Written by Spencer | 17 February 2010

The Utah Jazz are wearing Green tonight which so far this season has been a good sign that they will win the game. I attended the last game that these two played and all I can remember is the fourth quarter steal that Chris Paul had when he was on the short end of a 3 on 1 break. He then took the ball to the other end of the floor and hit a huge shot to put the game away. Obviously Chris Paul will not be playing tonight and could be out for the rest of the season. Bill Simmons talks about the down scaling of certain injuries in his latest post and alludes that Chris Paul is in this category.

My least favorite trend of the No Benjamins Association era: teams twisting the truth about potentially serious injuries so they don't hurt ticket sales, or because they know the media won't challenge their stories and call them out afterward. After seeing Boston string Celtics fans along with KG's bum knee and the Clippers legitimately lie about Blake Griffin's knee injury, when I heard the Hornets claim CP3 would miss only "four to six weeks" after "minor" knee surgery, my BS Detector started beeping. Especially since we learned that doctors removed Paul's torn meniscus ligament rather than repairing it.Intrigued, I asked Will Carroll (the injury expert for Baseball Prospectus and Basketball Prospectus) for his thoughts. Will pointed me toward a piece he wrote about meniscus removal a few years ago. The key section: "One reason teams are so quick to allow this surgery is that the players come back so quickly, usually in a matter of weeks. But … surgeons don't repair the meniscus in most cases; they just take it out, either in part or in whole depending on the size of the tearing. That leaves the athlete with no shock. Eventually, with the remaining meniscus overstressed and aging, they end up with the bones grinding together. Yes, that's as bad as it sounds in a game of running and jumping." (Hold on, we have to wait for the Hornets fans to clear out that puke from their mouths. Waiting … waiting … OK, we're good.)

Every Year we have  a the same discussion about whether or not you take Chris Paul or Deron Williams if you are the Utah Jazz ( in a side note you slit your wrists if you are an Atlanta Hawks Fan. One of the biggest problems I have with little guards is- durability. We have really only seen a couple of small guards stay in the Nba for a long productive career--/Allen Iverson And Isaiah Thomas are the two that come to mind. With today's medical advancements Paul should be fine and continue to have a great career but every injury shortens his career a little bit especially when it has to do with knees, ankles and backs. The Jazz are trying to their first back to back road games since FEB of 08 imagine that, two years since we have won both ends of  back to back road games. Deron Williams should have a spectacular night tonight, exactly I just dropped spectacular. The Jazz are wearing their green Jerseys tonight and we know what that does to them. AK has been on fire if you haven't noticed and since being put in the starting lineup is putting up these numbers 15.5 points, 4.7 rebounds, 2.7 assists and is shooting .632 from the field. Millsap is averaging  18.3 points, 8.1 rebounds, and 3 assist per contest. Mehmet Okur It seems that Jerry Sloan,Memo, and Millsap all understand that it is better for the Jazz to have Millsap on the floor during crunch time.They talked about this on the radio this morning. It may hurt an American player more than it effects Memo. He has a championship ring is getting 10 million a year and is about to have a baby, realistically I'm sure with the playing time he is or isn't getting. As a Jazz fan we should be happy with an outburst from Memo every once in a while but not count on him every getting back to the 2009 Memo maybe just flashes every once in a while. Biggest Key to the game- Rebounds we have to do a better job on the boards tonight than we did last night. Here are some extended stat break downs of tonight's game. Preview | GameTrax | Depth Chart | Head-to-Head

Fouls & Penalties Stats	Jazz		Hornets
	Stat	Rk	Stat	Rk
Personal Fouls Per Game	22	23	19	5
Opposition Personal Fouls Per Game	22.3	4	20.0	24
Disqualifications (Fouled Out)	9	22	5	10
Opposition Disqualifications (Fouled Out)	10	4	9	7
Player Technical Fouls	9	8	8	6
Opposition Player Technical Fouls	11	24	11	24
Team Technical Fouls	9	2	20	12
Opposition Team Technical Fouls	16	22	8	29
Coach Technical Fouls	2	10	4	22
Opposition Coach Technical Fouls	0	29	2	17
Bench Technical Fouls	0	1	1	24
Opposition Bench Technical Fouls	0	12	0	12
Flagrant Fouls	0	1	2	16
Opposition Flagrant Fouls	1	13	2	9
Player Ejections	0	1	0	1
Opposition Player Ejections	1	4	0	12
Coach Ejections	0	1	0	1
Opposition Coach Ejections	0	7	0	7

If you are scoreboard watching tonight here are some good games to watch. Bulls @ Knicks in the second game of a home and home. Suns @ MAvericks on Espn and a look at the New Mavs Players. Stat of the Day- The Utah Jazz are the only team in the league to have wins over the Lakers, Cavs, Magic, Mavericks, and Spurs. My Prediction for tonight's game is Utah Jazz 106 New Orleans Hornets 94

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