You want a must-win game in December, here you go, served up all nice and neat on the TNT platter. The Blazers have already dropped one to Utah, so if we want to keep our division hopes healthy as we drift toward the new year, it’s time to take out the reigning division champs.
Not only that, but the Jazz are somewhere over a dark rainbow away from being full strength. Anybody playing fantasy basketball this season can tell you that Deron Williams hasn’t been himself, but he’s still playing, primed to break out any game now. Carlos Boozer is not. Out with a strained quad, Boozer tried to make a comeback tonight but it’s not going to happen. That leaves Paul Millsap filling in at power forward, which is scarier than you might think.
Millsap, who’s one of those guys that always seems to make plays against Portland without putting up huge numbers, has been a beast of mythical proportions during Boozers absence, snatching double-digit rebounds in nine consecutive games. And in seven of those games he had at least four offensive boards. No, Millsap won’t back anyone down, but Greg, LaMarcus and Joel better be prepared to move around alot in the paint to get rebounding position on Paul. As much hype as the Dwight Howard, Shaq matchups get for Greg, it’s just as important to see him able to seal off the paint from the energizer bunny-types.
So there’s key number one to beating the Jazz right there for you — OWN the boards. Rebounds should be Blazer children, and the Jazz are cradle robbers. Secondly, and I’m sure Nate spent plenty of time on this after the Orlando Magic fun-three-shooting-day debacle, we have to defend the pick and roll, which means keeping both Williams out of the paint and bumping any cutting Jazz players. Okur could give Portland loads of trouble if we don’t do this, and because of that, even though Okur starts at center, I’d expect to see plenty of LaMarcus roaming the perimeter rather than Greg/Joel.
Sure there’s other things like keeping the always-hearty Jazz crowd out of the game and not letting Utah intimidate you with their physical play, but Portland can control the crowd by playing good defense and limiting big Jazz plays, and they can be the intimidators by controlling the glass.
Other thoughts:
-I’ll be keeping an eye on Batum early. He was OK in his first game at Energy Solutions, with five points and six boards, but he’s been slumping lately and Utah is a tough place to get any momentum going. Could be a low minutes game for him.
-There should be lots of Greg Oden post-ups in the first quarter barring foul trouble, but one quarter is going to belong to LaMarcus when the Blazers just go to him over and over and over again.
-If you are still depressed over Turkoglu’s shot, remember this: a loss to the Magic won’t matter nearly as much in March as a loss to the Jazz.
-I suspect Outlaw will draw a good amount of minutes on Kyle Korver tonight. Even though I still don’t think he was to blame, I bet he’s still burning about Hedo. Sucks for Kyle if Travis channels his energy onto the defensive end as well.
-This would be as good a game as any for Portland not to need first-half three’s from Steve Blake. It doesn’t happen every game, but it’s a trend that needs to slow down.
-One final, completely irrelevant though to tonight’s game. We had a comment yesterday about what Quick said on the radio about Greg and not wanting to be around him. I only just had the chance to listen to the audio clip and I want to give it a day or so to digest before I say any more. That said, can we please lay off Greg for the time being? Just treat him like a regular player and not a potential savior/bust or whatever you want to call it. I’m looking at you Oregonlive forums (and I know it’s not all of you).