Jazz Lost to a Winless Team, 6-2

About Jazz game,

- Matt Harpring is back. Will wait for you contribution!

- I doubt on the decision on playing D Will for 30+ mins back to back. I am okay if he plays some 20-25 mins to get himself warm-up, but not for that long considering that he can't do a good defense and in the offensive end he can't do explosive steps, but just perimeter shooting.

- Anyway, not a game I want to talk about anymore, a loss to a winless team...

Other highlights of today,

- Shaq is back, and he is a real entertainer, watch this video - link.

"Somebody pushed Steve so I had to take care of my little man," O'Neal said. "It wasn't nothing serious, though, just a push and shoving match."

McGrady felt O'Neal's strength.

"The big fella pushed the heck out of me," McGrady said. "It's basketball, it happens and after that we just went back to playing. A big thing for us is we kept our composure and won this ballgame."

- Paul Pierce, another money shot. Big play.

- Rudy Fernandez, another huge game, 25 points. He is flirting with both Sixth Man Award and Rookie of the Year Award.

- Wade, is really back this season. If Marion can play what he supposed to be playing, Heat is a real force in the East.

4-0, and counting

Thoughts on Jazz Game,

- as mentioned, deep bench, this time is some clutch plays by Okur and Brewer

- looks like the 19-pound gain by Brewer helped him a lot, makes him have an edge physically over ordinary SGs. With his better and more confident outside shooting, he is (once again) set to be a front-runner in the Most Improved Player Award this season

- Price seems not to be used to the starting PG role, at least his shooting accuracy so far is sub-par.

- If we win the next game vs Thunders, we can celebrate Coach Sloan 1000th Win with Jazz at Home.

- D Will does not need to rush for return in Thunders game (they are Thunders man, we should be able to take them down without D Will), but for this potential memorable game he may consider to play some 20 mins as a warm-up for the road trip?

Other Thoughts of Today,

- ESPN's column writer David Thorpe seconds my support on Rudy Fernandez. He is more than a rookie, and he seems to payback my support by cooling down a bit vs Jazz. Thanks!

- Heats got lucky, Mario Chalmers, very solid rookie, looks like a unsung hero. 9 steals today... Did I mention Heats also have a so-far-alright rookie Beasley?

- Derrick Rose is still keeping his good performance, no matter Bulls win or lose. Another front-runner of Rookie of the Year.

- Last but not least, did the 2OT win by Spurs over Timberwolves convince you that their dynasty is over? You won't believe Spurs needs 2OT (and actually could have lost in 1OT) to beat Timberwolves if I told you in the past few seasons. As of now it is just a 2+1 team (Duncan, Parker, Mason)? You are in doubts? look at the Boxscore and you will know. 78 out of 97 attempts are by them. But credit to Parker, his 55 pts is amazing and his shooting is indeed getting better and more stable year after year.

Jazz Beat Clippers by 2nd Half domination

Great Win, 2-0 now.

Highlights of Jazz Game:
- Only 5 TOs
- Considerate decision to give minutes to Morris Almond, 4 mins with 5 points, although we decided not to pick up next year option
- Better involvement by Brevin Knight
- 13-22 FTs, definitely something we need to work on

Other Highlights:
- Another solid game by Rudy Fernandez, although Trail Blazers lost to Suns
- Toronto Raptors should be a serious contender of Eastern Conference Champion, they have a great roster this year

Lakers tells the world they are still the contender

Every Jazz & NBA fans, this season NBA TV provides high-quality videos for us to recap different games, very enjoyable. Check that out!

Some notes on two of the today games.

Trail Blazers @ Lakers

Lakers easily crushes Trail Blazers today. If you have watched the recap, you could see Kobe is still Kobe, a scoring machine. Up to this moment I think Lakers is the biggest enemy of Jazz in this season. Their bench is as deep as us. And watch out Ariza, he could surprise you this season. Versatile Odom as sixth man, déjà vu….

Oden, another injury. No matter how talented and how ready he is (as the press said), he won’t be a star if he is so easily injured.

As predicted, Rudy Fernandez, first NBA game, very solid performance, keep it up (not vs Jazz though).

Cavaliers @ Celtics

Obviously Mo Will (ex-Jazz) has shared some of the scoring burden from LBJ. But I don’t think they could be the Eastern Champion this year. Firstly, want to declare that am not a fans of LBJ simply because there is no fun to watch a player to score purely by his physical strength. And their roster is still…unpromising. Gibson is an over-rated player, Ben Wallace is not in his best times, Delonte West is still a question mark.

Anyway, can’t wait for our home opener!

The Northwest Crown Fight? Not quite, at least for this game.

Jazz 93-80 Trail Blazers

Highlights:

AK looks very comfortable to come out of bench, and actually I always like his versatile talent, despite of his lackluster performance in 06/07 Season.

Fesenko’s 10 point, 10 rebound would give him an edge on Koufos (who get shouted about shooting too much, 0/5 from the field). But be aware that it is not a competitive game.

Sloan summarized the game concisely – “You can't get excited about this game. Their best team was sitting on the bench."

Indeed...Boxscore of the Game

One thing for sure, the surge of Portland Trail Blazers will intensify the West Coast / Northwest division competition. Let's do a stock count on its roster - Brandon Roy, Aldridge, Travis Outlaw, Oden + a bunch of supporting cast - Webster, Blake, Przybilla, LaFrentz, Frye, and more importantly - Rudy Fernandez.

You watched him in Beijing this summer, and probably you were impressed by him in the Gold Medal match with the Dream / Re-deem Team – huge shots one by one, and big dunk despite of Dwight Howard's challenge from behind.

At this point, I believe they could be in Playoff.