Jazz have right idea, wrong personnel

[RonnieBrewer (Reverse Layup)]

Jazz have right idea, wrong personnel
Charley Rosen / FOXSports.com
Posted: 4 hours ago

Pity the poor Jazz. They achieved nearly everything they set out to
accomplish in Game 2 on Monday night, yet still lost to the Rockets, 98-90. 

Obviously, the focal points of Utah's game plan were Yao Ming and Tracy
McGrady, and here's what they had in mind:

Above all, Jerry Sloan's design was to have Carlos Boozer attack Yao's huge
but slow-footed defense. He knew that Yao would be guarding Boozer because
Mehmet Okur is strictly a stand-still outside shooter who operates far beyond
Yao's comfort zone.

On most of Utah's offensive sequences, then, Boozer was stationed at the high
post where Yao was forced to guard him face-to-face. On the several occasions
when Boozer received the ball in the pivot, he usually turned and faced Yao.
One dribble either way (mostly left) before stopping and popping, or else a
straight catch-and-shoot, were moves that easily left Yao flat-footed and
helpless. In all, Boozer was 8-for-14 from the high-post versus Yao, and
3-for-4 when he faced up Yao in the pivot.

But Boozer was also able to take Yao to the basket off the dribble from both
the high road and the low road ─ 3-for-5 on these moves. In addition, Boozer
beat Yao downcourt on a fastbreak for a solo dunk, shot 1-for-2 off curls,
and 1-for-1 on screen/fades.

For the game, Boozer was 17-for-30, with 12 rebounds, 6 assists and 41
points. Only two of Boozer's points were tallied when Yao was on the bench.

An excellent strategy perfectly executed.

At the other end, the Jazz planned to have Okur (35 minutes) and Jarron
Collins (11 minutes) defend Yao straight up without the benefit of double
teams. With Okur blocking three of Yao's shots (and Andrei Kirilenko
another), Yao shot only 9-for-24 in accumulating 27 points.

Another excellent strategy, this one executed with plus-results.

The Jazz tried three different defenders against T-Mac ─ Derek Fisher, Matt
Harpring and Gordan Giricek ─ with mixed results. Although Fisher was able
to beat McGrady to the hoop for a total of four layups, his relatively
miniscule stature (6-1 to T-Mac's 6-8) allowed McGrady to simply catch, turn
and shoot too often and too easily.

Harpring's aggressiveness on defense almost compensated for his lack of
foot speed. McGrady failed to embarrass Harpring mainly because his 3-point
attempts were off the mark (1-for-8). Indeed, many of T-Mac's long-distance
dialing was done while he was off-balance. His release was also too
bottom-heavy, so the ball left his hands with too tight a spin, and thereby
frequently fell far short of the mark.

Harpring sought to go right at McGrady in the same fashion that Boozer
attacked Yao. But Harpring's maneuvers included hard cross-cuts along the
baseline, a few curls and several post-ups. In response, T-Mac took Harpring
into the pivot once and scored an easy bucket. All told, Harpring was
7-for-14 for 14 points ─ most of these tallied against McGrady.

Giricek likewise did a yeoman's job of playing McGrady chest-to-chest. Even
so, McGrady made a host of spectacularly twisting fadeway jumpers. At the
other end, Giricek fired mostly blanks on several curls ─ 2-for-6 for 4
points.

For sure, McGrady wound up with 31 points, but he only shot 9-for-29 from the
field.

Still another excellent strategy, this one accomplished in only a barely
satisfactory manner.

So, by limiting the Rockets' big guns to 18-of-53 shooting ─ just 33.9% ─
and by defensing the Rockets well-enough for them to shoot only 36.1% as a
team, how did the Jazz lose?

Because the home team was much quicker and more athletic, and therefore able
to get into the lane and draw fouls. Houston was 34-for-38 from the stripe as
opposed to Utah's 13-for-17.

Because Chuck Hayes had a monster game in a supporting role ─ 5-for-5, 12
rebounds (7 offensive) and 12 points.

Because Okur had another bum game on offense ─ 2-for-9 for 4 points.

Because Deron Williams' offense was slighted. He was 6-for-13, but three of
those shots came at the end of the game when the result was already decided.

Because Kirilenko was awful: On his first touch of the game, he committed a
charge. His second touch resulted in a turnover. His third touch led to a
backboard-shaking brick unleashed from the low-post. On his fourth touch, his
dribble was stolen. His numbers were unacceptable ─ 0-for-3, 3 rebounds, 0
assists, 5 fouls, and zero points. (Okay, he did have two blocked shots.) In
his less than 18 minutes of playing time, Kirilenko looked like he had no
business being on the court.

The Jazz lost because all of their discipline, their execution and their
brilliant blueprint were undermined by their overall lack of quickness and
individual creativity. 

How did this team ever win 51 games in the tough Western Conference?
Because of Jerry Sloan's coaching, that's how. 

But not even Sloan's brainstorms can enable single-engine aeroplanes to soar
with space-age rockets. At least not in the playoffs.


                                http://msn.foxsports.com/nba/story/6732590 

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※ 發信站: 批踢踢實業坊(ptt.cc) 
◆ From: 59.42.97.119
推 amonway:無冕王...唉
推 CarlosBoozer:完了 被摸清楚了
推 RonnieBrewer:Rosen摸了你?
推 CarlosBoozer:Sloan都能蓋被子了
推 colo:人算不如天算阿...
推 monmo:對AK還真是紀錄的鉅細靡遺.....
→ RonnieBrewer:好事不出門, Sucks傳千里。
→ amonway:亂拳打死老師傅...
推 gratitude:昨天偷看了公牛的比賽(教練是Skile?)，只覺得同樣是
推 gratitude:老學究型的教練指揮下，爵士似乎缺少激情，或是說爵士
推 gratitude:缺少一個像Gordon這樣自信又激情的球員，這樣時常被罵
推 gratitude:但也時常有驚人之舉的人物
推 monmo:這不是一直以來都是這樣嗎XD 現在才知道反而怪怪的呢:P
推 monmo:不重三分 也沒搖擺人單打自幹空間(甚至是沒這種球員) 這兩種
→ monmo:球場上最容易振奮的打法在我們體系內幾乎沒有 自然無緣激情
推 monmo:三月前還有老梗秀可以看還有機會品嘗激情 可惜他睡了很久...
推 CarlosBoozer:AK (默)
推 gratitude:其實我的意思是Malone會帶來激情，Russell也偶爾可以，
推 gratitude:但是現在的爵士沒有! Okur只能算半個! DW還不行!
推 gratitude:其實Russell算搖擺人吧!能切能投能滑! S.Anderson也不錯
推 Stockton:AK連兩場都有肉包秀啊＠＠？？
推 gratitude:所以Brewer明年的表現和爵士的成長關係密切
推 monmo:老馬是靠霸王肘跟梟雄腿帶來激情的呀~XDXDXDXD Russell算是
→ monmo:中等左右程度的搖擺人 可是戰術不會做給他有空間單打
→ monmo:SA就真的算是前期爵士真的能打爛仗的少數選手了..會給他自幹
→ monmo:我也很贊同 明年釀酒人在SG位置上能否帶來能量 是爵士關鍵!
→ Stockton:為什麼大家覺得明年釀酒人會留下來＠＠？？