Blazers/Jazz: Smelly Stuff Hits The Fan

VS

I would absolutely be lying through my teeth if I said I wasn’t scared about this game. We’ve won 13 in a row. However we just completed a six-game homestand. We now have 10 of our next 12 games on the road. We also must now go back to Utah, which has caused me so many painful memories in my childhood that I will always and forever believe it to be one of the toughest places to play in the NBA. And we’ve got to face the possibility of trying to beat a team three times in one streak. Is that even possible? Has that happened? Even Coup’s a little shook and I haven’t even mentioned the words Kyle Korver.

5:00 PM: I’ve got the Jazz announcers for tonight and I’m actually happy about it. No Mike Rice and Mike Barrett to drive me crazy…but no Rebecca Haarlow to drive me the other kind of crazy. They also flash the Northwest Division standings with us and Denver at the top at 18-16. My stomach just dropped.

5:02 PM: They are showing Kyle Korver warming up and his highlights as a Sixer. Vintage as the Philly crowd was still packed an AI was still a Sixer. Needless to say he didn’t miss. Holy crap.

5:05 PM: Thinking positively…last time in Utah we had no LaMarcus and Deron Williams struggled. And B-Roy didn’t play that great. Yes.

5:08 PM: Just looked up what happened in the last game at home…Williams struggled again. Third time has to be a charm right. Dear lord can this game just start.

5:09 PM: Starting for Portland…Roy, Blake, LMA, Martell and Big Joel. For Utah….Okur, Boozer, AK, Williams and Brewer. We’re wearing the red. I like this.

5:11 PM: Got the tip, went to a pick and roll and LMA missed a midrange jumper. Utah went into Okur who beasted Martell on the block…that worries me. Roy makes me feel better with a midrange J though.

5:13 PM: Very encouraged by this exchange…Roy had to jack up a shot to beat the shot clock, Utah got the board and was running but our transition D stopped them and Blake forced Williams into a steal. Down the other end we got a fast-break three from Martell. Utah is definitely looking to go inside right now.

5:15 PM: LaMarcus puts my recent worries to rest with three straight buckets and we’re up 11-6. Okur has missed two good looks…this is a good thing. Coup said we need a big game from LMA and he’s hot to start.

5:17 PM: What I don’t like? Deron Williams getting a layup off a backdoor cut. LMA getting hot was key as now they’re more worried about guarding him on the pick and roll. Cue a B-Roy pullup ladies and gents. On the other end Pryz pciks up his second foul and in comes Channing Frye.

Coup interjects: “Frye needs to step up on the boards”. Damn straight, I’m very worried. We’re up 13-10 when Big Joel leaves we’ll see what happens now, who is going to guard Boozer?

5:18 PM: LMA with another bucket…8 of his 15 and the Jazz announcers point out that the Blazers have had someone different step up in the first quarter in every game. And that the Jazz haven’t faced Aldridge. 15-10 with 5:45 left in the first at the first timeout.

Coup: “You know..some big guys look good, smooth and natural taking jumpers. Boozer is not one of those.”

5:22 PM: Roy makes one of two free throws and the Blazers go to a press. The Jazz break it and it leads to a Kirilenko midrange jumper. I’ll take him shooting that all day. Roy answers with a fadeaway jumper.

5:23 PM: Jazz announcers still talking about how strange Roy shot that. As they chat Williams turns it over on an exchange with Okur. Paul Milsap enters the game…come on Channing don’t let him beast you.

5:24 PM: Channing gets me telepathically as he gets a nasty one handed tip-jam over someone, I think Boozer. He looks ready. Also LMA with a deep two pointer off the pick and roll he has 10 in the first quarter. We are hot to start and the Jazz crowd is as quiet as Jamie-Lynn Spears right now.

5:25 PM: Ronnie Brewer clanks another jumper for the Jazz and on the other end we get a midrange from Blake. We are on fire. 24-12 Blazers. Utah has been happy to force us to shoot jumpers and we’ve been happy to drain them. Semi-reminds me of that big win we had in Denver, I hope we don’t get jumper happy.

