Tyrone Corbin

After 23 seasons, and back-to-back trip to the NBA finals, Jerry Sloan decided to call it quits. Already inducted into the Hall of Fame, Jerry Sloan will always be considered as one of the most successful coaches ever. Winning more than 1,000 games with 1 team is an accomplishment that most thought would never happen. Think of all the milestones Coach Sloan was apart of while the coach of the Utah Jazz.
     *Jerry Sloan: 1,221 wins. 3rd all-time in NBA History.
     *John Stockton: 15, 806 assists and 3,265 steals
     *Karl Malone: 36,298 career points. 2nd all-time in NBA History.
With all of these accomplishments that Jerry Sloan was able to be apart of, and all the winning seasons, maybe it was time for Jerry to retire. What else was there for him to do?

The other night while watching the Jazz vs Blazers game, they took a vote by text about who should be considered for coach of the year? Tyrone Corbin was one of these candidates. So the question I want to know is: Would it be a HUGE slap in the face to Jerry Sloan if Tyrone Corbin was to win Coach of the Year?

Jazz vs Kings

With the Utah Jazz taking on the Sacramento Kings in SLC, some would want to talk about the previous game against the Dallas Mavericks, but there would be none of that when someone named Jimmer comes back home.

The pregame show seemed too long, because all they did was talk about Jimmer. I'll admit, I was not as excited as most, but more anxious, to see how well he would do. I am not a huge BYU fan like some of my family and friends, but I feel like a lot of individuals were wanting the same thing as my brother told me.  That is for Jimmer to score 20 and for the Jazz to win.

It was interesting as I watched the game. Jimmer got the start, as he has been doing for the previous 3 games with Marcus Thornton out with an injury. Everytime Jimmer touched the ball, you would hear boo's from a lot of people. When Jimmer scored, you would hear even more cheers. They had to have been U of U fans. In the end, Jimmer did have a good game, and could have won it for the Kings as well. He air balled his last shot and claimed he was fouled. Now you as a fan can decide (look at the picture to the right). I think Earl Watson may have gotten away with one there. No matter, Jimmer did have a good game, and now a lot of people can see he has more to his game than just shooting and a long NBA career ahead of him.

As for the Utah Jazz, we need forget this game and we need to ignore how poorly Paul Millsap, and Al Jefferson played and focus on those who actually came to play (thankfully or it would have been an ugly loss for the Jazz). CJ Miles (20 points) and Gordon Hayward (21 Points). Even though others would consider the Kings a much lesser component, its was good to see Gordon Hayward get out of his slump. People have been calling for his head, but we also need to remember (regardless of what Karl Malone said on sports radio) that he is only in his 2nd year and only 20 years old. I'm sure behind closed doors, teammates, coaches, and Coach Horny were telling him to keep shooting, because lately, the ball has seemed like a hot potato as he's tried to get rid of it as quickly as he could. If you have been paying attention to all the games, the games against Toronto and Dallas, you could see he was close. He was attacking, and getting to the whole, but he just was scared almost to even try and score. Although, I feel his 3 point shooting still needs to get better, but I'm sure that will also come along in due time.

                                                                                        

DUNK CONTEST NOMINEE

HELP MATT HARPRING ADVERTISE JEREMY EVANS

FOR THE DUNK CONTEST IN ORLANDO!!!

JUST LOOK AT THESE PICTURES

DO WE REALLY NEED TO SAY MORE?

Jazz vs Mavericks

http://www.nba.com/video/games/mavericks/2012/01/27/0021100281_uta_dal_recap.nba/index.html



Next Game: Jazz vs Kings
January 28, 2012 @ 7pm MST

Jazz vs Raptors

This post comes later than usual after the Jazz game on the 25th. Maybe I've been really busy, or maybe I just needed time to cool off because I saw a horrible game as the Jazz lost in double overtime.
I feel I should take a little blame on this one, because I spoke too soon. The other night, I was talking to some of my buddies about how well the Jazz have been playing lately. The one specific comment  I made was "I'm just happy that this year the Jazz are actually beating the teams they are supposed to." So blame this game on me, guys.

