Jazz take spur to the groin as San Antonio comes from behind for win
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by CRS-ONE
They couldn't even win with Tim Duncan out.
The Jazz were beaten by the Spurs, 108-94, and their winless stream in San Antonio continues.
They were killed by Manu Ginobili, who had his second straight 37 point game.
The wost part about last night's loss was that the Jazz were actually leading for most of the game. They blew a ten point lead at the beginning of the fourth. So how did they wind up losing what was a winnable game?
- Awful help defense. Ginobli was blowing past Ronnie Brewer and C.J. Miles, drawing fouls left and right. He was 17 -19 from the free throw line. The Spurs added 30 points from the charity stripe to the Jazz's 17. Carlos Boozer and Deron Williams both missed key free throws towards the end of the game.
- Boozer's offense awareness. How can CBooz having a 28 point, 17 rebound night hurt the Jazz? He committed 9 of their 20 turnovers on the night. The Spurs defense was collapsing on him, and Williams to a lesser extent, and causing them to throw bad passes.
- Awful scoring. Aside from Boozer, Williams (28 points) and Brewer (14 points), no other Jazzmen could score. Between the three of them, they had 70 points. The rest of the team combined: 28. Basically there were four Utah players tonight...the previous three and the Bench Monster.
- They got lost. Jazz coach Jerry Sloan keeps reminding everyone about how the team just shuts off in the fourth quarter. They need more leadership to keep them focused on closing out a game. Last night they blew an 11 point lead. It's moments like these when you can see how they miss veteran leadership from a player like Derek Fisher.
Mehmet Okur, again, had a bad night for the Jazz, scoring 6 points and pulling down 5 rebounds. As the center, he's the Jazz's las line of defense. He let Ginobli and Tony Parker get what they wanted from the basket.
His weaknesses were the highlight of the ESPN half time show. Armchair GM favorite Steven A. Smith said it best when he came up with a new nickname for the Turkish big man--the Petrified Puppy.
Smith hit the nail on the head on this one. Okur needs to step up on his defense if the Jazz are going to be one of the elite teams in the NBA and not looking through the glass ceiling at the top 5 teams in the league. Bill Walton had a great suggestion: just like the Jazz set up time for Williams to play and practice with John Stockton, and how they bring Jeff Hornacek on the weekend to help Andrei Kirilenko with his jumper, send Okur out on a road trip to Karl Malone's house. He would definitely teach the important lessons on how to throw an elbow, physically intimidate in the low post, and even the patented karate chop steal. Mind you, Malone had 2,085 steals in his career and is ranked 9 overall.
The Jazz finish up their three game swing against the Dallas Mavericks.
