The Utah Jazz has had a good three days to rest before taking on the Oklahoma City Thunder tonight. Hopefully the rest will prove to be beneficial, because this is a huge game. It’s the last game against a division opponent and would put the Jazz at .500 for the season against teams in their division.
Here are a few things that the Jazz need to do to get a win tonight:
•    Come out strong and score inside before taking unnecessary long jumpers.
•    Try to contain Durrant as much as possible and keep him off the free throw line.
•    Don’t let Kristic get easy layups and get a hand in his face on all jump shots.
•    Deron needs to look to score on Westbrook.
•    If Durrant can’t be contained, make sure the rest of the team is not taking advantage of the double-teaming.
•    Get Boozer going early – get him the ball!
•    Pray that CJ is on tonight.
The last 5 games are must wins, but the last two home games are especially crucial. The Jazz can’t afford another late season melt down. They need this game! My prediction:  Jazz 108 Thunder 97.

This is a little Awkward. It should be fun to see Williams/Price and Maynor go at it like they did in practice but his time for all to see. Tonight’s game is the fifth wheel to TNT’s games which is fine because those games are usually blowouts any way.

I have a hard time thinking that we win tonight because A) back to back and B) its a road game and C) Kevin .

How sick would Portland be right now with  instead of Oden pretty, pretty sick.

Stat wise these two teams are very similar except for ft% TTTSNBN is first in the league at 80.1 %. This means when they get into the bonus 3 minutes into the fourth they will kill us from the line. Expect and except that this will happened tonight.

Here are some other stats to wet your whistle.

Jazz	Key Team Stats	Thunder
100.3	Points scored	98.7
97.7	Points allowed	96.6
.486	FG% own	.455
.457	FG% opposition	.445
.340	3PT% own	.323
.346	3PT% opposition	.345
314	Offensive Rebounds	352
942	Defensive Rebounds	966
1256	Total Rebounds	1318
1.8	Assist/Turnover Ratio	1.3
21.8	Fouls Per Game	21.7

TTTSNBN need six more wins to match what they had for the entire season last year. In other words they are heading in the right direction other than being stolen from Seattle. Over the past four games Durant is averaging 34.8 points helping  TTTSNBN score 107 a game. US winning comes down to our defense stopping them, never a good sign.

Expect Boozer to have a good game over the past eleven games against TTTSNBN 23 and 12.

Also expect Green to have a good game, he is averaging 18.8 over the past six games against the Utah Jazz.

Prediction Blowout.

TTTSNBN 113 Utah Jazz 97.

Accuscore has this 69/31 for TTTSNBN

Spread is TTTSNBN -3 which is to close, in my opinion it should be around 6-8′ish

Deron Williams is creeping up on 3000 assists and should hit it against the Nuggets unless he goes nuts tonight, currently he is at 2983. CP3 passed the mark a little earlier this season. They are both on the same pace as John Stockton through the first four years but starting in his fifth year Stockton ran of 7 straight years with 1000 + assists and averaged close to 12 a game for the next ten years and then played another nine years after that, eight of which came after breaking the record. So the assist record is looking very very safe. Deron should end up second all time for Jazz players before his current contract expires.

Fastest to 3,000 Assists
Games Player
291 Oscar Robertson
301 Isiah Thomas
304 Chris Paul
307 Kevin Johnson
310 Tim Hardaway
310 Magic Johnson
332 Jason Kidd
341 John Stockton
350 Johnny Moore

The Jazz are 13-3 when Ronnie Brewer score ten or more points.

The Jazz are like the “Perfect” Girlfriend

originally posted on Jan 15th.

Last night was like the 5th date with a girl who put out, was incredibly funny, loved sports and was absolutely gorgeous. On the 5th date you decide to take her out to breakfast after she got her wisdom teeth out. When you get to her house and see her without makeup on, in her pajamas, you feel betrayed and lied to. You feel like the last four dates were some kind of scam. You tell her you don’t feel good all of a sudden and need to take a rain check on breakfast. You feel a little bit bad because she just got her wisdom teeth out ,but that is no excuse for not looking as hot as she did the previous four dates.

You continue to date her because when she gets primped out she looks amazing. And really, she is the only girl in your town so you have to date her and marry her. You will get used to the fact that there will be mornings when you have that holy #$%& this is my wife thought, but you will love her and cherish her.

On April 15th 2009 I will be sitting in line at the post office waiting to mail in my tax returns, contemplating how the in the heck we just lost 6 of 8 games dropping us to the eighth seed, one game behind Portland or Phoenix . I will then have a flashback to last night when I literally cut my own wrists as I watched the Jazz get outscored, out-hustled, out-hearted, and most of all outrebounded.

The next day I will buy tickets to games 3 and 4 of the first round series with the Lakers and watch us lose 4-1 in the series and then over the next six months believe that we will do better on the road in 2010.

So in other words yes it was the worst loss of the season.

This was spectacular though.

Jerry’s Take

NBA.COM VIDEO

View from the seats says “Some people are saying that the Jazz are a tough 1st round opponents for the Lakers. 125 points later, all I have to ask is, “Really?”