The next thing which needs to be discussed, and spread like a wild fire, is the upcoming All-Star game in Orlando next month. We've heard it enough while watching the Jazz games about how Paul Millsap should be an All-Star, but we now need to focus on Al Jefferson. With Utah being a small market, we need to do what we can to get these 2 players to Orlando. After last night's game, we can see how valuable Jefferson is. So get on nba.com and go vote. You can do this every day. When you look at the list of other Centers on the list, is there really another Center, in the Western Conference, that is playing better ball?

                                                                                                 

                                                                                             www.yahoosports.com


Al Jefferson: 14 games Played 
  Rebounds: 9.4 (Ranked 13th.7th among Centers)

Points: 18.3 (2nd among all Centers)

Blocks: 1.5 ( Ranked 15th. 11th among Centers.)

FG %:  Not in the top 40Paul Millsap: 16 games Played

Paul Millsap: 16 games Played 

        Rebounds: 8.9 (ranked 20th. 10th among all forwards)

        Points: 17.5 (12th among all Forwards, 7th among all PF)

Blocks: Not in the top 40

      FG %: .548 (ranked 3rd. 1st among all forwards)

Jazz vs Timberwolves

The Utah Jazz took on the Minnesota Timberwolves last night. The T-Wolves came into SLC just 1 night after beating the LA Clippers on a game winning 3 pointer by Kevin Love at the buzzer. The T-Wolves might have brought their cold weather from Minnesota with them to Utah, but there was no way of stopping the HOT Paul Millsap. Once again Paul Millasp had the job of playing against another top Power Forward. Although some would consider Kevin Love the best PF in the game today, he is playing the 2nd game of a back to back. Nobody can make any excuses for Kevin Love for this night. The last time the T-Wolves had a back-to-back they also lost, but Love scored 30 and had 13 rebounds. This time around, thanks to the defense of the Jazz, Kevin Love only had 15 pts and 8 rebounds, ending his streak of Double Doubles. Millsap on the other hand ended the game with 26 pts and 9 rebounds. Do I really need to say it's time for Millsap to get recognized? The last 3 games, Millsap has outplayed Blake Griffin, Dirk Nowitzki, and Kevin Love. On ESPN Jon Barry named his top 5 power forwards in playing right now. When He named Millsap #4, Michael Wilbon, Chris Broussard, and Magic Johnson all laughed at his list.

I must now go and repent. From the beginning of the season, I have been telling my Dad and others that they need to trade Millsap. Dad, please forgive me.

Next game 1/25/12
Utah Jazz vs Toronto Raptors

New to the Blog

Something this blog needs more of is to include its followers. If you have any pictures of yourself that shows your Jazz pride, then please send it to baldwinjb5@gmail.com and I will be sure to post the picture.
These pictures could be you at a game, or seeing a Jazz player out in the public. ANYTHING you feel would be worthy, just send it in.

Utah Jazz vs Dallas Mavericks

Last nights game had me going through a lot of emotions. There were times where I was excited, upset, ticked off, annoyed and disappointed. I knew this was going to be a tough game for the Jazz heading in, but to be quite honest with you, I wasn't expecting the Jazz to lose either. I felt that with the Jazz being at home, and as of late putting on dominant performances (minus Lakers game), and having the youth and with Dallas playing the night before, should've had the upper hand.

A few things I would like to point out about the game:
1- No matter what game I watch on TNT, if Reggie Miller is the commentator, we are in for a long, long night of some dumb comments. Not only that, TNT makes sure that Reggie's older brother Cheryl Miller does the side interviewing. Excuse my typing. I meant to say sister. It's just every time I see Cheryl, I can't help but think how... never mind.

2- I officially DO NOT like Dirk No"skillz"ski. What a baby! He picked up a Technical Foul going into half-time for slamming the ball. His team was up 59-50.  Then later in the game after getting Derrick Favors to draw an offensive foul he then slapped the ball away from Favors.