5:26 PM: Utah has the lamest commercials in the history of television. Coup says this is going to be a game now

5:28 PM: Utah comes out of the timeout and throws it right to Boozer. Oh geeze. He jabsteps and gets a left hand dunk over Channing. Oh geeze. Thankfully Channing responds with a dunk of his own off penetration.

5:32 PM: Outlaw comes in and misses a midrange. The Jazz are on a run, cutting the lead to 27-21.

5:35 PM: Outlaw with a charge and I’m a little worried about our second unit right now. CJ Miles calms me down by shooting the ball. He couldn’t shoot his way out of a paper bag. 29-23 at the end of the first quarter.

5:39 PM: The zone is working as CJ Miles jacks up another jumper and the Blazers responded with an Outlaw three. Looks like we’ve got another stop going and momentum but then Milsap takes the defensive rebound right out of Outlaw’s hands and gets a layup. Shucks.

5:42 PM: No one in this lineup can shoot…and as I type that Matt Harpring nails a midrange jumper from the corner. We’re giving up too many offensive rebounds right now. Sergio airballs a three and Harpring gets a jumphook over Outlaw in the post. We should have stuck with the zone.

5:43 PM: Outlaw responds with a pullup jumper AND we’re back in the zone. This is good. 38-31 Blazers with 7:45 lefti n the first half.

5:46 PM: More talk about Kyle Korver who has seen zero minutes. This is a great thing.

5:47 PM: Okur misses another shot this one a three. YAY! Utah gets the rebound. BOO! Harpring gets another bucket to cut the lead to 5. Somebody stop this guy. At least Okur is struggling: he missed a point blank layup in the post.

5:49 PM: Jazz announcers still talking about Kyle Korver and now he’s checking in. Frick. And CJ Miles made an outside jumper on top of that. Double frick.

Coup: “Sergio waits too long to get LaMarcus the ball in good position”. Very true. Early in the game he was getting it at the block, now he’s damn near by the three point line. I told Coup Sergio sucked in the half court and he responded with “Anyone who only sometimes hits the rim sucks in the half court.” Touche.

5:52 PM: LMA with another jumper…he’s one fire.

5:53 PM: Korver shoots it on his first touch. Oh god. He missed it! Yes. But we gave them the rebound. Korver gets another chance and knocks it down. The crowd finally gets into it after that. Crap.

5:54 PM: We turn it over (thanks to a Korver deflection), Kirilenko passes between his legs for a Milsap layin and the Jazz crowd is into it. Also the lead is down to three after some James Jones free throws. All of this and Boozer has been on the bench.

Coup: “Fucking Korver”. Indeeed.

5:55 PM: Milsap with another bucket inside…he’s killing us right now. LMA with another deep midrange jumper to keep us up. On the other end Okur scores and could get an And 1 to tie the game.

5:56 PM: Okur bricks the free throw…but Utah gets the rebound. One Boozer layup and the Jazz have their first lead of the game up 46-45 with 3 minutes left in the second half. It’s like Korver instantly woke the Jazz and this crowd up.

Coup: “You know if Korver was black Salt Lake wouldn’t care about him.” Hey the whi
te guy said it don’t be mad at me.

5:57 PM: Roy drives to the rack and gets hacked…no-call. Coup…”Yep..its time to start hating the Jazz again.” I agree, all those reasons why I’ve hated the Jazz over the years have come up in this quarter. 46-45 Utah with 2:47 left in the first half.

6:00 PM: The Jazz announcers are driving me crazy talking about Korver. Apparently Outlaw got whistled for an illegal defense before the timeout and Korver knocked a free throw in to put the Jazz up two.

6:01 PM: I hate how the Utah crowd goes nuts over the smallest things like trained monkeys. They got a little deflection and roared…I mean they didn’t even get the ball. Outlaw makes one of two free throws to make it 47-46 Utah.

