<div align="center"> @ </div> <div align="center"><font color="DeepSkyBlue">Denver Nuggets </font> (1-2) @ <font color="Blue">Utah Jazz</font> (3-0)</div> When: Monday 8th November, 9:00PM (EST) Where: Delta Center, Utah Local TV: FSN / Altitude National TV: NBALP <div align="center">Projected Starting Lineups</div> <div align="center"><font color="Blue">Utah Jazz</font></div> <div align="center"> </div> <div align="center"><font size="1">Keith McLeod, Gordan Giricek, Andrei Kirilenko, Carlos Boozer, Jarron Collins</font></div> <div align="center"><font color="DeepSkyBlue">Denver Nuggets</font></div> <div align="center"> <font size="1">Andre Miller, Greg Buckner, Carmelo Anthony, Kenyon Martin, Marcus Camby</font></div> Injured List <font color="Blue">Jazz:</font> Carlos Arroyo, Raul Lopez, Aleksandar Radojevic <font color="DeepSkyBlue">Nuggets:</font> Nikoloz Tskitishvili, Arthur Johnson, Voshon Lenard Key Matchup Andrei Kirilenko vs. Carmelo Anthony Carlos Boozer dominated Kenyon Martin in the last game. AK47 and Anthony was a little closer. AK47 got 8 blocks in the last game, and his defensive presence is a big part of the Jazz's success. Anthony needs to score, and have a good shooting %, which he didn't do in the last game for the Nuggets to compete. Prediction It's the same teams, just 2 days apart. Not much has changed, apart from the arena. The Jazz won big in Denver, and I'm expecting them to win big again this time in the Delta Center. Jazz 103 Nuggets 85.
It is really hard for any team to win both games of a home and home. I think Denver will probably come out determined to win this game and show the Jazz up in front of their hometown crowd like Utah did last night. But I don't think they can keep up with the Jazz offense that is averaging over 100+ a game and a defense that is keeping their oppents in the 80s. I expect the Jazz to pull this one out in a closer game than last. Jazz 104 Nuggets 92
As of now, the Jazz allow 80 points per game, good enough for first in the NBA by a considerable margin. They also get 104 points per game, good enough for 3rd equal. Best defensive team, 3rd best offensive team, that's why they are hard to beat for anyone.
I watched the game tonight (via League Pass), and the Jazz victory was really helped along by the crappiest shooting performance by Carmello Anthony. I'm sorry to get off topic, but Anthony's shooting has been some of the worst opening week shooting I have ever seen. He's shooting below 25% on the season. Other than Anthony, the whole Nuggets team just looked pretty off tonight. Kirilenko was blocking everything they threw up as well. BTW - What's with Kirilenko's new haircut? It looks pretty goofy.
I caught the second half of the game, I would of watched it all but I had class, but it seemed that the Jazz were more sluggish than in any of the other games. Boozer really struggled tonight, I guess after his big game in Denver, they decided to lock him down. AK showed us his full arsenal, only missing an assist and steal from a 5x5 game. Okur finally gets to show us what he can do, 12 and 9, with two blocks and two assist in only 20 minutes. Plus I noticed his eye was looking better in the post game show, it wasn't red just fuzzy. Giri's big third quarter really kept us the lead far enough away from the Nuggets to stop their roll. J.C. also had a good offensive game tonight. I think tonight we showed we just wasn't AK and Boozer and that even though our PG's and Boozer didn't play their best as a team we can step up and pick up the slack. Did anyone else see how it seemed that they was giving Carmelo alot of calls on the post? He was basically running over Harpring and Harp was getting called for the foul, they finally got it right the last few times. And about AK's hair, maybe its Russian?
Fantastic 4th: Andrei's effort punctuates Jazz victory <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">It wasn't his five blocks, or his first three steals. It wasn't his six boards. It wasn't even his 24 points on 8-of-12 field shooting. Instead, it was one play ? and it happened while most of the 18,667 who had filed into the Delta Center a couple hours earlier were on their way out. With the Jazz up by 11 points in the final 15 seconds of their 102-91 win over Denver on Monday night, a victory that has Utah off to a 4-0 start early in the 2004-05 NBA season, it was one play in particular by Jazz All-Star forward Andrei Kirilenko that actually pleased a particularly hard-to-impress head coach more than any statistic or record ever could.</div> <div align="center">Link </div> A good part of this game for the Jazz was that 2 starters, Keith McLeod and Carlos Boozer both had sub par games but the Jazz still scored 100 points. When the whole team is playing well, watch out. .
