<div align="center"> <font color="Navy">Utah Jazz</font> (10-13) @ <font color="Green">Boston Celtics</font> (9-12)</div> When: Friday 17th December, 7:30 PM (EST) Where: FleetCenter Local TV: FSNE / FSN National TV: NBALP <div align="center">Likely Starters</div> <div align="center"><font color="Navy">Jazz</font> </div> <div align="center"><font size="1">Carlos Arroyo, Raja Bell, Matt Harpring, Carlos Boozer, Mehmet Okur</font></div> <div align="center"><font color="Green">Celtics</font></div> <div align="center"> <font size="1">Gary Payton, Paul Pierce, Jiri Welsch, Raef LaFrentz, Mark Blount</font></div> Injured List <font color="Navy">Jazz:</font> Keith McLeod, Jarron Collins, Andrei Kirilenko <font color="Green">Celtics:</font> Delonte West, Michael Stewart, Tom Gugliotta Key Matchup Raja Bell vs. Paul Pierce Pierce will be a huge test for Bell. Pierce is a great scorer, which is why the Celtics will try to get him the ball on offense. Raja Bell needs to do his best to force Pierce into contested shots, as he will be shooting. If Pierce gets going, he's hard to stop. Prediction This should be a close game. If the Jazz are to win, they need to play for the whole game, and not let up in the final 5 minutes. Boozer will need to stop LaFrentz from knocking down the 3's, take him down low on offense and rough him up. Due to how the Jazz normally play in the final 5 minutes I'm going with a close Celtic victory. Boston 95 Utah 93.
Exactly, I think this will be a very close game. The Jazz were totally burnt in Phoenix a few nights ago, and I expect them to come into Boston and have a tough fight. Even thought without star AK47, but I think that they will be able to come out and keep this game as close as possible. I don't think the Jazz will come out and win this except Boozer is planning to play a decent game, and make use of Okur and Boozer to control the board. Arroyo really need to prove himself in this game against the Gloves. I predict Boston will win this by 2. still having 9 mins to play in the 2nd quarter, the JAzz is trailing by 17...they have no idea what they are doing...missed shots, poor defence, turnovers, fouls... <font size="1">Edit: Double Posting ~ Stockton</font>
still having 9 mins to play in the 2nd quarter, the JAzz is trailing by 17...they have no idea what they are doing...missed shots, poor defence, turnovers, fouls...
Utah's defense is horrible, they're letting the Celtics shoot 57% from the court and Boston have scored 29 points in both the 1st and 2nd quarter. That's far too many if Utah want to win this one.
Man, what happened to the Jazz that started 6-1 blowing out opponents... We played like crap the whole game. In the 4th quarter, we made a nice big run. We kept scoring...... but there was 1 problem. I don't think we stopped them once. Our defense is horrible. We need Kirilenko bad.... Okur, Raja, and Arroyo all played awesome. Okur can shoot from anywhere, but his defense is a little sluggish. That's prolly why Sloan was playing Radojevic...
Jazz 106 Celtics 114 Gary Payton played great, the Jazz just had no answer for him. However the Jazz did do a good job of contatining Pierce, although Boston wouldn't of needed to involve him as much with Payton scoring 27. One of the few good things to come out of the Jazz's funk is Mehmet Okur's play. He's scoring and rebounding, and the Jazz haven't had a good C for a long time. Although he could improve his D. Lack of defense without Kirilenko again hurt the Jazz and 56 Celtic points in the paint doesn't help either.