6:03 PM: Deron Williams gets an easy layup on an out-of-bounds play. Never thought I’d see him get a lob but he beasted Blake.

6:05 PM: Horrible sequence. Offensive foul on B-Roy for slapping Deron Williams hand off his back and then Kirilenko hits a three from the corner. You’ve…got to be kidding me. Roy attacks the basket and gets to the line knocking two big ones in.

Halftime score: Utah 52, Portland 50. Thoughts…as hot as we were in the first quarter we really struggled in the second. We only had one turnover in the first quarter but had four in the second. You can’t turn the ball over in Utah and hope to win. Also gave up five offensive rebounds in the second quarter. Can’t give them second chances at the rim. That’s why we’re down 2 at halftime instead of up 10 or 12. Offensively we’re shooting 55% percent and have been to the line 17 times already. LMA has 17, Roy has 9 and Outlaw/Frye has 6. They’re killing us in points in the paint (34-10). We’ve done a good job holding Williams (2/4, 4 pts) and Okur (2/7, 6 pts) in check but Utah’s bench has murdered us. Especially in that 2nd quarter. Harping has 9 (4/5 shooting), Milsap has 8 (2 offensive rebounds) and both Miles and Korver have 4. It’s too bad as great of a half as we played we’re still down by 2 but this is a very winnable game. We just have to go out and take it in the third quarter.

Coup’s Halftime Thoughts: “We were lucky to have survived that quarter but we’ve just traded blows so far…it’s anyones game now but we gotta get on the damn boards and keep the crowd out of the game by not being stupid…I’m looking at you Sergio/Jarrett”. Amen.

6:23 PM: Utah ball, we definitely need a stop to start the half. Don’t get it as Brewer gets an athletic layup to put the Jazz up 4. Thankfully LMA stays hot with a bucket over Boozer.

6:25 PM: B-Roy picks up an offensive foul, 2 of his 3 fouls have been offensive. This worries me. He’s got to stay on the court for us. Thankfully LMA has it going as he picks up another foul this time on Okur.

6:26 PM: Totally just realized I’ve had to straight thoughts with the words ‘thankfully’ and ‘LMA’. Sheesh. He makes both free throws and ties the game. Brewer attacks Roy and gets him to pick up his fourth foul. In comes Jarrett Jack and this is a big 10 minutes in this quarter. Brewer clanks both free throws but Boozer gets the rebound (groan). He kicks it out to Okur who somehow misses a wide open jumper. That would have been the definition of a backbreaking sequence. And yes it would have happened in 1998.

6:28 PM: LMA draws another foul this time on Boozer. I like that we’re scoring inside and getting to the line. He knocks both in and we’re up by two.

6:30 PM: Horrible call by the refs as Pryzbilla cleanly blocked a Brewer dunk attempt and got called for it. Even the Jazz announcers questioned it. If Mehmet Okur wasn’t sucking it up this year we’d be done. I’d like to thank him for clanking open jumpers and getting a technical foul. Jack makes three in a row and the Blazers are up 62-58 with 8 left in the 3rd.

6:32 PM: LMA drops in a jumphook for his 25th point and Joel draws an offensive foul. We need a bucket here to stretch this lead. LMA draws a foul on Milsap and the Jazz are in the penalty very early in this quarter. He knocks both down to put us up 6.

6:34 PM: Webster fouls Kirilenko…I only say this because we’re in the penalty with 7:35 left in the 3rd. Sheesh. James Jones is in for Portland and Kyle Korver is still on the bench. LMA draws another foul on Milsap and hits two more free throws. He has 29.

6:36 PM: James Jones tries to draw another charge. You would love that if he didn’t fail and give Deron Williams an And One. Bless his heart it seems like Jones always gets called for a block.

6:37 PM: Great sequence for Portland. Williams and Boozer had a classic Stockton-to-Malone exchange except Boozer missed a wide open layup. On our end James Jones nails a three…ladies and gentlemen a five-point swing. 71-67 Portland with 5:57 left in the third. We’ve extended the lead with Roy on the bench.

