Written by Spencer | 09 January 2010

So the Jazz are coming off a heartbreaker in Memphis and Dallas is returning home from a solid win in San Antonio. The Jazz have lost 4 of 5 and Dallas is…good. I have a feeling that Deron Williams will play tonight. I would bet that the wrist is still hurting, but the Jazz are in Dallas (Deron’s home town) and quite frankly, the Jazz need him to play. If he does play, the Jazz will need a strong night from Boozer as well as a decent defensive effort from Kirilenko. AK has been playing well the last few games and I would not be surprised to see him get more minutes than usual. If I had my wish, I would put AK on Dirk for most of the night. He has the potential to frustrate Dirk better than probably anyone on the team. Jason Terry is also playing great off the bench too. This will be a tough task for Mathews and whoever else guards him as he is quick and knows how to score. One thing is for certain, the Jazz will NEED to shoot the ball better if they want to give themselves any chance to win the game. If they have any quarter like the 14-point first quarter last night, it will be a lot harder to come back. The first time we played in Dallas (November 3^rd) we had a 15-point lead going into the fourth quarter…and then Dirk went off. Looking back, that game really gave us a good look at what the first part of the season was going to be like. The Jazz look great at times and then at times look like they don’t even want to play. Compare stats Below.

Jazz	Key Team Stats	Mavericks
99.8	Points scored	100.7
97.3	Points allowed	97.2
.483	FG% own	.458
.457	FG% opposition	.443
.342	3PT% own	.352
.345	3PT% opposition	.353
359	Offensive Rebounds	381
1060	Defensive Rebounds	1143
1419	Total Rebounds	1524
1.7	Assist/Turnover Ratio	1.8
22.0	Fouls Per Game	19.2

Just because of the crazy up and down season the Jazz have been having (and Dallas’ home problems) I am going to say that the Jazz get the win tonight. However, this has nothing to do with my intense optimism; it is only because a win would be the last thing I would expect. Jimmy Bragg

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