Thursday, November 02, 2006
Utah Jazz opener
Last night was the first game of the basketball season for "my team", the Utah Jazz. I've signed up for "NBA League Pass" with DirecTV, so I should be able to watch nearly all of the games this season! (Much rejoicing!) If I have time, that is...
Anyway, here are my reactions from game 1, which the Jazz won fairly handily over the Houston Rockets.
Players, from best to worst:
1. Boozer - wow, he was utterly amazing. Just dominated the Rockets through 3.5 quarters. I just couldn't figure out why Sloan didn't run more plays for him during the last 5 mins of the game.
2. Williams - Deron was great. Very solid play. Good shooting. Great penetration. Great decision making. In most other games a game like this would make him my easy choice of player of the game. Deron and Boozer seem to have a great connection going.
3. Okur - Very solid. Didn't do anything spectacularly, but played consistently. Made good decisions for the most part (except the time he took three steps driving to the hoop). Hit some nice shots.
4. Fisher - I was impressed. Played better than I had hoped. I had forgotten how fast he is--looked like the quickest player on either team. Great penetration. Did an excellent job in the 4th Q when he was subbed in for Harpring--for those of you who didn't see the game, for the last ~ 5 minutes Fisher played PG and Deron played SG. It flat-out worked.
5. Kirilenko - Mediocre. I was disappointed. Had a couple of nice rebounds. Had a couple of nice "blocks" after fouls by team members. (Blocks in quotes since they don't count officially as blocks.) But didn't seem his usual energetic self. Got beat several times by TMac. Pretty quiet, all told. Didn't even make any really good passes or anything like that.
6. Miles - C.J. had a truly outstanding first quarter. Came to play! Made a whole bunch of nice shots--smart, good quality shots too, not just random shots that went in. Really impressed me with his passing ability. Would have rated ahead of AK on my list except he came out flat in the second half--just stood around and didn't do much.
7. Brewer - Had a nice game in limited minutes. Showed a lot of quickness. Had some nice steals, just as the Arkansas fans advertised.
8. Collins - Meh.
9. Millsap - Didn't do much. Very limited minutes. Got beat pretty badly by Yao a couple of times.
10. Harpring - Brutal. Absolutely brutal. Nearly cost us the game. I seriously think we would have lost if Sloan hadn't pulled him at about 5 minutes left. I was yelling at Sloan (internally) to pull Harp much sooner. He mangled catches, mangled throws, mangled shots, made some bad fouls, etc. Had a nice rebound, and maybe one nice 3 pointer. I hereby officially apologize to all the posters that severely criticized the 4 year $16 mill contract. Maybe he's still injured or something, but he had no business being out there on the floor tonight.
(all others were "DNP")
Stellar Plays
* Boozer's block in the 3rd quarter (I think that's when it was)
* Deron's coast-to-coast drive for a layup with just a minute or two remaining
* Brewer's alley-oop dunk off of a Deron feed (3rd quarter?)
* Fisher's amazing pass from the double-team to an open D Will under the basket, at the end of the game
Anyway, here are my reactions from game 1, which the Jazz won fairly handily over the Houston Rockets.
Players, from best to worst:
1. Boozer - wow, he was utterly amazing. Just dominated the Rockets through 3.5 quarters. I just couldn't figure out why Sloan didn't run more plays for him during the last 5 mins of the game.
2. Williams - Deron was great. Very solid play. Good shooting. Great penetration. Great decision making. In most other games a game like this would make him my easy choice of player of the game. Deron and Boozer seem to have a great connection going.
3. Okur - Very solid. Didn't do anything spectacularly, but played consistently. Made good decisions for the most part (except the time he took three steps driving to the hoop). Hit some nice shots.
4. Fisher - I was impressed. Played better than I had hoped. I had forgotten how fast he is--looked like the quickest player on either team. Great penetration. Did an excellent job in the 4th Q when he was subbed in for Harpring--for those of you who didn't see the game, for the last ~ 5 minutes Fisher played PG and Deron played SG. It flat-out worked.
5. Kirilenko - Mediocre. I was disappointed. Had a couple of nice rebounds. Had a couple of nice "blocks" after fouls by team members. (Blocks in quotes since they don't count officially as blocks.) But didn't seem his usual energetic self. Got beat several times by TMac. Pretty quiet, all told. Didn't even make any really good passes or anything like that.
6. Miles - C.J. had a truly outstanding first quarter. Came to play! Made a whole bunch of nice shots--smart, good quality shots too, not just random shots that went in. Really impressed me with his passing ability. Would have rated ahead of AK on my list except he came out flat in the second half--just stood around and didn't do much.
7. Brewer - Had a nice game in limited minutes. Showed a lot of quickness. Had some nice steals, just as the Arkansas fans advertised.
8. Collins - Meh.
9. Millsap - Didn't do much. Very limited minutes. Got beat pretty badly by Yao a couple of times.
10. Harpring - Brutal. Absolutely brutal. Nearly cost us the game. I seriously think we would have lost if Sloan hadn't pulled him at about 5 minutes left. I was yelling at Sloan (internally) to pull Harp much sooner. He mangled catches, mangled throws, mangled shots, made some bad fouls, etc. Had a nice rebound, and maybe one nice 3 pointer. I hereby officially apologize to all the posters that severely criticized the 4 year $16 mill contract. Maybe he's still injured or something, but he had no business being out there on the floor tonight.
(all others were "DNP")
Stellar Plays
* Boozer's block in the 3rd quarter (I think that's when it was)
* Deron's coast-to-coast drive for a layup with just a minute or two remaining
* Brewer's alley-oop dunk off of a Deron feed (3rd quarter?)
* Fisher's amazing pass from the double-team to an open D Will under the basket, at the end of the game
# posted by John Colton @ 8:47 AM 
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