Jazz get blazed again, fall to Portland
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by CRS-ONE
More at Jazzcore.Blogspot.Com.
The losing streak continued last night, making a tour stop to Portland as the Utah Jazz fell to the Blazers, 91-99.
The Jazz were playing without Mehmet Okur, but the way he's been playing that's not much of a loss. The Blazers were without LaMarcus Aldridge, their best big man.
So how did they wind up losing?
The Jazz like to make the opposing shooting guard look good, and Brandon Roy took advantage of this opportunity, scoring 29 points. What was more shocking was Blazer forward Travis Outlaw wound up with 21 points, which includes nine from the free throw line. That's because Carlos Boozer (6 fouls leading to an ejection), Andrei Kirilenko (4 fouls) and Paul Millsap (5 fouls) decided to play defense by fouling their opponents.
That didn't work out too well, as the Blazers connected on 37 free throws from 46 chances. That's a lot of free points. The Jazz were 17-23 from the charity stripe. Looks like their free throw shooting woes are continuing.
The Jazz didn't shoot the ball well at all. The Portland Trailblazers aren't necessarily a good team and they were 30-68 for the night. The Jazz did a much better job of setting up their offense (94 field goal attempts), but only connected on 37. Ouch. They had almost thirty additional opportunities to score and blew them all.
Why for?
- Kirilenko's 16 points came on 6-19. Even though he's working on his jumper, it's still very unreliable. He scores either driving to the basket or cutting on the baseline. Run plays like that for him and he will contribute. He won't by shooting from 15 feet out.
- Boozer, who is usually a very high percentage shooter, was 10-20.
- Deron Williams and Ronnie Brewer also stunk, each only connecting on 5 shots. They respectively had 14 and 13 field goal attempts.
- And this lovely number, 0-13 from three point land.
Ouch.
For the most part, Portland had control of the game. This winds up being the Jazz's sixth straight loss.
Due to Okur's absence/injury, rookie center Kyrylo Fesenko was called up from the D-league, and he had three rebounds in five minutes. He and other rookie shooting guard Morris Almond really need to get called up soon. There's a big difference in developing as a big fish in the small D-league pond or getting actual NBA experience. As soon as they're ready to play in the big league full time, Fesenko and Almond provide the two things the Jazz desperately need...an inside presence (Kyrylo) and outside shooting (Morris).
Tonight the Jazz get a chance to avenge themselves against the Seattle Sonics.
