Jazz Hype - A Utah Jazz Blog

[Video] Recap of the Jazz 25 point comeback against Blazers

Brandon — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 00:05:09 +0000

In case you were one of the non-believers who went to bed early, before the Jazz dismantled Portland’s 25 point lead the other night, we have a video recap for you so you don’t feel so bad. This game was probably the top 3 best basketball games I can ever remember seeing. I was jumping up and down forever after Boozer hit that amazing buzzer-beater and sent us into overtime. Man was it good.

A couple of moments of note:
3:25 – Deron’s super-glue like defense on Brandon Roy. That’s why he is the best PG in the game.
4:26 - Jerry barks at the refs and want an ‘and 1′ while the rest of the bench cheers on.
5:28 – Fes’ dunk. SPEECHLESS!
6:00 – Deron’s mind blowing crossover.

Also, if you want to feast upon the beautifully crafted textual goodness by JazzHype Justin, read it here.

[Video] New Deron Williams Mix — Gangsta!

Brandon — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 23:04:15 +0000

Watching this video today made me realize just how lucky we are that Deron Williams is on the Jazz. Charles Barkley just called him the best point guard in the league, meaning he is the best point guard in the world as well. Hard to argue that after watching this.

TPT: Carlos Boozer Dunks Over Chris Kaman

Brandon — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 19:52:10 +0000

The game in Los Angeles against the Clippers was flat-out awful, we all know that. So let’s take away a positive — Carlos Boozer was seeking a bit of revenge on Chris Kaman when he saw an opportunity to exploit the open lane and throw it down with authority. As you remember, Kaman was selected as a 2010 All-Star, Boozer was not. Who looks like the All-Star in this play?

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Inexcusable.

Justin — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 06:47:38 +0000

I probably shouldn’t be writing a post this quickly after a loss. I pride myself on keeping a level head about things, but after the Kings game I told myself “well, I guess the one thing we can take away from this is the Jazz aren’t invincible on the road – at the very least it’ll be a lesson learned.”

Uhhhhh……….

I mean, when our all-star, top tier point guard gets fouled with the game on the line, and my first instinct is “crap, I wish that would’ve just been called a block, I honestly don’t see Deron hitting both of these free throws tonight” – THAT’S a bad sign.

I’m honestly at a loss here people. We’ve seen a lot of great things out of this team this year, and like I wrote about quite a while ago, I was ready to buy into this relationship without fear of them hurting me again.. I bought in because I thought these days were behind us.

Then Kings loss made me wonder, but the Kings/Jazz matchup is always hard fought, no matter which team is bad that year.

But the Clippers?! I mean, minus the ridiculous outburst we saw against Houston on Saturday, Deron Williams has been at much less than an all-star level since the break. Can anyone explain to me how one of the best point guards in the league scores a combined 23 points against the Clippers and the Kings? 23 points against two sub-part to bad teams, while sandwiched between those two games he had 20 points in one quarter.

Inconsistency. That simply frustrates fans. We can obviously celebrate greatness and tenacity, and we can come to grips with terrible, but this?

Now, I feel like I need to be very clear by saying that I am not about to declare “blow this team up” or “trade Deron for Tyreke Evans” like I’ve seen a few fans demanding for in the twitterverse. But something is definitely off from what we saw during the win streak. Same guys, different performances, and I’m simply baffled, and searching for any kind of explanation for it.

So what are your thoughts Jazz Fans? Is this just a slight bump in the road, as we’ll soon return to our January ways, or is this a repeat of the late ‘08-’09 season implosion? It’s hard to imagine the Jazz passing Denver if the night they lose to the Suns, you lose to the Clippers, but do you think it’s still possible? Share your thoughts, a shared venting session should do us all a lot of good.

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Comeback Kids.

Justin — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 09:06:53 +0000

Games like these showcase exactly why sports are, in my humble opinion, the absolute pinnacle of entertainment. You want suspense? Drama? Emotion? Yeah, a good movie or TV show can bring you those things.. But for my money, nothing compares to the scriptless, unpredictable stories that unfold on the court/field/rink/pitch/and everywhere in-between.