The only possible way for us to win this series is in six. Nobody can beat the Lakers 4 straight times, the Jazz can’t win more than one road game against the Lakers or anyone for that matter, and we will not be able to win a game seven in LA against Kobe, the Lakers, the NBA, or the Refs, it has to be game six. -S

I am Edmond Dantes and I will have my revenge tonight against TTTSNBN.

On Jan 14th the Utah Jazz did not show up against TTTSNBN, they lost 114-93. They got outscored by 20 points in the second half.

The Jazz beat TTTSNBN on Jan 30 to start a home winning streak and NBA record month of Feb. However the loss should still resonate in the players minds.

I hope the win tonight starts another streak to put us into home court for the playoffs.

Durant and Westbrook are going to be a duo that will make some noise in the playoffs within a few years, but right now they are content with just making noise. This not does not make me comfortable at all. We need to keep these two under 47 combined points or out top two scorers have to have more than the both of them combined.

Deron has played very well against TTTSNBN but also had bad defensive games against Westbrook, he usually has problems with quicker guards.

Memo needs to score 20 tonight there is no reason why he shouldn’t, unless he doesn’t play(he is listed as day to day).

There is no one that can match up with Boozer on the box, (Wilcox,Sefalosha,Collison) don’t have the strength.

Predictions
Vegas- Jazz by 5
Spencer- Jazz by 9
Edmond Dantes Jazz by 22 (this prediction solely rest on which Durant shows up, the 8-21 or the 15-24 Durant. )I will let you do the math.

D Will have a DD 25-11

Stat of the night. Bench scores 40+

Join us for the live chat/feed of the game starting at 530.

Breaking News.

Karl Malone, John Stockton, David Stern, and many others should be at the game tonight. We love you Larry.

SSHHHHHHHH! don’t tell anyone I can’t play anymore. It seems as though Bobby Jackson has been in the league since the merger. Udrih is hurt, so Bobby will get the nod.

I guarantee a win tonight. There is no possible way that Utah Jazz lose this game.

First, this game could be called the second Larry Miller game. The Jazz will play the kings following the funeral of the late Larry Miller. Emotions will be very very intense.

Second, the Kings are horrible on the road. They have the second worst road record in the league at 4-27 and they only have one player that could hurt us (Kevin Martin).

Third, the crowd should be pretty rowdy and full since the game is on a Saturday night. When the Jazz win it will be the first time in twelve years that the Utah Jazz have swept the season series.

Fourth, the Kings are the worst rebounding team in the league. The Jazz should out rebound them by at least 20 rebounds I say somewhere around 51 31 total rebounds.

Predictions-

Utah Jazz win 113-89

If gambling were legal I would still take the 17 points the Jazz are giving. Unbelievable.

Other stuff-

Bill Simmons backs me up on the salary cap issues (he has the inside scoop, it is here).

Thank you Milwaukee, TTTSNBN, and most of all, thank you to the Los Angeles Lakers for laying over and dying last night.

Milwaukee had the Hornets on the Ropes and gave up a last second tip in.

TTTSNBN gave up a five point lead to Dallas with about 30 seconds left.

The Lakers pulled a Nuggets think (Playoffs 2008) and didn’t show up. The Lakers shot 29.8% from the floor including 9.5% from three, yes 9.5%. Thank you for losing the gimme. Reason #43 why I hate the Los Angeles Lakers.

President Obama attended the Chicago Bulls Game last night in DC.

What if NBA Coaches were given two technicals fouls to call on/give Refs, here is the result.

= Jazz last night.

I imagine that five years from now we will realize what happened During the 2008 NBA season. First, Seattle got the biggest shaft in the history of sports and second, the Lakers sold their soles to the devil in the Brown for Gasol trade.

“But the money worked out”

The Jazz head somewhere in the mid-west Wednesday to play TTTWNBN. They are trying to equal their highest win streak of the season @ 5 games.

With some craziness and a Utah Jazz win, at the end of the night, the Jazz could have home court in the playoffs. Which is incredible considering all the injuries.

We should win this game easily by 15-20 points. M. Okur should have a good game nothing compared to Monday but he will get 25 N 10. This game may have trap written all over it and TTTWNBN have been playing “competitive” the last few weeks. I don’t know at this point if C. Miles, or P. Millsap will play they will probably be game time decisions.

I think D. Williams is 100% and should teach the rookie Westbrook a thing or two, but don’t expect D. Williams do dominate this match up, the rookie is playing some solid basketball and should be competing for all-star spots in the next couple of years.

J. Green , K. Durant, R. Westbrook are a great nucleus to build around. TTTWNBN has 5 first round picks over the next two years and can get some good leadership and veterans to come play with the young kids or get into a situation like Portland is in right now.

Jazz win 106-94 and should be able to run the offense with ease.

Game of the Night Lakers @ Spurs either way someone in front of us loses.

Stat of the night- In his last 6 games M. Okur is averaging 14 points in the first quarter.

Keys to the game-

1)Keep turnovers below 14

2)Keep shooting amazing at the FT line I’m fine with 80 %.

3) Don’t let Westbrook go off.

Note- Jerry Sloan doesn’t like peanut butter