Sweet music & sour notes -- Hornets vs Jazz

Saturday, March 10, 2007

Jazz top the Hornets, 96-86, for their 6th straight win (their second 6-game win streak in the last 15 games). Utah fell asleep in the first quarter, but then took over in the second and coasted the rest of the night. Let's get into what went right (and what could be better) ...

NBA.com coverage: recap box score highlights

SWEET MUSIC

  • Another "rally" victory for the Jazz as they trailed 47-45 at halftime and got the win. The Jazz are now 14-12 when trailing at halftime, although I wouldn't exactly put this up there in terms of rallies with the Atlanta win earlier this year.
  • Mehmet comes through and plays well against the Hornets (29 points, 5-7 on 3-pointers, 5 rebounds) for the second time in less than a week. The Jazz started off slow, as we mentioned earlier, but Mehmet came out of the gate on fire and kept it up all night long. Although the Hornets' Tyson Chandler had six blocks to go along with his 12 points and six rebounds, Okur got the best of this matchup as he and Carlos Boozer punished the Hornets' frontline.
  • Deron Williams struggled from the field (10 points, 3-13 FG), so he simply ran the Jazz's offense to precision, found open teammates (13 assists) and played great defense (3 steals). He and Chris Paul (12 points, 4-10 FG, 11 assists) had nearly identical nights, but Paul had to work much harder for his numbers.
  • Matt Harpring keeps pissing off opponents. Harpring had an OK night from the floor (10 points, 2-7 FG, 7 rebounds), but it's nights like these that Harpring's value is found in his toughness. Harpring had eight free throw attempts (made six) and frustrated Hornets F Desmond Mason to the point of getting T'd up.
  • Boozer with another solid night (20 points, 10 rebounds). He didn't do anything spectacular tonight, but had another double-double and is making a serious push for All-NBA Second Team honors.
  • Kirilenko seems to be finding his niche. The line, as usual, for AK-47 was awful (2 points, 5 rebounds, 3 steals, 2 blocks). Seems as though since the all-star break, Kirilenko is finding his way on this team (particularly what his role is) and is fitting into a role as an offensive facilitator and defensive stopper.
SOUR NOTES
  • Utah's lack of energy to start games has been a real disappointment. By my count, the Jazz have trailed at the end of the first quarter in about half of the 10 games since the all-star break. While the Jazz eventually figure things out (they're 8-2 in those 10 games), the slow starts have been a little frustrating. I know you have to probe your opponent and figure out what they're giving you, but the Jazz shouldn't take a whole quarter to determine how their game plan will work.
  • The interior defense could use a little work. Chandler had six blocks as mentioned before, so that kind of throws things off, but the Jazz still give up some easy buckets at the basket. When Kirilenko was the starting power forward, those interior problems were masked a little better, but now that Boozer has that spot, the problems are evident. How Boozer can finish above the rim on offense all the time and allow layups on the other end amazes me.

Posted by Jeff at 10:50 PM  

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