Jazz sting the Hornets, 99-71
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by CRS-ONE
Tonight was a battle of the two top point guards in the rookie class of 2005, pitting Chris Paul against Deron Williams. Some league experts were surprised that the Jazz went with Williams over Paul. That could be a whole article in itself, and I think I will save it for another day.
Williams won this round, with the Jazz winning 99-71 at home in the Energy Solutions Arena. Deron had a stat line of 12 and 7 assists. Paul had 15 points and 6 assists, coming back from an ankle injury. The parity between these two teams tonight was very close between their starting centers and power forwards. Look at these stat lines:
Carlos Boozer-UTA PF - 19 pts, 16 rbs; David West-NO PF - 18 pts, 14 rbs
Memo Okur-UTA C - 12 pts, 5 rbs; Tyson Chandler-NO C - 12 pts, 7 rbs
So how did the Jazz wind up winning this game?
New Orleans' shooting stunk tonight. They were 1-17 from the three point line, compared to the Jazz's 8-14. Thats alarming that Jerry Sloan let Utah take that many outside shots, being that he is convinced that three pointers are only to be used by evil communist teams.
The Jazz also did a much better job passing the ball, getting 25 assists to the Hornets' 13.
The other thing that made me happy was that the Jazz' two back up point/combo guards both really had a good night with Ronnie Price and Jason Hart scoring 12 and 11 respectively. Aside from the continued shooting guard woes, I was skeptical of the Jazz's backups at the 1.
Nice showing by the Jazz tonight. Sunday will be tough game as they play the Pistons at home.
