Sunday, March 15, 2009

Abused


I guess it really began to fall apart in Atlanta.... what a rocky, rough weekend!

In any event, the Jazz gave up three in row with a loss to Orlando today. We finished off the road trip 2-3. It wasn't exactly what we, Jazz fans, had hoped for going into the road swing.

Trying to pinpoint where our downfall began is difficult to do, but I'll try to explain it in a few select words...

1. Dwight Howard: He destroyed us today, going for 28 and 20. The guy just abused us in the paint. The Magic outrebounded the Jazz 60 to 44 (which is quite unusual because the Jazz are generally one of the better rebounding teams). Howard had a lot to do with that stat. Boozer talked about Dwight Howard after the game, singing his praises by saying, "Howard was a monster, he is one of those guys that people don't appreciate like they should. He should be in the MVP talk, too. He cleans up everything and corrects any mistake they make." Howard had 12 points and 11 rebounds in the first quarter alone. "Howard is awfully hard to deal with," Sloan said. "He took us out of our offense, and then you have to take pot luck out there, and that's usually not a good percentage shot." If Howard is forcing us to take "pot luck" then we're really in trouble. Pot luck? Right on... I guess that means he was dominant!
2. Dwayne Wade: The Jazz always have trouble defending Super-star caliber shooting guards, -whether it's Wade, Kobe, T-Mac or Vincanity- they all make us look bad. Dwayne Wade had 50 points yesterday. 50!... Ouch! He set records on Saturday. Wade "tied his career high in scoring, set new bests in minutes (52½), field goals made (19) and attempted (39), and passed Alonzo Mourning to become Miami's all-time points leader." Afterword, he stated at the end of the game... "Just another day at the office." Boy, I sure hope not... because that's some incredible work-day! I do remember watching the Jazz blow an 8 point lead to essentially give the game away, but that doesn't take away from what Dwayne Wade did to us... serious ABUSE! Abused.
3. Joe Johnson & Josh Smith: These guys double-dosed the Jazz by scoring 31 and 22 points respectively. Joe Johnson started our trend of 2-guard-laden smackdown with his scoring output. It also gave the Hawks something to crow about. Apparently, they think they're pretty good now... "This shows everybody in the world the Hawks are for real," Smith said. "They have to take the Hawks seriously. Utah is an outstanding team. We played the best in the West and were able to beat them." Well... way to go Jazz! We made Atlanta feel relevent. Coach Sloan had some other thoughts, "No, we didn't run out of gas. We didn't come with gas early." No Gas... No Gus... No Fuss. We didn't win. Better luck next time...

2 comments:

Ryan said...

Those were some tough losses, but the toll of the trip may be much higher than three Ls if Deron and Memo have to miss many games because of their injuries. Let's hope we can get things back on track against the Wiz.

Orlando said...

Road woes.

Story of my life.