Sixth Win in a Row!

Sixth Win in a Row!

Just saw the highlights. I very much enjoy the play of Millsap's block, AK held the ball, passed to D Will and slowly ran to the front court and ambushed the whole Mavericks defense with a in-your-face dunk on Dirk.

A Win at Philly, without D Will

We got an Away win without D Will. Not bad indeed.

Millsap finally showed up and Wes Matthews indeed played very well.

32 asts in 42 baskets, we shared the ball well.

We don't know how good CJ Miles would be when he comes back, but at the moment Wes Matthew seems playing better than last year CJ.

And all the best to D Will's family! and we look forward to your return.

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.

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!

Blazers 2nd Attempt to Take Advantage of Jazz

I think Portland is trying to rip us off in the three-team (Jazz-Blazers-Bulls) trade talk (we all knew we were not in a good position). KOC did not buy it. The deal broke and now Portland made a 4-year USD32-36m offer (with hefty signing bonus) to Millsap.

The best scenario now is that KOC can find a (kinder) team that is willing to do a trade with us on Boozer, and doesn't want to rip us off that much. If not, I am not 100% sure that KOC would match the offer. I hope he does, but I am not sure.

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.

D Will lifted Jazz for Two Wins

Jazz Game,

- Paul Millsap has an unusual off night, 2 pts with 8 rebounds.

- D Will has been attacking the baskets aggressively. I hope he does not need to do it after Boozer & AK are good to play.

Others,

- Kings retire the Jersey of C Web. A nice interview in NBA TV - link.

Millsap's Streak Ends; Jazz's Winning Streak on Pistons Continues

Millsap Rocks

Jazz game,

- 19 consecutive double-double. Millsap is making his case to be an All-Star.Millsap

- D Will with flu, gave sub-par performance

Others,

- Stupid Comment of the Day by Coach Doc Rivers - "In our last timeout, you could see it in our guys' eyes. Like, 'Shoot, we're going to lose this home game'. It bothered them. You could see that. And I was thinking 'That's a good thing.'" There is one Cantonese saying describing the above - when you fall down, you try to grab a handful of sand <= trying to get something good out of a failure

Home Sweet Home; Millsap D-D Streak Still Alive

Jazz Game,

- Millsap double-double streak is still counting. Amazing!

- This win can’t prove much, considering i) Warrior’s soul Captain Jack did not play the 2nd Half, ii) how many points we have given up, iii) how bad we defend 3-pointers.

Jazz Lost in Staples Centre

Jazz Games,

- an expected loss. We are not in full team anyway, and the game is somewhat close in Q3 and first 7-8 mins of Q4. Same old problem, we opened the game in a bad shape.

- Millsap, indeed something. He was in a bit of foul trouble, playing only 31 mins but scored 16 pts and grabbed 17 rebs.

- I have seen about 20 mins of Jazz-Lakers game, and I saw a few times Jazz players (one of them is CJ) make similar mistakes when Lakers have some potential easy baskets.

In these situations, either you i) foul on them hard enough to not let them finish two points (and hopefully soft enough to not have flagrant foul), or ii) you give them two points.

We give them "And 1" almost every time.

I don't believe Jazz players are not tough enough to foul hard, but some of them just don't have the "blink" to make the right decision in the tenths of the second. In those moments, the player basically can't think but react with their instincts.

However, either you are born with it (the instinct, the basketball wisdom), or you need to nurture those instincts through lots of games (experience).

For the record, I think D Will does possess the wisdom, but I am not sure about CJ & Brewer.

Others,

- Marbury may go to Celtics. A reunion with KG? - link.

Jazz, seriously short-handed, continues the slump.

Jazz Game,

- Okur is out with back spasm. Sloan tried Fesenko for 4 mins.

- Millsap's 15 streak on double-double ends, due to losing some time on ... injury treatment.

- When will we get healthy enough to win?

- Jazz would have lost more if their FTs are not falling. Luckily today they have above-par performance (23/27).

Jazz Gives Pistons Another Loss, Improves to 17-11

Jazz Games,

- Millsap's 14th straight double-double

- D Will had some clutch jumpers in this game. I am cautiously optimistic that his form is coming back!

Others,

- Devin Harris destroyed Mavericks with 41pts, 13 dishes. And the Net Fans were chanting "Thank you Cuban!" when he was removed for good with 2:11 left.

- This blog reader would know I give high respect to the new Clippers and Bobcats. They are both doing well currently. Clippers and Bobcats both have great players to work around with. As long as they build a good system with some good coaching, they are indeed very difficult teams to beat.

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.

Millsap Career Night, but Jazz lost to the Champ

Jazz Game,

- Millsap, 32 pts, 10 rebounds. 12th straight game with a double-double. Earlier I thought we still need to keep Boozer until the end of this year because he still could help us get the Championship. I have a second thought now. Millsap has been playing great and Boozer is taking his rest (for far too long). Why don't we just send him back to his home - Miami right away, and we get something in return...

- Seriously, we should prepare for the worst - D Will may not be able to play his best in a short- to medium-term...

Others,

- Jason Richardson, 3 pts, indeed not bad...

- Marco Belinelli is finally getting more consistent mins from Coach Don Nelson. He should be a good shooter.

Jazz is BACK, 13-8

Jazz Game,

- Millsap got AK-like Stat

- I like how Okur played in this game, not just relying on his hot hands from 3-pt shooting but also willing to dribble in and look for easy shots

- Koufos proved he is capable

- Knight has well replaced our part-time PG Price

- D Will’s penetration looks better

- Jazz Fans got to like Harpring, 14 pts 7 rebs. His no-nonsense playing style is awesome. Catch-and-shoot, first-touch layup.

- Love this interview - link, Harpring and Sloan talked to the press after the game.

Others,

- NYK last shot, bad execution, watch this - link. What are the hesitations about? They could have forced OT.

- Emeka Okafor, another solid game. He became so stable…

- Oden, so far still disappointing

Another Loss at Home, Jazz drops to 12-8

Jazz Game,

- D Will needs more rest, he is not the D Will we used to see.

- Another solid game by Paul Millsap. Seriously, we don't need Boozer next season.

- Mario Chalmers had two steals from D Will, I did say he is a good rookie in the very beginning of the season, and I stressed that being a rookie PG is even more difficult.

- Wade is playing at his best, I don’t need to repeat anymore. I would vote him over LBJ for MVP up till now.

Others,

- Emeka Okafor has a few consecutive good games, a lately mature player? or Larry Brown?

- Rajon Rondo has a monster game, still think he is slightly overrated…call me stubborn.

- Zach Randolph are meshing well with Clippers. Give them 2-3 more games, they will be quite a team to beat.

Deron is back, Jazz improves to 10-6

Jazz Game,

- Easy win, but huge; it shows clearly that Jazz is a much better team with D Will playing. See the highlights - you will know. He does what a PG does, distribute the ball nicely, set the right tempo and good momentum. Even when he sits for some mins, the other teammates could ride on it

- Millsap, 24 points, 16 rebounds. Glad to see him getting more comfortable in the starting lineup. We need Boozer to help us win Champion this year. But do we need Boozer next year? I rather keep AK, Okur and Millsap, but not Boozer. (Realistically we can't keep them all, right?)