injury. Injuries are never good and we're losing a lot of rebounding if he's gone for good. He was able to walk it off, so hopefully its nothing more than a rolled ankle and he can get back soon. Another more pressing concern is Andrea Bargnani. I think most of you know that I pay particularly close attention to Bargs and am a vocal supporter of him. I think he's got a hell of a lotta potential and all the keys to fullfilling it (great work ethic, intelligences, etc.). But he's definitely regressed since Mitchell took him out of the starting lineup. Although he had shown us both extremes during his starts, the one constant was that he was looking comfortable in the post, showing a commitment to rebounding, and not chucking the ball. Since he's started coming off the bench he's began to play like a small forward again: camping out at the perimeter, setting the odd pick and throwing up a 3 pointer whenever he gets the ball. It makes him far too predictable and its wasting his talents (the fact that one of his attempts got blocked shows you how easy its gotten to guard him). Hopefully he gets the chance to start again with Rasho down and picks up where he left off before, because its killing me to see him struggle like this.

Damn, that was a load off my mind.</p>

 

Re: NBA: UTAH (6-2) at TORONTO (4-3)

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Chutney)</div><div class='quotemain'></p>

a13x, if you didn't catch the game, don't subject yourself to that last sequence. It was beyond terrible and it'll probably give me nightmares tonight.

I'm usually a TJ Ford apologist. Not to the extent of Doug Smith and MLSE's talking heads, but for the most part I tend to argue that the majority of TJ's shortcomings/problems arise from a lack of structure in our offensive gameplan and just poor coaching. However, that last sequence just makes me doubt myself like crazy. I don't think I've ever seen such a boneheaded game-ending move from a PG since Chris Childs' infamous heave. Not only did he make the wrong move (shooting an offbalance long-range shot with defenders in his face), but Ford did this 3 times in a row. I mean, it takes a special type of selfishness/idiocy/arrogance (I don't know what to call it) to attempt such a terrible move that many times in a row and ultimately follow through with it, despite the fact that you'd already keyed every defender in the immediate vicinity on you. How many players were open? How much better are they at shooting the ball than you? How the hell don't you realize this if you're our starting point guard? I don't know, I can't see plays like that too many more times before I start calling for Calderon to start.

And the funny thing is, prior to that play, I wouldn't necessarily have been frustrated with a loss. I thought we played sloppily through the first three quarters, but similar to the Boston game (there were many parallells now that I think about it) we were able to bring Utah down to our level. Considering the matchup difficulties and the fact that the Jazz are clearly the better team, I was pleasantly surprised with our effort. We showed a surprising rebounding effort: Humphries and Rasho were beasts, but even Bosh (and Bargnani during a small stretch) were tough down low. We played better than average defense (Moon being spectacular) and got stops when we really needed it. And Chris Bosh at the end of the game was simply outstanding. I don't think I've seen him that explosive and effective since the Orlando game last season (where he dropped 41). Its definitely encourgaging that he's healthy again and able to dominate (albeit in a short stretch) against a very good defensive team.

Now for the negatives. Aside from the TJ Ford debacle (I can't mention it again), we lost Rasho to an injury. Injuries are never good and we're losing a lot of rebounding if he's gone for good. He was able to walk it off, so hopefully its nothing more than a rolled ankle and he can get back soon. Another more pressing concern is Andrea Bargnani. I think most of you know that I pay particularly close attention to Bargs and am a vocal supporter of him. I think he's got a hell of a lotta potential and all the keys to fullfilling it (great work ethic, intelligences, etc.). But he's definitely regressed since Mitchell took him out of the starting lineup. Although he had shown us both extremes during his starts, the one constant was that he was looking comfortable in the post, showing a commitment to rebounding, and not chucking the ball. Since he's started coming off the bench he's began to play like a small forward again: camping out at the perimeter, setting the odd pick and throwing up a 3 pointer whenever he gets the ball. It makes him far too predictable and its wasting his talents (the fact that one of his attempts got blocked shows you how easy its gotten to guard him). Hopefully he gets the chance to start again with Rasho down and picks up where he left off before, because its killing me to see him struggle like this.

