I Went Straight to Scoreboard

I went straight to ESPN Scoreboard, and saw Thunder scored 139. I was thinking "another meltdown? WTF...". Scrolling a bit downwards and I saw the 140 by Jazz. What an amazing game!


Career night by D Will, wonderful. And we wouldn't enjoy less about the monster Dunk by Boozer. The No.1 Play of today games!

No.4 in West

After beating Suns, we are No. 4 in West, for now. Fantastic achievement.

We should be happy because we get the win from behind (at one point we trailed by 17 pts).

AK had 25 pts, led Jazz scoreboard. He recently took all the minutes from CJ.

Boozer, 21 pts, 20 rebs. wow.

Jazz Beat Spurs! X 2

Jazz Beat the Spurs, more importantly, at San Antonio. We never won there since 1999.

eh...actually I think it is more appropriate to say we beat the curse because beating a short-handed Spurs (without Parker and Ginobili) does not mean much.

Nonetheless, wtih this win, we are back to .500!

Maynor cooled off a bit but D Will and AK continue to have a nice game. Boozer is limited by TD but good to see Brewer finally showed up!

Jazz Beat Spurs!

As Jazz fans, we don't often see the title. But we did it today!

Boozer had a nice game, and you need to give compliments to his hustle (5 off rebs + 2 stls!). Wes Matthews played some quality minutes there and looks like he has gained some trust from Coach Sloan already! (you don't see a rookie playing 25 mins for Jazz that often!).

And D Will, almost a Triple Double.

Great Win!

Rockets In My Face!

Jazz had a 4th Quarter meltdown, and lost to Rockets. Boozer and Millsap performed pretty ugly (statistically).

Rockets proved me wrong. And after four games, I have to admit that Aaron Brooks is indeed a talent and their rookie Budinger did surprise a lot of people.

Others,

- Kevin Martin 48 pts, which is awesome. However,he has the same symptom as Wade - he took too many shots. Perhaps he meant to exploit the matchup with O.J. Mayo, but still.

Millsap's Spark Led Jazz to Win

Millsap did a fantastic job for giving us the spark in Q4. Boozer stats "flirted" with Triple-Double. They can co-exist.

Oh, by the way, D Will was still that awesome.

Others,

- CP3 needs to score 31 points for a win over Kings. It doesn't bode well for Hornets.

- Quote of the day - "I'll wait for you guys to decide when I'm over the hill" - Steve Nash, after his 18-pt, 20-ast performance.

Jazz Lost; D Will and Melo Will Shine this Season

Jazz lost, and Millsap was posterized by Melo. That's all okay. But who can deny that D Will is actually the best PG in the league right now? If Boozer did a little bit better today (no hate, man), we should have won. And Melo is a heck of a player. Everyone should watch out, he will shine this season (just like D Will).

Others,

- Magic has a completly new and interesting squad.

- 0-2 for Cavs. I have to be honest, I am not a fan of LBJ’s ego

"Early in my career, I'd get very upset when you lose two or three games, you'd just feel like you can't turn it around. But I'm at a point in my career now where I know that you can lose two but, at the same time, you don't look too far into it. You learn from the mistakes and you just try to get better."

- I think Wade is taking too many shots. He can, no doubt about it. But at certain point he should (and I believe he would learn that) use his ability to create more easy opportunities for his teammates.

- I don’t really see Hornets as a playoff team this year. Spurs “finished” them in two quarters.

- Amare Stoudamire only took 6 shots in the game. This comes to my surprise. Probably because Clipper 4/5 positions are pretty strong. And think about it, when Griffin comes out + Kaman and Camby. And I still believe Clippers is a dangerous team.

Boozer, "I'm happy to be back"

Boozer, "I'm happy to be back"
yeah...you'are right.I don't care how he feels as long as he plays good ballgames in the coming season, in Jazz uniform.
__________________________________________________________

Boozer reports to media frenzy, says he is ready to move forward, not sorry for offseason comments.

Whatever issues remain to be resolved behind closed doors between Carlos Boozer, his teammates and the Jazz organization, Kyle Korver did his part Friday to put the best public face on Boozer's return to Utah.

With Boozer facing reporters at media day, Korver waded into the fray to pronounce himself "really offended" by Boozer's summer comments, before declaring that he could make amends by promising him six kickouts for open three-pointers this season.

