So before we get to tonight’s game here are som links to some stories about some Jazz players.

Carlos Boozer Named western Conference player of the Month for Feb 2010 .

Another Article about AK being happy and playin well.

Kyle Korver is one of the five NBA players on the rise

G — Kyle Korver, Jazz: Korver missed a good chunk of the early season as he recovered from left knee surgery. Once he was healthy, he wasn’t quite up to game shape and had a hard time getting mintues both due to his gimpy state and the logjam Utah had at the wing position. Since the Jazz traded Ronnie Brewer to Memphis at the deadline, though, Korver has seen his minutes jump and he’s made an impact. With Mehmet Okur mired in a season-long shooting slump, Korver is becoming the Jazz’s lone dependable 3-point shooter. He had two 3-pointers in Utah’s overtime win over the Blazers on Sunday, two more in a close home loss to the Hawks on Monday and five more on Wednesday to help the Jazz rally past the Bobcats. He’s averaging roughly 27 minutes a game over his last four games (compared to his 14.5 mpg average) and is filling the sixth man role nicely for the Jazz.

Jazz @ Clippers Preivew

JAZZ @ CLIPPERS PREVIEW

The Jazz have a big game tonight against the LA Clippers. This is where we get to see if they really have changed since last year, or if they are mentally depleted like in the Sacramento Kings loss.
The Clippers look different from the last time the Jazz played them. They now have Travis Outlaw and Steve Blake from the Camby trade. Word on the street is, AK is a go for tonight. Hopefully he will be able to contain Outlaw and maybe even help on Kaman. Last game, Boozer practically made Kaman hold his inside-out pocket while he showed him what a real all-star looks like. We’ll see if Kaman gets to follow Boozer around the court again tonight.
The key for tonight has to be overall shooting percentage. We have to run the offense and get good shots. I really hope that we didn’t fall in love with the three-pointer enough to where we stop looking for the layup. I would like to see CJ look to drive to the basket and Korver to actually start hitting that Harpring curl shot again (it’s been a while).
I am going to give the Jazz a 14 point win tonight (103-89). I think AK and Boozer have a good game. Memo should be geared up too and maybe get over 8 points tonight…well, let’s not go overboard. Go Jazz! JB

I really can’t explain last night’s game, that is why I’m staying up late to get the video done tonight.

We had the podcast during halftime which was a pretty negative podcast because the Jazz were down by 12.

Here is the Play by Play

Here are some early thoughts from around the NBA

Basketball Prospectus

ESPN RECAP

KSL on BOOZER

My thoughts on Last Night’s Win. I truly Believe that Jerry Sloan used his evil super powers and the Help of the Dark Lord to win this game.

Utah Jazz head basketball coach Jerry Sloan calls on the Dark Lord to win the game during the second half of their NBA basketball game against the Portland Trail Blazers in Portland, Ore., Sunday, Feb. 21, 2010. Utah beat Portland 93-89 in overtime.(AP Photo/Don Ryan)

This is by far the biggest win of the year, yes, even bigger than the Sundiata Gaines buzzer beater over the Cavs. Despite No Memo and Ak going down nine minutes into the game the Utah Jazz come back from 25 down to win.

Paul Millsap- The Newly gained length of Camby combined with Aldridge caused a lot of problems for Millsap tonight. He shot 6-13 and only had 4 rebounds well below his average for the amount of minutes  he plays. Camby had 4 blocks and 18 boards although he is old he is still putting up ridiculous numbers. For all that effort though, he only had 2 points.

Carlos Boozer- Finished with a career high 23 rebounds with eight of those being on the offensive end including a clutch put back to send the game to overtime. Boozer didn’t have the best shooting night but seemed to hit shots when we needed them the most. He finished with 22 points on 9-19 shooting. Boozer is bringing the energy I think that he has come to the same point that AK has and that they are not the Face of the franchise. However, I think Boozer likes being the raw raw guy and not being held as the franchise dude.  For any rational human being to say that we are better with out Carlos Boozer than with him needs to be bitch slapped. Boozer also played 44 of the 53 minutes tonight.

Deron Williams- also played 44 minutes last night and hit a clutch 18 footer in over time to put us up five. Deron did not shoot the Ball particularly well lst night 4-15 but went 9-9 from the free throw line and had 12 assists. More important than his offense was his defense especially in the fourth quarter when Blazers coach Nate McMillian put Brandon Roy at the point. Deron shut him down. He played lock down d and during one stretch forced him to miss four or five straight shots.

Wesley Matthes played his usual hustly self and didn’t score a whole bunch but only had one turnover in 33 minutes.

THE BENC- Was huge tonight.

Kyle Korver had 8 points and 5 rebounds and only hit two shots but they were two huge three pointers coming down the stretch one barley beating the shot clock to bring the Utah Jazz to within threee points.