3- I have a ton of RESPECT for Earl Watson. After what Dirk did to Favors last night, I loved seeing him back up his player and walk right up and do the same thing but then was ready to "man up". It looked almost like Dirk was scared. Although some feel he should be starting for the Jazz, He serves the Jazz better coming off the bench. He's the one who controls the success of the 2nd unit guys.

4- The last few games have belonged to Paul Millsap. Yes, he did have a good game last night, but the match up I was looking more towards, especially in the 2nd half, was Jefferson vs Haywood. Jefferson should have just faced the basket every time against Haywood and he should've just blown right by him. Haywood is so slow, there's no way he could have stopped him.

5- The last few things I wanted to point out (in my opinion) about the game last night was the disappearance of Raja Bell. Playing well the last few games. He doesn't score all that much, but his intensity level has been high as of late. It was at a low last night. Maybe guarding Delonte West and Jason Kidd isn't that much of a thrill as a Kobe. Also, Devin Harris, not just last night, but the whole season is awful at finishing at the rim.  Enes Kanter, who I feel is a solid guy off the bench, needs to know that you can't come down with a rebound then pump fake 1 time and then expect to not get your shot blocked. He needs to try to hurt someone when he goes back up to score. He's a pretty good free throw shooter. Finally, I liked watching Gordon attack the hoop and just dunk it. And I still can't believe Derrick Favors was ejected from the game last night.

6- Last but not least, everyone see Rodrigue Beaubois try and dunk the ball last night? He was about 5 feet short from the hoop and then just threw the ball at the hoop.  What the!?

Nest Game: January 21 vs. Minnesota Timberwolves

Purpose of Blog

13 games into the shortened NBA season and I am now starting this blog. The Utah Jazz DO NOT get the media attention they deserve. If you are a Jazz fan, then you've had to of noticed that when ESPN does highlights of the Jazz, they usually will show a majority of the opposing teams highlights. Suddenly they will display the final score showing a Jazz win. Another example has been when the Jazz play a game on National television, it's very obvious who the commentators are going for as they get really excited when someone from the opposing team does something fancy. They get really excited. Maybe that will change this year under a new coach and younger players. Coach Sloan was known as "old school" and some people probably thought they were boring. So we will see about this year.

On Tuesday night the Jazz gave a beat down to the Los Angeles Clippers. At one point the Jazz were up by 34 points. After the game, if you were to get on ESPN or Yahoo Sports, the sports writers wrote about how the Jazz beat an "undermanned" Clippers team without Chris Paul and Mo Williams. Nowhere did they mention how the Jazz were also "undermanned" without Derrick Favors and Josh Howard. The majority of the 2nd half was played by the Jazz bench players. Last time I checked, Chauncey Billups is still a good player and although he got schooled and later didn't play much in the 2nd half, Blake Griffin was also still playing. Then the media wanted to talk about how the Clippers looked really tired because this was the 2nd game of a back to back to back. But you can't really use that as an excuse, because the very next night the Clippers played the Mavericks and they looked pretty good. With Chris Paul out again, Chauncey Billups hit a game winner. So with all this said, where is the media coverage at? We should mention the luxury the Jazz were able to display. While other teams in the NBA, because of the condensed schedule, players are getting hurt. We have been able to stay healthy, but even when we have 2 guys out, the Jazz are able to go 12-13 players deep on the bench.

Tonight should be a good game. You have the defending NBA champions coming into ESA. Although losing to the Lakers with Derek Fisher hitting a 3 at regulation, and then losing to the Clippers as I mentioned earlier with Billups hitting a game winner, the Mavericks have been playing good ball as of late. The Jazz have been on a tear as of late. Their last loss coming from the Lakers in overtime and only losing by 3. If Kobe hadn't been on fire, we would have won. Man, I hate I hate the Lakers. I really hate Kobe. I hate Derek Fisher and Pau Gasol, but that will be another post for another day.