For such an assist from Korver, Boozer went a step further, offering 10 kickouts, and Korver left laughing. It proved to be the afternoon's lone lighthearted moment as Boozer offered no apologies following his offseason trade campaign.

Boozer insisted that his intention was to promote his Juneau, Alaska, basketball camp when he expressed a desire to be traded in a series of interviews, going so far as to name Chicago and Miami as preferred destinations.

.../

Source: The Salt Lake Tribune, 2009-09-25, Link

Long Time No See

Hi Everyone, long time no see. As we all know, nothing much is happening in Jazz except the Boozer issue. If I were him, I would try to play my heart out in Jazz this season and try to impress everyone and hopefully get a fantastic contract in the coming off season.

Anyway, just a few words for the "recent" NBA Actions,

- Big Ben back to Detroit
- Celtics sign free agent Shelden Williams - ...interesting move.
- Celtics re-sign Big Baby - the team makes the right decision. Big Baby could be the X factor in important games
- Cavs, Leon Powe agree on two-year, $1.77M deal - interesting signing. Cavs bench becomes more solid in the front court.
- LBJ remains unrepentant about not shaking hands with Magic after Eastern Final - guess that's why he's the "King". he can do whatever he wants.
- Von Wafer signs with Olympiakos - I think this is a big blow to Rockets. Von Wafer is quite a talent!

Millsap, Price Both Stay with Us!

Hey Jazz Fans! Great News! Both Millsap and Price would stay with us! The last important thing we need to do is planning a right trade involving Boozer!

There is a repor that Marquis Daniels is likely to go to Boston. Oh man, Celtics gets another good player. They really want the Champ back!

Boozer, Okur, Korver. All Staying. Millsap is the Winner.

Boozer, Okur, Korver. All Staying.

That's something we don't expect much when the summer starts. And now it became true. Awesome!

However, not sure I'm stupid or not but the clear intention that we will match Millsap's offer may make other teams unnecessarily offer a crazy contract to him, and hurt us financially, at least for the coming year.

So I guess Millsap is the happiest man here (so far). He is waiting other teams to push the boundary of Jazz by offering something crazy enough (e.g. USD10mln) to hurt us financially, but not "out of the sky" (e.g. USD12.5mln) just in case Jazz can't offer and Millsap would sign with the team (which he does not fully deserve yet). It's all Game Theory and number crunching.

So in any case Millsap is the Winner.

Boozer Delivers (Finally); Now a Series (1-2)

Jazz Game,

- Boozer finally delivers - 23 pts, 22 rebs. The last dunk on Gasol is the exclamation mark! Look forward to the same energy level on Sat night!

- D Will, struggles all night, but he is confident enough to take the last shot. This is a star character. He delivers when it matters most. However, he needs to time the last shot better. 2.2 second for Lakers to take the last shot, just too much...

- I don't need to tell how great Harpring and Korver are in the start of Q4. They bring us back!

- I think this Game shows clearly that when our players are doing well, we just don't need D Will to score. For him to score 30+ points means that we are really in trouble.

We count on Brewer

Jazz game,

- We count on Brewer. He never got much appearance in press. He is seldom praised by fans outside Jazz environment (hey, to be honest, even within Jazz environment, the opinion is mixed). But I feel if we want a champion, he is a very significant factor both in defense and offense.

- I am willing to give Boozer 10 games to play back his normal standard. And I expect him to give more efforts in this year playoff considering he has taken enough rest in the regular season.

Others,

- Thanks Celtics.

Boozer Needs Surgery

Boozer needs surgery, fine. But the fact that we only know it after he has missed 21 straight games? Totally not cool

Call me stubborn, but someone needs to be accountable on this.

i) the doctor(s) diagnosing the first two MRI,
ii) sports medicine / trainer team in Jazz, or
iii) Boozer has not taken care on himself well enough?

Now I lean on i) or ii).

Anyway, just keep everyone and let Boozer go at the end of the season, and I hope D Will won't be sad. They are good friends.

Lost to Bulls, 17-12

Jazz Game,

- No excuse, Bulls doesn’t have Gooden and Tyrus Thomas, and we lost. We can’t handle Gordon and Rose at all.

Others,

- Lakers lost back-to-back games. Western Conference will become more interesting.