Damn, that was a load off my mind.</p>

</div></p>

Yeah, what was that tag with the ball to Humpfries, back to TJ, back to Humpfries. I don't get it. It's exactly what it is. TJ is an Iverson type player that has to work within a teamwork setting and has a hard time doing it. What's in TJ's mind when he see's Kapono in the corner and Parker on the other wing? You know what the funny thing is. The more he decides to take these types of shots win or lose, the more he will lose respect from the players around him. Also, what's up with Calderon not being called to the all-star list, and Kapono being in the list. Man, just to show you how ridiculous coaching is from Mitchell, he allow Kapono to drive and create shots on his own. What's up with that? Kapono is purely a spot-shooter, and cannot be relied on to create his own shot. Man TJ, you're just plain selfish.</p>

</p>

 

NBA: UTAH at TORONTO

<div class="pre">UTAH (92) AT TORONTO (88)

UTAH

REBOUNDS
PLAYER POS MIN FGM-FGA FTM-FTA OFF-DEF-TOT AST PF ST TO PTS
====== === === ======= ======= =========== === == == == ===

D WILLIAMS G 40:01 8-15 6-7 1 2 3 5 0 2 4 22
R BREWER G 38:13 3-11 6-7 1 5 6 2 0 1 0 12
C BOOZER F 36:45 9-24 5-6 4 10 14 1 1 2 1 23
A KIRILENKO F 40:04 1-6 6-7 2 7 9 11 3 5 5 8
M OKUR C 30:56 5-9 0-0 1 5 6 1 3 1 0 13
G GIRICEK 17:43 4-7 0-0 1 3 4 0 1 1 2 8
J COLLINS 14:20 2-2 0-2 0 1 1 0 2 0 1 4
P MILLSAP 13:21 1-1 0-0 0 2 2 0 4 0 2 2
J HART 7:59 0-2 0-0 0 1 1 3 1 0 0 0
C MILES 0:38 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
M ALMOND DNP - COACH'S DECISION
R PRICE DNP - COACH'S DECISION

TOTALS 240:00 33-77 23-29 10 36 46 23 15 12 15 92
(.429) (.793) TEAM REBS: 4 TOTAL TO: 15 (13 PTS)

TORONTO

REBOUNDS
PLAYER POS MIN FGM-FGA FTM-FTA OFF-DEF-TOT AST PF ST TO PTS
====== === === ======= ======= =========== === == == == ===

T FORD G 32:10 5-17 2-2 2 3 5 8 3 2 3 13
A PARKER G 30:22 7-11 2-2 0 3 3 3 3 0 1 19
C BOSH F 31:27 5-12 4-4 2 5 7 1 2 0 1 14
J MOON F 33:10 6-11 1-2 1 2 3 3 3 2 2 15
R NESTEROVIC C 19:30 2-4 0-0 3 5 8 2 1 0 1 4
K HUMPHRIES 27:32 2-4 0-0 5 9 14 1 5 2 2 4
C DELFINO 17:13 2-9 2-2 3 2 5 1 1 0 0 6
J KAPONO 17:07 2-5 0-0 0 1 1 0 5 0 3 5
J CALDERON 15:50 3-7 0-0 0 1 1 0 1 0 3 6
A BARGNANI 15:39 1-11 0-0 1 2 3 0 0 0 1 2
J DIXON DNP - COACH'S DECISION
J GARBAJOSA DNP - COACH'S DECISION

TOTALS 240:00 35-91 11-12 17 33 50 19 24 6 17 88
(.385) (.917) TEAM REBS: 7 TOTAL TO: 17 (10 PTS)

UTAH 18 21 25 28 - 92
TORONTO 22 14 23 29 - 88

BLOCKED SHOTS: UTAH - A KIRILENKO 2, C BOOZER, G GIRICEK. TORONTO -
R NESTEROVIC 2, C BOSH, A BARGNANI.
3-PT. FIELD GOALS: UTAH 3-11 (.273), D WILLIAMS 0-1, R BREWER 0-3,
A KIRILENKO 0-1, M OKUR 3-4, G GIRICEK 0-2. TORONTO 7-22 (.318), T FORD 1-
6, A PARKER 3-4, J MOON 2-2, C DELFINO 0-2, J KAPONO 1-2, J CALDERON 0-
1, A BARGNANI 0-5.
TECHNICAL FOULS: TORONTO - DEFENSIVE THREE.
FLAGRANT FOULS: NONE.
OFFICIALS: DAN CRAWFORD, MATT BOLAND, RODNEY MOTT.
A - 17,337. T - 2:08.</div>

 

