Utah Jazz: Comeback Kids

The Utah Jazz have just completed one of the most remarkable weeks in the history of professional basketball! Beating 5 teams in a row after being down by 11+ points at some point in the game. I've already addressed the Clipper game, so let's flash forward to the Miami game. Being down by 22 points against the Miami Heat in Miami, the Jazz came back to win in OT. Paul Millsap had 46 points, hit three clutch 3 point shots, and hit the game tying shot to go to Overtime. Not only that, but Francisco Elson closed the deal at the foul line as they won 116-114. That game was heroic and epic. It had it all, Lebron couldn't finish, Dywane wade hit a 3 to tie it at 114, etc. That game was unbelievable. Everybody stepped up. Deron Williams stepped up, and the whole bench came through, especially in OT when D-Will had to come out because he fouled out. The next night, the Jazz beat the Orlando Magic in Orlando after being down 18, 104-94. The Jazz finished that game off better because they didn't have a dramatic finish. They blew out Orlando 39-20 in the 4th quarter. In the Orlando game, Millsap had 23 points, Jefferson had 21 points, and Williams had 30 in that one. The Atlanta Game was remarkable in A-Town as the Jazz trailed by 11 to comeback and win 90-86. Once again, in crunch time the Jazz pulled it out. The Amazing part of the the Atlanta game was the Jazz won despite a down night from Al Jefferson who had 15 points and Paul Millsap who had 11 points. Williams had 24 points and carried the load in that win. The difference really in that win was the foul shooting. Utah shot 73.7% from the line, and Atlanta shot 52.4%. Atlanta's abysmal foul shooting cost them the win against Utah. The Jazz tonight beat the Bobcats 96-95 after being down by 16 points at half time. The Jazz came back, and won off of Deron Williams buzzer beating shot with .8 seconds to go. They shot 75.9 percent from the foul line tonight, Charlotte shot 70.8%.
Now I've just given a run down of all four games that they won coming back on the ROAD. But there are two key stats or areas that stand out to me in these games/comebacks. #1 is Foul shots. In the Miami game, the Jazz shot 85.7% from the line while the Heat Shot 76.7% from the line. In the Orlando Game, the Jazz shot 89.3% from the line while Orlando shot 56%. In the Atlanta game, the Jazz shot 73.7 % from the line and the Hawks shot 52.4 %. Tonight in Charlotte, the Jazz shot 75.9 % from the line, while Charlotte shot 70.8%. In every win, the Jazz have shot a higher percentage of foul shots than their opponents. They Jazz collectively shot 81.4% from the foul line in the 4 game road trip. Their eastern conference opponents shot 66.7% from the line. The Jazz shot way better from the foul line than their opponents did. The only anomaly is the Clipper game where the Clipps shot 87.5% from the foul line and the Jazz shot 74.2%, but that wasn't apart of the eastern conference road trip obviously. As a whole, Utah has been shooting great from the foul line. If they want to keep up their success they need to shoot well from the line, and they need their opponents to not do as well from the line. The bottom in line is that the Jazz won those 4 games on the road in hostile environments because they shot well from the foul line.
The #2 stat is that the Jazz are killing their opponents in the 3rd and 4th quarter. Against the Clippers, the Jazz outscored them 31-18 in the 3rd quarter. Against Miami, the Jazz outscored the Heat 42-29 in the 4th quarter. Against Orlando, the Jazz outscored the Magic 39-20 in the 4th quarter. Against Atlanta, the Jazz outscored the Hawks 27-17 in the fourth quarter. Against Charlotte, the Jazz outscored the Bobcats 33-22 in the 4th quarter.
All in All, the key to these comebacks has been foul shots, and finishing off their opponents in the 4th quarter. They are finishing strong and are shooting well from the line. If the Jazz do those 2 things this year, they will win many games. Provided they don't always get down early. Go Jazz!

