12-11-2010, Jazz @ Mavs, 6:30 Utah Time

[Lost_Jazz_Fan]

...and speaking of Terrance Williams and Thaddeus Young, if the Jazz had one of those two guys, it would give the Jazz a quick, explosive slasher who could finished above the rim. Unfortunately, they only shoot 34% from 3-pt. range, same as CJ Miles.

Jeremy Evans?

 

[zman1527]

Note to Jerry: in no way, shape, or form can Milsap guard the big German. No way. So if you insist on that matchup, prepared to get burned time and again. I know your starting lineup is sacrosanct, but you better re-think this one.

And another note to Jerry: Hayward is not an NBA player right now. He is totally lost and cannot even shoot it. Send him to the D-league ASAP to at least get his stroke going.

 

[northeast]

What about having Kirilenko guard Dirk, + Millsap guard Butler?

 

[Gyp Rosetti]

I wonder what Hopper feels about this game. Too bad we'll never know.

 

[vslice02]

Steve Javie obviously worked his magic, but make no mistake about it: The Jazz lost this game in the 1st-quarter.

1/5 of our starting lineup came to play in the first-half and Deron Williams single-handedly carried us through 3-quarters. The amount of pressure on Deron is ridiculous and his briliance (along with a great 4th-qtr effort by our bench) had us tied with 2 minutes to play. Jefferson and Millsap combined to shoot 3-14 in the first half while Tyson Chander and Dirk Nowitzki shot a combined 9-10. If Jefferson, Millsap and Kirilenko show up small in the first-half this team has no chance at doing anything - other than riding Deron Williams into the ground by February.

Some good coaching moves by Jerry - playing Evans in the 4th and the zone defense limited Dirk's FG attempts (to 12) and forced TO's which allowed the Jazz to get some easy baskets on their 15-2 run which immediately followed the 29-4 start by Dallas. It's obvious Dirk is a matchup problem for Millsap but his length - plus Tyson Chandler's terrific post-defense completely smothers Millsap and Jefferson inside. Almost twice as many rebounds for Dirk (15) than Sap (8), and Sap had 2 layups where he would've scored had he gone straight-up, but he pump-faked then allowed the defense to recover to alter/block the shot.

The odds are evening out this month. Jazz were winning these type of frenetic comebacks where they ride that surge of emotion in November (13-2), now they're losing them in December (3-3). The only silver-lining is maybe they will finally understand they need to come to play in the first-half.

 

[zman1527]

What about having Kirilenko guard Dirk, + Millsap guard Butler?

First, except for maybe Elson or maybe even Fes (worth a try) the Jazz do not have anyone who can guard Dirk. But Sap is very ill equipped as he is not at all used to guarding someone out from the basket who can put it on the floor. Klinko might be better, but Butler would eat up Milsap too. Jerry seems to know it but does not try to do anything about it. So to me, it seems like you might want to put in Elson in starting to guard him at least for a few minutes, to keep him from getting off to a fast start. Then make sure Elson is available the last few minutes of a close game to keep Dirk in check to some degree. I am sure that the Mavs knew exaclty what was coming that last shot by Terry.

 

[VINYLONE]

SOURCE

Jazz's Miles — 'We've just got to knock them in the mouth first'

Published on Dec 11, 2010 11:40PM 0 Comments

The Jazz's Paul Millsap and C.J. Miles discuss Utah's trend of slow starts.

Millsap

Something serious going on or did Utah just face a hot Dallas team: "It was. The main thing was confidence. They came out with a lot of confidence. And it showed in the first few minutes. They was just shooting shots just to shoot them. Just get 'em up to the basket and they went in. So, confidence had a lot to play with that."

Are the Jazz being as aggressive during first quarter as they are during second through fourth: "First off, we've got to match that intensity in the first quarter. We've got to come out with the same swagger, the same confidence as they did, to not put ourselves in that predicament. We've just got a little down cause they was hitting shots. But in the second half we bogged down, played some good defense and forced them to take some tough shots."

