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Smooth Jazz
Make way for Utah among Western Conference elite
Posted: Thursday December 21, 2006 11:27AM
by Paul Forrester
Mike D'Antoni won't set out the fine china. Avery Johnson won't cook up a
large pot of Texas-style chili. And Gregg Popovich won't pour a rare Cabernet
from his wine cellar. But no matter how unwelcome the West's elite try to
make them, the Utah Jazz have undeniably returned to contend for the
conference crown.
Through Wednesday, Utah had roared to a 19-7 start and a 3 1/2-game lead in
the Northwest Division. Along the way, they've dispatched the Rockets, Suns
(twice), Spurs, Mavs and Clippers, serving notice that the Jazz will have a
major say in the playoffs for the first time since Karl Malone left to chase
rings in L.A. and John Stockton retired.
"They're deep, they're talented, they defend, they do everything the right
way," summarizes an opposing scout.
Most important, the Jazz are healthy. Last season saw Carlos Boozer on the
bench for all but 33 games with a strained hamstring after missing the final
31 games of the 2004-05 campaign with a strained right foot. Andrei Kirilenko
has missed 54 games over the past two seasons with of aches and pains and
breaks. Gordan Giricek missed 45 games last season alone with everything from
a strained Achilles to tonsillitis.
"Over the last two seasons, it seemed that after three or four games, we had
three or four guys out for long periods of time," Kirilenko said from his
seat in the Jazz locker room Monday night at Madison Square Garden. "It's so
hard to recover after losing so many guys."
Though Kirilenko already missed five games earlier this season, the Jazz --
and in particular, Boozer -- have been generally injury-free this fall. And
after two seasons of dodging criticism from the media for his controversial
exit from Cleveland and from Jazz owner Larry Miller, Boozer is finally
playing up to the six-year, $70 million deal Utah handed him in the summer
of '04, averaging 21.8 points, 11.8 rebounds and shooting 55.4 percent --
all career highs -- while starting every game.
"The [Jazz] want to establish him early and often," observes an Eastern
Conference scout. "Not only does the team find ways to get him involved in
the offense, but he also finds ways [to get the ball] by cutting or setting
good screens or sealing his guy well. He can shoot pretty well to 15 or 17
feet, he's creative inside on the block and runs the floor and crashes the
glass."
The Jazz have followed that formula as a whole in outrebounding opponents by
an average of seven per game and scoring 102.8 points a night, an offensive
tally they haven't produced since 1996-97. Call it catching up to the times
for a franchise long tutored in the physical brand of defense coach Jerry
Sloan brought to Utah from his days harassing backcourt players as a Chicago
Bull. Better, call it Deron Williams.
Now in his second season, Williams is playing like a man determined to
justify being selected one spot ahead of Chris Paul in the 2005 draft. After
shuttling in and out of the Jazz's starting lineup last season while coming
to grips with the demands of playing point for the demanding Sloan, Williams
used the summer to trim down and pick the brain of Utah's last star point
guard, Stockton, while spending a few days with the future Hall of Famer.
"He played with a lot more confidence [at the end of last year]," Sloan says.
"He understood what we wanted him to do. He's a very intelligent player, a
very intelligent person. He worked very hard."
Williams hasn't missed a start this season while increasing his scoring
average more than six points a game (from 10.8 to 17.2) and handing out 8.8
assists a night. He's also provided a Utah team thick with post play a safety
valve from outside the paint. One scout described him as a "Chauncey Billups
with athleticism."
For all the fireworks this Utah team is producing this season, it still, at
heart, is a reflection of Sloan, who, for the 18-plus seasons he has coached
it, has tried to keep opposing offenses as lifeless as anything in the Great
Salt Lake. The Jazz are limiting opponents to 43.9 percent shooting, the
third-best mark in the league.
"They just grind with you," the scout says. "They're aggressive from the
beginning and just so mentally tough. Even if you score once or twice,
they're not going to lose their defensive confidence."
But this isn't the veteran-laden Jazz teams of the late '90s, where
postseason trips were as reliable as passes from Stockton to Malone.
Outside of newly acquired Derek Fisher, Utah is thin on playoff experience.
"I don't know who we are," Sloan said minutes before his Jazz played in New
York on Monday, a game they lost lost in overtime. "We've had some games
where we've played very well and we've struggled in some games. There are a
lot of things we have to improve on. Just name it because we're a young team."
Sloan's cautious approach is echoed by a locker room claiming to look ahead
only as far as the next game.
"I think it's too early to say what we're capable of doing," Fisher says.
"But I think we've shown some abilities to play at a very high level or level
similar to championship-type teams. We have quality players at key positions
and we have good coaching. That's a good formula for success."
Will it be enough to truly make the Popoviches and D'Antonis sweat come May?
"I think the only thing they're missing is a certified go-to guy in the
playoffs who is proven, that guy who can, no matter what, get you a shot, hit
something big for you," the scout says. "That's not to say Carlos can't be
that. We just haven't seen it; they haven't been there before."
If the first quarter of the season is any indication, that likely won't be
the case much longer.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/writers/
paul_forrester/12/21/perimeter.shooting.jazz/1.html
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