NBA: UTAH at TORONTO

<div class="pre">UTAH (92)

fg ft rb
min m-a m-a o-t a pf tp
D Williams 40:01 8-15 6-7 1-3 5 0 22
R Brewer 38:13 3-11 6-7 1-6 2 0 12
C Boozer 36:45 9-24 5-6 4-14 1 1 23
A Kirilenko 40:04 1-6 6-7 2-9 11 3 8
M Okur 30:56 5-9 0-0 1-6 1 3 13
G Giricek 17:43 4-7 0-0 1-4 0 1 8
J Collins 14:20 2-2 0-2 0-1 0 2 4
P Millsap 13:21 1-1 0-0 0-2 0 4 2
J Hart 7:59 0-2 0-0 0-1 3 1 0
C Miles 0:38 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
M Almond DNP - COACH'S DECISION
R Price DNP - COACH'S DECISION

______________________________________________________
TOTALS 240:00 33-77 23-29 10-46 23 15 92
______________________________________________________

Percentages: FG-.429, FT-.793. 3-Point Goals:
3-11, .273 (D Williams 0-1, R Brewer 0-3, A
Kirilenko 0-1, M Okur 3-4, G Giricek 0-2).
Team Rebounds: 4. Blocked Shots:4 (A
Kirilenko 2, C Boozer, G Giricek).
Turnovers:15 (A Kirilenko 5, D Williams 4, G
Giricek 2, P Millsap 2, J Collins, C Boozer).
Steals: 12 (A Kirilenko 5, C Boozer 2, D
Williams 2, M Okur, G Giricek, R Brewer).


TORONTO (88)

fg ft rb
min m-a m-a o-t a pf tp
T Ford 32:10 5-17 2-2 2-5 8 3 13
A Parker 30:22 7-11 2-2 0-3 3 3 19
C Bosh 31:27 5-12 4-4 2-7 1 2 14
J Moon 33:10 6-11 1-2 1-3 3 3 15
R Nesterovic 19:30 2-4 0-0 3-8 2 1 4
K Humphries 27:32 2-4 0-0 5-14 1 5 4
C Delfino 17:13 2-9 2-2 3-5 1 1 6
J Kapono 17:07 2-5 0-0 0-1 0 5 5
J Calderon 15:50 3-7 0-0 0-1 0 1 6
A Bargnani 15:39 1-11 0-0 1-3 0 0 2
J Dixon DNP - COACH'S DECISION
J Garbajosa DNP - COACH'S DECISION

______________________________________________________
TOTALS 240:00 35-91 11-12 17-50 19 24 88
______________________________________________________

Percentages: FG-.385, FT-.917. 3-Point Goals:
7-22, .318 (T Ford 1-6, A Parker 3-4, J Moon
2-2, C Delfino 0-2, J Kapono 1-2, J Calderon
0-1, A Bargnani 0-5). Team Rebounds: 7.
Blocked Shots:4 (R Nesterovic 2, C Bosh, A
Bargnani). Turnovers:17 (J Kapono 3, T Ford
3, J Calderon 3, J Moon 2, K Humphries 2, R
Nesterovic, A Bargnani, A Parker, C Bosh).
Steals: 6 (J Moon 2, T Ford 2, K Humphries
2).

-------------------------------------------
UTAH 18 21 25 28 - 92
TORONTO 22 14 23 29 - 88
-------------------------------------------

Technical fouls: Toronto - 1 (Defensive
Three, 7:54 2nd).
Flagrant fouls: None. A: 17,337. T: 2:08.
Officials: Dan Crawford, Matt Boland, Rodney
Mott.</div>

 

TORONTO (Ticker) -- Carlos Boozer and the Utah Jazz continue toroll.


Boozer scored 23 points and grabbed 14 rebounds as the Jazzposted a 92-88 victory over the Toronto Raptors on Wednesday.

Deron Williams scored 22 points, including 11 in the finalquarter, and dished out five assists and Mehmet Okur added 13and six rebounds for Utah, which has won five in a row.

"I think it was good win for us against a good team," Williamssaid of Utah's first contest of a three-game Eastern Conferenceroad swing. "I don't think I was being as aggressive as Ishould have in the first half, but in the fourth I was moreaggressive."


The Jazz, who shot 43 percent (33-of-77) from the field, alsohave won five straight against the Raptors. Utah also used runsof 10-3 to end the first half and 10-2 to finish the thirdquarter to keep Toronto at bay.


"People don't realize how difficult it is to win in thisleague," Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said. "It's a wonderful win forus on this road trip."