Ronnie Price- scored 7 points in nine minutes and gave Deron the rest that he needed to finish out the game.

C.J. Miles-had four point on 1-8 shooting but had 4 assists in 34 minutes obviously not his best game actually he had a pretty crappy game.

FEZ dispenser- in 25 minutes he had a + 20 on the +/-  stat. He also added 8 points 6 rebounds and 2 blocked shots. He clogged up the lane when the Jazz went to the zone and he probably altered another 4-5 shots. I don’t think Fez is the Second Coming of anybody but tonight he looked pretty good on both ends of the floor.

IF you are a Trailblazer fan wouldn’t you just want to slit your wrists already. Ouch.

More coming tomorrow I have to get the video recap finished.

Spencer

tribjazz: Andrei Kirilenko said he had a recurrence of back spasms and will probably need three or four days for his back to calm down.

Deron Williams and Carlos Boozer Will Return to the USA National Team along with 6 others from the 2008 Gold Medal Team.

7. Sharing The Rock

By Kevin Arnovitz
ESPN.com

Williams

For a good illustration of how well the basketball is moving in the Utah Jazz’s offense, take the first quarter of their 109-99 win over the Clippers at Staples Center Tuesday night:

Of the 13 field goals in the period, 10 were assisted on.

The other three?

A bucket in transition by Deron Williams, and a putback each from Mehmet Okur and Williams.

“The big key to our success is how well we pass the ball,” Williams said. “When we share the ball and play unselfish basketball, we’re a hard team to beat.”

Those might seem like standard issue quotes from a point guard whose team has won nine consecutive games and 14 out of 15. But in the case of Williams, the words are more than platitudes — they’re backed up by the numbers. The Jazz are the NBA’s top-ranked team in assist rate, and the only team in the league that records assists on greater than two-thirds of its field goals.

“Sometimes we have shots that are good, but we can get a better one.” Williams said, “That’s what makes us have confidence in each other — you pass up a good shot to get a better one.”

Utah scored its 109 points on only 93 possessions, an incredibly efficient effort during which they racked up 32 assists. One of the defining features of Utah’s offense is the willingness of players with acceptable shots to defer to those with better ones.

“Our teams over the years have been pretty good about passing the ball,” Jazz head coach Jerry Sloan said. “We got to share the ball and get it to where it’s supposed to go.”

One of those destinations is Carlos Boozer, who finished with 34 points, 14 rebounds and four assists. After the game, Boozer credited much of that production to the ability of his teammates to deliver him the basketball with solid passing.

“The deeper you get [the ball], the more successful you’re going to be,” Boozer said. In addition to his words for Williams (”He’s dope. He’s got a lot of stuff.”), Boozer also threw some praise C.J. Miles’ way. The Jazz’ swingman finished with five assists of his own in 20 minutes off the bench.

“[Miles] made some great plays,” Boozer said. “He was a playmaker out there coming off that pick-and-roll. He hit me a couple of times.”

Some of Utah’s 32 assists came on simple entry passes into Boozer, but many of their baskets were the result of phenomenal playmaking in the half court. Even when a possession seemed hopeless, the Jazz would rescue it from the edge. Late in the first quarter, a grenade ended up in Andrei Kirilenko’s hands after Paul Millsap fumbled a pass. As the Clippers tightened the vise with a double-team, Kirilenko patiently guided Millsap to the hoop with a gentle lob pass, and Millsap flushed it home.

“When you play that way and pass the basketball, it’s a lot more fun for everybody,” Sloan said.

“Fun” has never been a high usage phrase in Sloan’s lexicon, but if the Jazz win their 10th straight Wednesday night over the Lakers, the Jazz might etch the word into the players entrance of EnergySolutions Arena.

ESPN TrueHoop editor Kevin Arnovitz is a regular contributor to the Daily Dime.

Carlos Boozer is Tuesday's Best

Some Rowdy fans at the Gateway Last Night.

Boozer will not be stretching out is All-star legs, but showed Kaman and Stern who should be on the All-star team.

Boozer played a freaking amazing game last night putting up the numbers below.

Carlos Boozer, PF 38 13-17 0-0 8-9 6 8 14 4 4 0 2 2 +1 34

Boozer getting ready for Kaman

You can chalk this win to Ronnie Price, Carlos Boozer, and the fourth quarter Defense.

First half of last nights game was very strange , the Jazz led most of the way, but the Clippers stormed back to take the lead at halftime on an 11-2 run to close the half. Rasual Butler led the way with a bunch of three pointers. If you know that that is all he can shoot wouldn’t you just force him off the line. He finished the Game with

Clippers get out to an eleven point lead in the third quarter but the Jazz fight back to cut the lead to 4 going into the fourth quarter and win for the first time on the road wen trailing going into the fourth.

