Photo: (AFP/Getty Images/Jay Directo)
One of the reasons I don’t buy the Utah Jazz is that they’re wretched on the road (14-19), and they lived up to their record by losing to the Bulls last night. Over on BlogaBull, a commenter sums up the game nicely.
Last night we were killing the Jazz in transition in the first half. They can run, yet prefer the half court set on offense, but they don’t defend the transition very well. Okur is slow. Boozer isn’t a solid defender so he fouls to stop breaks. There bench really drops off in transition defense. Kirilenko and Brewer are the only guys that can really defend the transition on a consistent basis.
Of course, you can’t even exploit the transition without solid defense. Defense is crucial, but the scouting on the Jazz is wear them out after getting defensive stops so they are too tired to effectively employ their offensive transition. Wearing them out will force them to fall in love with the half court set. The more half court sets they run the greater the rate of turnovers.
Sports by Brooks says Steve Nash doesn’t really care if wins an NBA title. I really hate it when athletes say that. On one level, you understand that some players just want to have fun and CTC. But god damned it, don’t tell me that. Lie to me Nash, lie to me.
The Celtics blog shows Paul Pierce some love, and Garnett says P-squared is the MVP.
The Sonics aren’t getting much state love to keep them in Seattle.
My folks live near Houston, and they’re saying there’s a palpable buzz about these Rockets as the chase their 20th consecutive win. It’s really amazing to have a team run by Skip to my Lou blazing through the league. Say what you will about the weak schedule, it still takes some heart to win every night. Of course, Lysol still has them dropping in the first round.
It looks like Andrew Bynum is making some positive steps towards returning, thanks to an “anti-gravity” treadmill. If you’re curious, you can pick one of those up here.
- I’ll try and not rip off Truehoop’s format too often, drop us a line at str8balling AT gmail DOT com
- Marin