Boozer, who did not score in the first period when Utah trailedby four, tallied 10 in each of the middle two quarters whilenotching his eighth double-double in nine games this season. The6-9 Boozer connected on 9-of-24 shots from the floor.

"I just kept at it and was able to get it going and tried toattack the rim," Boozer said. "You can't always knock down allof your shots but you have to stay aggressive to give yourself achance."


Late in the fourth quarter, with the Jazz leading 87-85 after adunk by Toronto's Chris Bosh, Boozer hit a hook shot off a nicefeed from Andrei Kirilenko to give Utah a four-point lead with28 seconds left.


T.J. Ford then drilled a 3-pointer to cut the Raptors' deficitto 89-88 with 18 seconds remaining, but three free throws byWilliams and Boozer iced the win for Utah.


Ronnie Brewer scored 12 points and Andrei Kirilenko did a littleof everything, recording eight points, nine rebounds, 11assists, five steals and two blocks for the Jazz, who held theirthird straight opponent under 100 points.


"I just can't say enough about AK (Kirilenko) right now," Boozersaid. "He's blocking shots, scoring, rebounding, gettingassists and has really good vision out there."


Anthony Parker scored 19 points and rookie Jamario Moon added 15for Toronto, which has lost three straight at home.

"It's disappointing to drop three straight at home," Parkersaid. "This is our home court and we have to protect it andcan't let these slip away."


The Raptors made just 39 percent (35-of-91) of their shots onWednesday. The main culprits for Toronto were Andrea Bargnani,who shot 1-of-11, and Bosh, who was 1-of-8, before going 4-of-4in the fourth.


"We had open looks but shots don't fall sometimes," Bosh said."We came out a little flat. We played pretty good defense andstill had a chance to win but we have to make our open looks."

 

Re: NBA: UTAH (6-2) at TORONTO (4-3)

I always hate these postgame reports, all the players say they have to make a better effort coming out of the gates and play all 4 quarters not just the last but they really dont take it to heart.</p>

I did not like the way Bosh played today! As our leader he should demand the ball alot more, and not just take up space on the court for the first 3 quarters! I really thought he relied too much on his jumper tonight and sometimes that dug us into a hole. Obviously he was outstanding in the 4th quarter and pretty much got us a lead but I would like to see that kind of intensity through the entire game and once he begins driving and getting his defenders to back away from him, then maybe he can start shooting to mix it up.

Bargnani just couldnt buy a bucket today, out of the 12 shots today he took I really think he normally would of hit at least 6 on a normal day but he just couldnt find his stroke out on the court as open 3s werent dropping, layups werent dropping and his penetration was not effective. Hopefully this is just one bad game from Bargnani and we can write it off for now because we all know what he can do.</p>

Good TJ, Bad TJ, Good TJ, Bad TJ......um I think we'll see good TJ play on Friday against the Pacers, nothing really I can add to what has already been said about his performance and last possession tonite.</p>

Our Bench Sucked!</p>

Defense was great IMO</p>

Moon, Rasho and Humphries played great....love how Humphries always gives it his all on the court, everything he comes into the game you know you can expect the same ammount of effort every single time.</p>

 

Re: NBA: UTAH (6-2) at TORONTO (4-3)

After loses like these I always get pretty frustrated because I know we are better then this and are pretty much throwing games away....but looking at the Eastern Conference standings a .500 record is good enough for 4th place which is okay for me but I really want the Raptors to get into rythem and start going on winning streaks and break away from the pretenders.</p>

 

Re: NBA: UTAH (6-2) at TORONTO (4-3)

Wow, we're now .500, great. This rollercoaster is really something huh. I guess we can take solace in the fact that we went 2-8 last year, and this year we are 4-4. I know we should be getting better, but we need to get our stride going. Hey, maybe we'll see another frustration showing from Bosh on Bargs again and that will start our ascent. I'd personally love to see a frustration showing from Calderone on TJ, that would be great.. LOL</p>

 

Re: NBA: UTAH (6-2) at TORONTO (4-3)

I think, as a punishment to TJ, we should start JC... Maybe that will be a wake up call!! ...And Bargs better get the start next game! ...And I'd better see Garbo play next game too!!! He was a big part of our success last year!</p>

 

Re: NBA: UTAH (6-2) at TORONTO (4-3)

I agree with BigWilly here. Let's get back to our original starters, minus Nesterovic. That's what's going wrong here, and then take out TJ whenever he gets trigger happy. That game was so winnable yesterday, it's unfortunate.</p>