6:41 PM: Just like that its 74-71 Utah with 4:52 left in the third. Only in that building could a four point lead turn into a three point deficit in a minute.

6:45 PM: James Jones picks up another blocking foul this time on Boozer. He only makes one of two…we’ve got to score here.

6:46 PM: We don’t. Jack misses a layup then tries a behind the back pass to Channing in the paint. One guess how that ended up. Milsap putbackon the other end and Utah is on a 10-0 run.

6:47 PM: James Jones gets to the line amd misses. Travis Outlaw is back in, we’re down 77-72 with no LMA or Roy on the court. Coup meanwhile bemoans the fact that we need Roy on the court and that NBA refs suck.

6:48 PM: Boozer picks up his fourth foul and James Jones knocks two free throws in to cut the lead to three. Matt Harpring misses a jumper down the other end but Outlaw gets called for a loose ball foul. This hasn’t been the best of sequences.

6:50 PM: Of course as I say that the Jazz miss the second free throw, Harpring gets the rebound and gets fouled. Time to keep the mouth shut.

Coup: “The way wer are rebounding we should be down 15”

We aren’t that far away.

6:51 PM: CJ Miles with a three pointer. 83-74 Utah with 2:24 left in the third. Utah is on a 16-3 run in the past three minutes. This game is opening up wounds.

6:53 PM: Roy is back in, Jarrett Jack makes me direct my anger from the Jazz announcers to him with a terrible shot.

6:56 PM: So much more dangerous with Roy back in. Easy penetrate and kick to James Jones who nails a two. Harpring makes that null and void with an easy bucket down the other end.

6:58 PM: Finally this quarter ends and the Blazers are down 87-78. It’s going to take a near-perfect quarter to dig out of this hole on the road. Especially with these refs.

Coup: “Roy, Joel and LMA need to play the entire 4th quarter for us to have a chance.”

7:01 PM: LMA with a jumphook to give us a bucket to start the quarter….but of course Jason Hart nails a pullup off the pick and roll. You’ve got to be kidding me.

7:02 PM: A Harpring turnover turns into a B-Roy contested pullup J. I just realized Korver was back on the floor.

7:02 PM: He shoots and somehow misses. But the Jazz get the rebound. Is there a rule that if he misses they get the board? Sheesh. Thank goodness Jason Hart was on the floor to clank a jumper. And yes we actually got the rebound. Defensive 3 second call on Utah. James Jones misses the free throw…wasn’t he like 90%?

7:04 PM: Roy sees Korver and smells blood but misses the open jumper. Crap. Frye comes up with a big block as Harpring pulled another post move. LMA turns it over on the other end. If you want a mental image…think of what Shaq does four or five times a night these days.

7:05 PM: Roy sees Korver and smells blood…again. He spins right off him but loses the ball and Utah gets a foul. And Roy is holding his elbow. Gulp. 89-83 Utah with a lot of time left but we need to start making a move quick.

7:08 PM: Roy sees Korver and smells blood…third time a charm? Yes. Finishes with a left hand layup to cut the lead to 89-85. And just as I breath a sigh of relief, Kirile
nko makes a CHALLENGED three point shot. Are…you…kidding….me? LMA nails a jumper its 92-87 Utah.

7:10 PM: Korver misses another open jump shoot. It’s scary every time he shoots it. That pick and roll is going to be crazy…no wonder George Karl was cussing up a storm. Roy gets hacked going to the rim again but nails both free throws to cut the lead to three.

Coup: “Utah thinks they’re the Pistons from 89”

7:11 PM: Big Joel needs to be in right now? Why? Kyle Korver just got an old-fashioned three point play by beasting Channing Frye. Blake misses an open three, leads to an AK dunk and the Jazz are up 97-89 with 6:30 left. Every time we get close they come up with something.