Deron had this put-back dunk for one of the highlights of the night. Which is below in the video section.  His all-star uniform is available here as well.

Deron's put back dunk

Fourth Quarter belongs to Ronnie Price, Wesley Matthews, Carlos Boozer and CJ Miles.

Miles ties a career high with five assists and Ronnie Price hits three big buckets to get the Jazz started on a 18-5 run.

Play of the night- Baron Davis Misses a wide open layup that would have put the deficit down to four. Deron comes back on the other end with an assist to Boozer for a Dunk and the nail in the coffin.

Ak with the Monster Dunk

Okur Dunking over the Clipper Team

Utah Jazz win over the Dallas Mavericks Highlights from last week

This has been quite the eight game winning streak. There have been several contributors for the Jazz as they have been rolling these last few weeks. Carlos Boozer started the streak well and has just returned to the team. Millsap was tremendous in Boozer’s absence and hopefully can continue the trend even with Boozer back. Kirilenko looks like the energizer bunny out on the court with his constant hustle. Finally, DWill is being DWill.

The Los Angeles Clippers can be a dangerous team. In fact, I believe that the Clippers have the most talent of all the underachieving teams in the league. For some reason, they can never gain any ground on the rest of the western conference from season to season.

Like I have said before, there is no way that I can bet against the Jazz right now. As much as every road game makes me nervous, the Jazz have been playing better than I can remember and should easily handle the Clippers.

I am going to say the Jazz win 98 to 79, with DWill and AK having good games…again. However, I can also see Boozer beating Kaman like a grandma would her grandchild in the middle of Wal Mart. They both know who the real All Star is and I have a feeling Boozer will show Kaman and the rest of the league who it is on the court.

Go Jazz! Let’s get nine in a row and bring it on home!

Jimmy Bragg

I don’t mean to take the SOTUA lightly, but I will be in class tomorrow night and would be watching the Utah Jazz play the Portland Trailblazers if I was not.

The game is on NBATV and hopefully we have Cheryl Miller as our analyst, she is so good on the eyes, especially when she is pissed.

If you have ever wanted to see Greg Oden naked, now is your chance. Link to story, not pictures, sorry guys. Can it get any lower than this for Greg Oden, well it could be if he were Paul Shirley.

Paul Shirley will probably get fired from ESPN for his open letter to the nation of Haiti that is getting a ton of criticism. Hey maybe I can get a job at ESPN and write some ridiculous article about 200,ooo people dying. What an idiot. Not only that he doesn’t play in the NBA.

Anyway the guys over at SOTUA have created a drinking game that I think would be fun to play during a Jazz game. I don’t drink alcohol but could mix up some Sunny D, Purple Stuff, Soda, and Vitamin water to join the fun.

So here is your drinking game list for tomorrow night’s Jazz Blazers Game. All mentions deserve one Drink.

Booner- Ohhh Baby!

Boler- Buckle Up!

A Free Throw by C.J. Miles.

The slowly running one footed jumper/floater by Mehmet Okur.

Millsap getting fouled with no Call.

Les Olsen Commercial

Ronnie Brewer Dunks

Oden Pics

Deron Williams for All-star

Boler- Money

Rookie by any announcer.

That should be good for tonight.

CBA NEWS which is not looking good for the NBA players right now. “There’s going to be a lockout,’’ the owner said. “There’s not even a doubt in my mind about that. Billy’s not going to make a deal like that. Teams are already saving up money for a strike.’’

The Blazers will be without Brandon Roy and should win this game which will get us one step closer to Deron shaving, but more importantly keep the the pressure on the rest of the west.  Here is the current stat breakdown of the teams.

Jazz	Key Team Stats	Trail Blazers
101.8	Points scored	97.6
97.4	Points allowed	94.3
.488	FG% own	.462
.452	FG% opposition	.458
.359	3PT% own	.359
.357	3PT% opposition	.349
435	Offensive Rebounds	497
1361	Defensive Rebounds	1366
1796	Total Rebounds	1863
1.8	Assist/Turnover Ratio	1.7
22.0	Fouls Per Game

Remember a few weeks ago when we played Denver without Melo and Billups, this game has that whole vibe to it. I think are going to win but just have that feeling that the Blazers will get up for this game. The Blazers are coming of a horrific loss in which NO finished the game on a 10-1 run to win in the last few seconds.Meanwhile the Jazz are coming of a rousing victory over the Suns in which they trailed by 17 late in the third. I really have no idea how to predict this game the books have the Jazz by two which is basically a pick’em game.

We win if we get 25 or more assists.

We win if Boozer gets 20 plus points.

We win if Deron Williams is on the floor.

Jazz win 106-93 in a close game that the Jazz pull away from in the beginning of the fourth quarter.