Tonight, much like in the dramatic win against Cleveland earlier this year, this one sent you through a full gamut of emotions. I’m ashamed to say I more or less threw in the towel on a couple of occasions. Whether it was pulling out my phone to focus on reading tweets about the lackluster first half instead of actually watching it, or getting so thoroughly frustrated with the start of the second half that I retreated from the TV altogether, it was safe to say the frustration end of the emotional scale was my wheelhouse far too often tonight.

Which is what makes the spectacle of sports so fantastic.

Few things can take me from the pit of frustration and despair to jumping and screaming on the top of the mountain of sunshine and happiness (and often right back down again) within the span of a couple of hours. It’s absolutely remarkable, and even though it has the ability to completely destroy my mood, I can’t help but love the ride. No matter which way it goes.

Anyways, enough of me fawning over how much I love getting wrapped up in sports… How about that game tonight?!

I can’t help but think that this has to be a springboard for the rest of the season… The Sundiata Gaines finish still stands as one of the most excitingly satisfying wins I’ve seen in years, but in terms of pure gut and determination, this win has to be tops for the season thus far. I mean, honestly. They were without AK and Memo, Deron started extremely slow and finished with a horrible shooting night (but decided to show the world that he is, in fact, an extremely solid defender. The first time I saw him guarding Roy late in the 4th I’m pretty sure I yelled at Jerry to fix that problem immediately. DWill shut me up pretty quickly), Fes was playing huge minutes in crunch time and the boys came back to win against a playoff caliber team in a hostile arena on the 4th game of a road swing. A road swing in which they finished with a record of 4-0, and pushed the road winning streak to 7 games.

7 straight road wins. Let’s put that into perspective shall we? The Jazz won 8 road games total last season.

I know there are a lot of pessimists out there — Fans who feel the need to rip Boozer at every turn, get ridiculously upset about the Brewer trade, or just find the dark gray lining of every Jazz cloud they see — To them I must say: we are truly witnessing a special run here.

I went on at length in a previous post about why it’s worth it to let go and embrace this team right now, and I stand by that statement. Yes, I felt like puking after the first 2 and a half quarters last night, but it’s allowing yourself to get that frustrated and angry that makes games like tonight’s that much more enjoyable.

So even if the Jazz get run out of the building by the tough matchup that the Hawks are, sign me up for more.

Either way, it’s one helluva ride.

Jazz Deal Ronnie Brewer to Grizzlies for 2011 Draft Pick

Justin — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 21:04:12 +0000

After all the Boozer rumors that swirled around espn.com this morning, at the last minute it was Ronnie Brewer who was sent packing…

Memphis has expressed interest in Ronnie B all season long, so I guess it wasn’t a huge surprise, but I’m sure there are many out there who were extremely taken aback by this news – However, I must admit, it caught me slightly off guard as well.

Based off of a lot of the instant reaction I’ve seen across the twitterverse, there doesn’t seem to be too many fans of this move. After being told the Jazz were only going to make a move if they felt it made the team better, I can see why there are some fans who feel mislead, but while I have always liked Brewer, I can’t say that I feel this move is going to really hurt the Jazz in the long run.

The first thought that comes to mind is that this is purely a salary move – and one that is going to save the Jazz quite a bit of money this year. Again, in these times, that fact cannot be overstated.

Beyond dollars and cents, let’s look at this a little further. Before this trade the Jazz had Ronnie Brewer, Wesley Matthews, CJ Miles, Kyle Korver and at times Andrei Kirilenko basically playing the same position. This brought some great depth, but it was simply hard to find minutes for all of these guys. Korver was facing constant DNPs, fans were clamoring for more Matthews, and the pure fact of the matter is that Brewer’s numbers have slipped significantly. Since the beginning of January he’s scored in double digits 5 times, while scoring in single digits 16 times. His average minutes per game have gone down every month since the start of the season as well, and bearing that in mind, the fact of the matter is that the Jazz have started playing much better as Ronnie’s minutes have gone down and others’ have gone up.

As far as the trade pick goes, it’s important to keep in mind that the trade is protected (I’m curious to see how protected it will be), but even though they’re having a solid season this year, the Grizzlies are never a bad team to have a draft pick from.

Anyway, these are just my knee-jerk thought to this trade.

Personally I’m very interested to see what guys like Matthews and Korver make with extended minutes, but most of all I’m very interested to hear what you think about this trade? Are you going to miss Brewer? Do you think the Jazz should have made any other moves? Do you think this trade was purely to clear up the confusion of having two Ronnies on the team?