7:13 PM: Blake draws an offensive foul on Williams. Can we capitalize? No. Roy goes for a spin and turns it over. Milsap misses but then puts his own shot backup to put the Jazz lead back up to 8.

7:14 PM: I’m just going to say this: Webster badly misses an open three, Kyle Korver open layup, Jazz crowd goes nuts and the lead is 10 with 4:36 left in the game. I feel like I have seen this game at least 1832912 times in my life.

Coup: “Well LaMarcus showed up but none of the bench guys did what they’re supposed to and that’s why we’re going to lose barring a miracle.”

7:17 PM: Roy with a stepback jumper…on defense they try to feed Kirilenko in the post. Blake gets a piece, LMA taps it…it goes right to Boozer who dunks it. Could this be the definition of one of those nights? It could be.

7:20 PM: 103-93 Utah with a little under three minutes to go. Roy is really struggling he hasn’t been able to get to the cup instead either losing the ball or running into three white jerseys. Four turnovers and five fouls are indicative of a rhythm that has been thrown off.

7:23 PM: Outlaw with one of two free throws and the Blazers force a turnover. Outlaw gets fouled taking a three as the shot clock expires. Need all three of these.

7:24 PM: Travis of course clanks the first one off the back of the rim. He misses the other one as it turns out he shot a two pointer.

7:25 PM: Jazz are in pick-and-roll mode. They get it to Boozer he gets his shot blocked, he grabs it, throws it up again and Kirilenko tips it in. As a fan I wonder how anyone can like the Jazz.

7:28 PM: Outlaw drains a three from the corner to cut the lead to 105-98. Unfortunately there is only a minute left. By the way the Jazz announcers have been saying ‘It’s Not Over’ for the last 6 minutes. Kudos to Sloan for keeping Mehmet Okur on the bench after he picked up a technical foul…he was really killing them.

7:30 PM: Roy gets his shot blocked from behind by Kirilenko which leads to a Milsap dunk on the other end. And that is what we call an extra nail in the coffin.

Coup: “I don’t get why we never put Joel back in.”

Me neither we needed some sort of inside presence and never had it.

7:32 PM: These two teams play again on Saturday…damn is that their last match-up of their year? Has to be. James Jones with a three and we are still fouling. This would get you cussed out in an online game.

7:35 PM: Well at least we had a pretty sweet play. Martell missed the three, Utah is dribbling the clock out and the Jazz fans are applauding. The streak dies at 13. Oh well.

Final Thoughts: We lost the game in the second quarter. The third quarter wasn’t glamorous but we could have withstood that hit. Unfortunately instead of being up we were already down when Utah surged. The key part of the game was the run ignited by Harpring, Milsap and Korver in that second quarter and all the offensive rebounds we gave up. Ended up giving up 13 offensive rebounds and getting pounded in the paint. Why Big Joel only played 15 minutes is beyond me. After that second quarter we had spurts but Utah always had a big play in their pocket when we would look to go on a run. Just seemed like things weren’t lined up for us to win…how else do you explain Jason Hart hitting pullup jumpers off a pick and roll? Or Kirilenko hitting a contested three pointer? Or CJ Miles making three big perimeter shots? You can’t. Korver gives them a major lift off the bench, he only played 17 minutes but they were big. He makes them much better in every single way. At the end of the day we just won 13 in a row, we’re still over .500, actually in a division race and LMA just had a career night dropping 36. Utah is just a very tough place to play at and tonight was a perfect example.

Also if you’re wondering why I titled the post the way I did….the road gets pretty rough from here. 2008 will be a mighty large test of this Blazer team. 9 of the first 11 games in January are on the road. The two home games? Against Utah and Golden State….not exactly fluff opponents. Depending on how we come out of this month will answer the question if we’re actually good enough for that P word or if we’re still a year away. Either way I’m pleased because we’re so far ahead of the plan it isn’t even funny. Look at the Kings and the Sixers and then look at us..they could be rebuilding forever.