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Jazz march on with Sloan at helm
First place Utah presents will be tough matchup for Raptors
January 19, 2007
Doug Smith
sports reporter
As tests go, a true one presents itself to the Raptors tonight.
Never mind the injury-ravaged Milwaukee Bucks and Boston Celtics or the
fast-fading Sacramento Kings, the Utah Jazz are an entirely different breed.
The Northwest Division-leading Jazz (25-14) are successful and deep, well
coached and well prepared and come into tonight's game at the Air Canada
Centre off a gritty road win in Detroit on Wednesday.
But Utah coach Jerry Sloan knows his team - and the league - well enough to
realize that coming into Toronto and leaving with a win won't be easy.
"That's one of the advantages of having people support you, having people
care about you," Sloan said Friday morning. "Players feed off that a great
deal, some players feed off it more than others. Great players play wherever,
but you usually find out your bench players play much better at home than
they do on the road. I think that's pretty much a given throughout the league.
"We can't take anybody for granted or take anybody lightly."
The enduring symbol of the Jazz - now that John Stockton and Karl Malone
have wandered off into retirement - is Sloan. He's been in the same job for
19 years - eons as far as contemporary professional coaches go - and he's
been running the same pick-and-roll system for as long as he's been there.
"Jerry's been doing this a long time, he's got the data to prove that what
he does over the course of time is going to work," Raptor coach Sam Mitchell
said Friday morning.
"How many coaches can have the success he had, then they hit a lull for
three, four years and still be in the same situation? Normally, you have a
drop off like that had, not making the playoffs and things of that nature,
that coach wouldn't be there.
"I think Jerry's been in such a unique situation where ownership is
comfortable with him, they have confidence in him and even though they were
down, they didn't lose confidence in Jerry. They just had to find the type
of players that could do what they need them to do."
The type of players he's got now includes the emerging all-star Carlos Boozer.
The Duke product was the object of scorn in Utah last season when injuries
forced him to miss more than half a season - for the second year in a row.
But Boozer, who showed early promise in his career after being drafted by
the Cleveland Cavaliers, has developed into one of the NBA's top players,
averaging 22.3 points and 11.7 rebounds per game this season.
"I don't think he's done anything (differently)," Mitchell said. "Before he
got hurt he was playing the same way and then he got injured. All of sudden,
because of the money he was making, people got down on him but Utah wouldn't
have paid him that money if he wasn't doing what he was doing in Cleveland.
"When you're injured, you can't play like the way you want to play."
http://www.thestar.com/article/172922
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