Being confident when they take the court: "I guess we've got to force ourselves to have it in the first quarter. We know what type of talent we have, what we can do. We've just got to do it from jump — from jump to finish."

Miles

Cause of the slow start against Mavericks: "They came out blazing, and we didn't do enough to try to slow it down either, though. We let them — they shot in our faces, they got around us. Mostly they made 3s, though, and they really killed us. And we didn't do enough to try to take them out of that rhythm. We could've at least made them put it on the floor; do something. They made some tough shots, also. We've got to be able to come back at 'em or something. Foul somebody, do something — knock somebody down and just try to slow that crowd down, slow that momentum down. We didn't do it."

Fixing it: "Come out with that intensity. Not let somebody knock us down, then get back up and figure, thinking now they're not going to play us. That team's on a 11-game winning streak for a reason — well, 12, now. That's because they come out and they go after people. They do. They did it in our building. They did it here. They did it the past 11 teams before us. We've just got to knock them in the mouth first."

— Brian T. Smith

 

[InGameStrategy]

Some good coaching moves by Jerry - playing Evans in the 4th and the zone defense limited Dirk's FG attempts (to 12) and forced TO's which allowed the Jazz to get some easy baskets on their 15-2 run which immediately followed the 29-4 start by Dallas. It's obvious Dirk is a matchup problem for Millsap but his length - plus Tyson Chandler's terrific post-defense completely smothers Millsap and Jefferson inside. Almost twice as many rebounds for Dirk (15) than Sap (8), and Sap had 2 layups where he would've scored had he gone straight-up, but he pump-faked then allowed the defense to recover to alter/block the shot.

Yeah, some good coaching moves by Jerry--somewhere between 1/2 and 2 1/2 quarters too late.

Sloan should have known from previous games that Millsap on Dirk doesn't work.

The odds are evening out this month. Jazz were winning these type of frenetic comebacks where they ride that surge of emotion in November (13-2), now they're losing them in December (3-3). The only silver-lining is maybe they will finally understand they need to come to play in the first-half.

This isn't about odds; there's little correlation between this loss and previous wins.

The game was winnable with better game planning and/or faster adjustments.

 

[vslice02]

Yeah, some good coaching moves by Jerry--somewhere between 1/2 and 2 1/2 quarters too late.

Sloan should have known from previous games that Millsap on Dirk doesn't work.

This isn't about odds; there's little correlation between this loss and previous wins.

The game was winnable with better game planning and/or faster adjustments.

So Millsap can't guard Dirk and Sloan should've known that heading into the game. Then what do you suggest? Should the Jazz have benched either Millsap and/or Jefferson and started Elson or Evans in his place - just to guard Dirk? If you do that and sit Millsap while Dirk is in the game - then you're admitting Millsap or Jefferson isn't a legitimate frontline player of the future. When your 2nd, 3rd, and 4th best players don't show up in the first half - that's on them - not the coaching staff.

And this is about odds. Like I said after the win in Portland and the loss to OKC - you don't fall behind by 15+ points and come back and win every time. The margin for error is too small down the stretch.

 

[DukeJazz]

When memo gets back we will have someone to guard dirk. Memo is really going to help us out with his size and 3 point shot.

 

[InGameStrategy]

So Millsap can't guard Dirk and Sloan should've known that heading into the game. Then what do you suggest? Should the Jazz have benched either Millsap and/or Jefferson and started Elson or Evans in his place - just to guard Dirk?

Correct. No offense to the Paperboy, but until he can figure out how to defend and score around Dirk, he's still eligible for starting against up to the other 28 or 29 teams in the league. Or just for formality, you start him and then sub him out long before 11 SECONDS LEFT IN THE FIRST QUARTER, when Evans came in for him. I'm sure that the team could've made up for Milly's ONE POINT (on 1-2 FTs, btw--long a criticism of other certain bigs on this team, whether they were available for this game or not) and TWO REBOUNDS that he managed in the first quarter.