For those of you still looking for Greg Oden pics search “Greg Oden Pics” or  “The Huffington Post”, rumor is they have some. I haven’t seen them, I just heard about them. Really I heard they have them over there.

With 2:38 left in the third quarter Channing Frye hit a three pointer to put the Suns up by 17 points. Yes I said 17 Points.

Then the Jazz rattled of 12 straight points to bring the game to within five going into the fourth quarter.

I have been a Jazz fans my entire life and can’t remember a time when rookies contributed so much to our success. Gaines and Matthews have been unbelievable and we have to give KOC and his team credit for picking up some guys that seemed like they may never make it in the NBA.

Matthews had a series of back to back plays when he stole the ball and went the length of the court for an almost one, following that up by a clutch three.

Andrei Kirilenko is playing out of his mind. If he gets the minutes he is circa 2004 easy. Its the first time since 2004 that he has had 2 25+ point games in a three game span. He has been phenomenal and well worth the money he is getting paid.

Carlos Boozer had 20 rebounds and 21 points shooting 7/10 from the field and a perfect 7/7 from the free throw line.

Amare Stoudemire only had 5 rebounds, obviously the effort wasn’t there from him tonight. Is he really worth 20 million a year, uhhhhhhh nope.

Leftovers-

The Utah Jazz moved to the 4th spot last night after their win and the Portland loss. I know we are still three months away but think of all the games in the first half that we should have won. Where would we be, probably the two spot.

ESPN’s  mock draft Calculator is up in all its glory and the Jazz are consistently getting the 9th spot. I have clicked it more than 50 times and only three times did we move out of the 9th spot. We need some help from New York who have lost two in a row and got pooped on by Dallas the other night, like Bill Simmons said I’m glad I covered my Dallas by 49.5 bet.

Jazz are ranked number one in Hollingers Per Diem rankings.

In Case you were wondering, there are tickets still available to an array of New Jersey Nets Home games. I wonder if our buddy out in Hackensack went to the game last night. If so send us your thoughts.

Got a scare last night while I was in class a text came in “Deron Williams bangs knee and is going to the locker room”. I was a little worried so jumped on the comp to see if everything was ok which it was.

Other than the first quarter the Game played out just like we thought it would.

Brooke Lopez will have a pretty solid Career in the NBA and may just win a title, think (Kendrick Perkins BOS, Ben Wallace DET) a solid center surrounded by really good players.

So we think that we finally figured out Boozer’s signature dunk, we call it the scissor kick. Generally a two handed dunk, where he pulls himself up on the rim and scissors kicks his legs apart before coming down. Anyway Boozer had a great game pulling down ten boards and putting up 26 points. Boozer is the only player in the Western Conference averaging 20 and 10. Actually Boozer and Deron are the only two teammates in the league averaging over 20 points per game.The Jazz are 12-3 when Boozer scores more than 20 points.

Korver is still a little out of sync and I don’t think he will be fully back into the swing of things until maybe the tale end of this trip.

The Fez dispenser, dispensed quite the dunk tonight look for it on the highlights coming up later tonight on our youtube page.

The Utah Jazz are already in Atlanta and will have tomorrow night off. Deron will make an appearance with Kenny, Charles and Ek probably making an all-star push to go along with the new viral video campaign.

As you may have noticed, Matty Harpring is trying his hand in broadcasting. Below he shares his thoughts on Retirement, Broadcasting and the late LHM.

When was the last time a Utah Jazz team shot better from the field than from the free throw line. You are right I don’t know either, but last night they did it against the Chicago Bulls. Free Throw shooting was really the only bad part of the Jazz’ game last night. As bad as they were from the line(56.5), they were just as amazing from the field(60.8). I realize that the Bulls are on a seven game road trip, but the Jazz ran their offense whenever and however they wanted.

I went to the game with my Father in law, Brother’s in law, and Nephews last night. We had a great time, but I was a little disappointed with the fans and the empty seats. I know it was Thanksgiving but what better way to share time with the family than at a Utah Jazz game.

The Jazz defense was making up for lack of effort against TTTSNBN on Tuesday and had 10 steals, 8 blocks and held Chicago to just 42% shooting.

Jerry Sloan mixed the lineup last night and we are starting to see the results of how deep we are going to be when everyone gets healthy.  At the beginning of the second quarter the score was 28-22 Jazz, with Deron, Paul, Carlos, AK and Maynor on the floor. Over the next 2:12 the Utah Jazz outscored Chicago 12-4. I really don’t know what is going to happen when everyone comes back.

In the video higlights on our youtube page you can see that Jerry was pleased with the performance up till the beginning of the fourth quarter.

Boozer is playing really well right now over the past five games he is averaging  23.2 points, 10.2 boards, and 4.0 assists, not to mention his three, yes three blocks last night.We will see how he does against the bigs of Portland on Saturday they have the length that could be problematic.