- Utah F Carlos Boozer will have a third MRI on a quadriceps tendon injury that has kept him out of 17 straight games. "It may have gotten worst," Boozer said before the game. "They want to get another MRI done."

I am puzzled. He has rest himself for 17 games, and the injury "may have gotten worst". I can only think of three reasons. i) Boozer has not taken good care of himself. ii) The Sports Trainer / Medicine team in Jazz is doing a poor job. iii) you know what I mean.

Bittersweet Win, Jazz master comeback against 7-pt Q1

Jazz Game,

- Bittersweet. When I opened the ESPN page and saw the 27-7 Q1, I thought - "ESPN page had some errors again", and they did not.

- Coach Sloan is obvioulsy mad with CJ and Brewer today. You know he is famous for not hiding his comments.

"Not if we don't come and play," said Sloan, who benched starters C.J. Miles and Ronnie Brewer the entire second half. "You can talk about playing basketball all you want, but with that mess we put out there to start with, it's frustrating."

"To see us come out and not compete our butts off knowing that we're on the road for five games and it didn't look like that there was any concern about whether we won or not. Just try to get numbers and go home."

Well, perhaps there would have some shake-up in the formation for the coming Away games. We'll see.

- Well, Sloan likes AK.

Talking about the prospect of starting Kirilenko, Sloan said, "I've got to get somebody to come out there and compete and execute what we're doing rather than just try to take shots."

"He's not going to take a lot of shots," Sloan added. "If he does, he'll take the ball and put it on the floor a couple times, get on top of the basket. After that, then he'll take jump shots, which I don't (have) any problem with."

- In NBA.com highlight I saw one scene that D Will is yelling at AK and seems blaming him not coming out to challenge a Three (by Harris?), and AK opens both of his arms in an unsafisfactory look. Did I see it wrong? If not, I hope that's just winning passion but no hard feeling between them.

Others,

- Breaking news! - link

For the first time, Boozer said unequivocally Wednesday night that he will indeed opt out of his contract at the end of the season, foregoing a guaranteed $12.66 million to become an unrestricted free agent.

"I'm opting out. No matter what, I'm going to get a raise regardless," Boozer told ESPN.com. "I am going to opt out, I don't see why I wouldn't, I think it's a very good business decision for me and my family, but I'd also like to see what happens with the Jazz and stay here."

He is all about money, no doubt on that. He comes to Jazz purely because of money. And he will leave Jazz because of money. A Championship Ring? Probably never in his mind.

He said he won't talk about this until the season ends. Now he decides to talk about it, probably because 1) he is too bored to sit on the bench and no one cares about him, he needs to make some talking points, and 2) he sees how good Millsap plays and he knows his time in Jazz is almost over, so he tries to play some mind games.

So Coach Sloan, what will you do? To continue give 35 mins to a player that explicity said he will leave or not? To me, trade him already.

- I guess I talked about Marcus Camby here before, and I feel the need to extend praise on him once again - he is still a monster despite his age. In today OT loss, he contributed 19 pts, 27 rebs, 2 asts, 1 stl, 4 blks. And I still feel that Clippers is becoming a team that would give trouble for every contender.

Thoughts after the 6th Preseason Game

Jazz is going back to 3-3, and will try to fight for a winning preseason record before the season opens. After looking at the Boxscore, I have a few thoughts.

Well, not a Boozer fans, but do like his Offensive Rebounds and FT % in this game. Wait…can you commit less turnovers, and do a better job in FG %? To be fair, a good game for him.

Typical AK’s game, which shows clearly his versatility. He did a bit of everything (probably also due to D Will’s injury) and will love seeing him to keep his aggressiveness on Blocks. Let’s set a target for him, how about Top 10 in Avg. Blocks per game?

Brewer, 10 Rebounds, and four of them are offensive boards, bravo. Still can keep his good performance on Steals. Let’s aim for Top 10 in Avg. Steals per game.

We are almost sure that Koufos and Almond will at least spend some time in D-League. Fesenko still needs to work harder considering that he only got six…wait for it….six seconds on the floor even Collins is not in the lineup. I guess Sloan is more comfortable to put Millsap on the Centre position in short-term.

By the way, let’s not be too worry about D Will injury. Anyway, it is a long season.