Sound off!

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Road Warriors.

Justin — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 18:35:58 +0000

Ladies and Gentlemen. We have a .500 road team… I’m sure that like many of you, I was very interested to see how this team came out of the break. After the embarrassment they put up against the Lakers, would they come back from their time off lackadaisical, frustrated, or continuing with the same fire and solid play we saw throughout late January/early February?

Justin C did a great job previewing the 4 game roadie the Jazz find themselves in the midst of right now, and after a hard fought 2-0 start to that trip, we find ourselves at 12-12 on the road for the year so far. It has been so long since I can remember being at or above .500 this late into the year that I was forced to do some research to see when that was.

After 24 road games, you’d have to go back to the 06-07 season to find a Jazz team who was experiencing at least moderate success while away from SLC.

This is what the Jazz’s road record has looked like after 24 road games from the 06-07 season on:

06-07: 13-11

07-08: 9-15

08-09: 8-15

09-10: 12-12

For some reason, I’ve felt like the Jazz have had more quality road wins this season then we have in quite some time, even more than they did with the better than .500 mark back in 06-07. So I decided to follow that gut reaction and dig even deeper…

With the 13-11 mark they held in 06-07, five of those games were against teams that finished with a record of .500 or above. In contrast, this year with their 12-12 road record, 7 of those teams are currently at or above .500. That’s a full 20% better than 3 years ago, and last year? With their 8-15 record, a whopping zero of those wins were against teams that finished with a winning record.

Of all the things we’ve seen lately out of this year’s squad, I can honestly say this vast improvement on the road has to be one of the things that gives Jazz fans the most hope.

Friday’s game in Oakland could be your classic trap game. If the Jazz come in turning the ball over like they have the last couple of games, we might be in for an interesting night. If they come out and play with the same level of determination we’ve seen over the last several road games, then we very well may be on our way beyond Thunderdome.

(PS – after looking at the header image I made for this post, am I crazy in thinking that I would totally watch a post-apocalyptic movie in which AK-47 doles out Russian-style justice to roving biker gangs?)

4-Game Roadie

justinc — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 07:43:39 +0000

So now that the Jazz have gotten past the Rockets, some of you might have had the same thought I had,”The Jazz can win 4-in-a-row on the road.” Well…maybe not. While I agree they are as hot as any team in the league, and the three games left aren’t against top-tier contenders in the West, but when was the last time they pulled off a 4 game sweep on the road?

You have to go back 8 years to find the last time they went win-win-win-win outside of Salt Lake City. The Jazz left town to make way for an Olympic-size party in SLC for 2 weeks. Since then they’ve had 44 4-game road trips which break out as follows:

0-4 – 3 times

1-3 – 18 times

2-2 – 19 times

3-1 – 4 times

Even despite their pathetic road woes, I think they can do it. Maybe I’m naïvely buying in like they can get me to do from time-to-time, but I like their chances to get each of the next three. What you think? How will they finish on this road trip?

Road Warriors.

TPT: Deron Williams Dunks in Dallas!

Brandon — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 23:13:52 +0000

Did anyone catch Deron Williams Dunk in the All-Star game in Dallas? Wait scratch that — both of his dunks in Dallas?!? They were awesome to say the least and you could tell that Deron had a lot more energy than most the other players out there. Deron truly was excited to be at the game, and it showed. He was so excited that at the end of the game he forgot what the score was and fouled Dwyane Wade with just seconds to go as the score was tied. We still love you though Deron!

Deron Williams 2010 All-Star Nike Hyperdunk Shoes

Brandon — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 07:07:58 +0000

For Deron Williams first All-Star game, Nike is hooking him up with this unreleased version of the Hyperdunk. They are red obviously to match the colors worn by the Western team, and also feature a really cool wood grain print.

Image from Ross Siler

It seems like Nike is giving Deron Williams more and more opportunities with each passing year. I was on the Nike Basketball website today and Deron was featured on the site as one of the most popular site ‘tags’. Other tags that were players were Lebron and Kobe. So to see Deron put in the middle of Kobe and Lebron was pretty shocking and can only be a sign of greater things to come, like his latest Nike Human Chain commercial.

These kicks are much better than the Nike Zoom Flip’n D Will that were released back in January of this year.