Jazz Slither Past The Clippers in Double OT

Following a depressing loss to their Bay Area Foes in Golden State, the Jazz flew back to Salt Lake City to play the Los Angeles Clippers on Saturday Night at home in Energy Solutions Arena. The Clippers had a tough loss of their own in Denver on Friday Night as well, by the score of 111-104. Both teams were eager to get a win. The Clippers got off to a big lead and were up 35-22 at the end of the first quarter and had a 55-39 lead at half time. Things were not going Utah's way. In the second half, the Jazz started making a comeback. Deron Williams started taking charge and got things going in the right direction. Even AK-47 hit a 3. The bench was virtually non-existent for the Jazz, having only 9 points. But The Starting 5 stepped up. Deron Williams had 30 points, AK-47 had 18 points, Al Jefferson had 18 points, Paul Millsap had 25 points, and Raja Bell had 9 points. The Jazz won because they had their starters step up. Key plays in OT and double OT like Al Jefferson hitting an off-balance jump shot, Paul Millsap getting a clutch put back dunk, and Andrei Kirilenko getting mugged underneath the basket for a flagrant one all but had the game put away. Eric Bledsoe, who mugged AK-47 hit two clutch threes for the Clippers to keep the game tied with 16 seconds left in double OT. Deron Williams made a heady play by racing down the court on the inbound to hit a clutch layup with 6 seconds left before the Clipps could get their defense set up. The Clippers failed to design a play at the end to force a 3rd OT or a victory. The Jazz clung to the most dramatic win of this young NBA season by the final score of 109-107. The reason the Jazz won this game was because they had every starter step up. Every starting player had a big moment for them in some way. It was a real team effort. It was a game that was good send off into their east coast road trip coming up this week where they will get the Heat on Tuesday, the Magic on Wednesday, the Hawks on Friday, and the Bobcats on Saturday. Overall, the Jazz really needed this win on Saturday night because they have such a tough schedule coming up. This week will give us a good feel for how tough of a team this Jazz squad really is. I think if the Jazz want to get 2 or more games out of these next 4, they'll need Al Jefferson and Paul Millsap to control the Paint, Deron Williams to play big, and get Andrei Kirilenko to play well. Not only that but CJ Miles needs to be productive, and Raja Bell needs to start playing better, because he's been really quiet so far this year. Good luck to the Jazz this week, they're gonna need all the luck they can get! Go Jazz!

Jazz Fall Short in the East Bay

On Friday November 5, the Jazz squared off against the Golden State Warriors in Oakland, CA. The Jazz got off to a hot 6-0 start and all things pointed to another Utah win in the Bay Area. However, things didn't go according to plan. Little things like Monta Ellis hitting a runner at the buzzer to end the Half and Ronnie Price Botching a wide open dunk in the 2nd half indicated that this was not going to be Utah's Night. Paul Millsap and Al Jefferson combined for 28 points, which is half of what they usually combine for. Deron Williams had 23 points and 6 Assists, so he showed up to play. CJ Miles went down early in the first half, and that hurt the efforts of the bench. Gordon Hayward came in and didn't do much to replace him. Hayward went scoreless. Miles had 12 points, Bell had 7 points, and Kirilenko had 4, all coming off of free throws. The key that I saw was that neither team could shoot. The Jazz shot 39.5% from the field. The Warriors shot 37.6 %. The only reason the Warriors won was because they made more shots, and took more shots. Raja Bell was off, Andrei Kirilenko was non-existent, and Millsap and Jefferson both were struggling to find their groove. Perhaps the only good thing to take away from their loss was that they didn't give up lot of points. They struggled from the line (70%), and couldn't find a rhythm.
The Jazz played like they had just gotten their behinds kicked the night before out east. However, they didn't. They were coming off a win 2 nights previous at home against the Toronto Raptors. The source of their struggles is unexplainable. It's something that can't be explained. But a couple of things stood out to me as I watched the game from the upper bowl of the arena. First off, the Jazz need their role players like Ronnie Price, Earl Watson, Gordon Hayward, and especially Raja Bell to step up when things aren't going well for the stars. The other thing I learned was that they need Jefferson and Millsap to have good nights. If they struggle the team struggles. Finally, the Jazz will greatly like having Mehmet Okur back in the line up. His shooting abilities will help them out a lot and be needed when other guys are struggling. I pray that the Jazz won't have many games like this. The final score was 85-78.