If you do that and sit Millsap while Dirk is in the game - then you're admitting Millsap or Jefferson isn't a legitimate frontline player of the future.

By not starting Millsap (or by playing him less), you are merely admitting that Millsap isn't a legitimate frontline player against the Mavericks when Nowitzki and another 7-footer are in the game. Nothing to be too embarrassed about, especially regarding a second-round player who has mostly filled in nicely for the pompous stat-whoring windbag (now playing in the Windy City) that he replaced in the starting lineup. In any case, such lineup insights, my friend, can make a difference between beating a team or not, as the two L's logged this week against Carlisle's crew clearly demonstrate.

When your 2nd, 3rd, and 4th best players don't show up in the first half - that's on them - not the coaching staff.

Millsap's effort might have not been 100%, but he did "show up". He just has physical (and maybe some experience) limitations that prevent him from being effective against Nowitzki--just like Boozer did against the Twin Towers of Tinseltown in the playoffs. You're writing as if we haven't seen this scenario before. Heck--we saw it just three days prior, so the strengths and weaknesses of the Jazz vs. the Mavs should've been crystal clear, and there wasn't much variability in comparison; the players were pretty much the same. Playing less of Millsap wasn't the only glaring mistake that Sloan made in managing this game, but it was a pretty major one.

By the way, I'm not denying that the effort and focus of the players wasn't optimal. It just seems far less interesting (with far less information available) to analyze how to fix that. Besides, part of the job of a coaching staff is to either fix it or to find another combination that works. Given that first-quarter slump this has happened game after game, it shouldn't have been a surprise, ESPECIALLY since Utah had just played them three days prior. Off the top of my head, the adjustments were to play more of Elson, more of Price, more of Evans, more of Miles and less of Millsap (and maybe AK). Sloan probably did some or maybe even all of these things, but not enough--and not early enough. Furthermore, by the 6:44 mark in Q1, Sloan had expended two time outs and had solved the Hayward problem but didn't solve the Millsap problem, even though Dork had already logged 8 points and 2 assists. Dork and Careen (Caron) just kept on producing until they sat down when the lead was 29-4. That is what you call abysmal game management on the part of the Jazz coaching staff.

The information that was readialy available (before the game had even started) is what previous games against the Mavs (and other teams with a tall 4/5 tandems; the Fakers come to mind) have done to a Jazz lineup with an undersized PF, an undersized center, or both. And although Fes was out, Elson was available long before the 1:13 mark, when the Mavs had careened to a 25-point lead that the Jazz had managed to whittle down to 17 points at that point. By then, the hemorrhage was too much to overcome, just as the final score suggests.

And this is about odds. Like I said after the win in Portland and the loss to OKC - you don't fall behind by 15+ points and come back and win every time. The margin for error is too small down the stretch.

Maybe you don't have a background in statistics, but there is very little correlation between the two games. I'm only pressing this point because you are. If a team is doing everything else right, then luck ("odds") come into play. But if poor game planning, poor preparation by the players, and poor in-game management by the coaching staff (only a portion of which was explained above) is present, then odds have very little to do with it.

 

[Jazz4ever]

So Millsap can't guard Dirk and Sloan should've known that heading into the game. Then what do you suggest? Should the Jazz have benched either Millsap and/or Jefferson and started Elson or Evans in his place - just to guard Dirk? If you do that and sit Millsap while Dirk is in the game - then you're admitting Millsap or Jefferson isn't a legitimate frontline player of the future. When your 2nd, 3rd, and 4th best players don't show up in the first half - that's on them - not the coaching staff.

And this is about odds. Like I said after the win in Portland and the loss to OKC - you don't fall behind by 15+ points and come back and win every time. The margin for error is too small down the stretch.

No, Elson is too slow and was just hacking him. Evans would have been our best chance his long arms would be difficult to shoot over and has the foot speed to stay in front. Dirk could back him down, but its a lot easier to double down low than at the three point line. Sloan needs to play Evans more, he is a unique player and come playoff time will be needed.