Jazz: Big Win

Last night the Utah Jazz took on the Portland Trail Blazers. The Jazz have won the Northwest Division for the last two years. Mostly because the division is weak but this year it appears to be a much stronger division. Right now the Jazz are in third place in the division. The Denver Nuggets lead the division and going into last night's game, the Blazers were in second place with a one game lead on the Jazz. So last night's game was big. It would either bring us to a second place tie with the Blazers or it would drop us to two games behind. In a close division, these games are crucial. So, with that being the stage:

The Jazz looked great nearly all game long. In the first half, Memo Okur caught fire and provided the offensive fire power for the Jazz. He had 21 points in the first half alone (ended with 27). He was hitting outside jump shots, runners in the lane, and of course the classic "money man" 3-ball. With Deron Williams dishing the ball, the offense had no problem dominating the Blazers in the first half by scoring 57.

Coming out of half time, the Blazers made some clear defensive adjustments. They focused on Okur and slowed him down. Okur had only 6 points in the second half. The Jazz only scored 40 points in the second half. It was clear Utah would have to make some adjustments of their own to win this game. The Jazz quickly turned to their defense. In my opinion, this was one of the best defensive half's that the Jazz have played all year. It was fun watching the Jazz play defense as a team. They would hurry to a double team, then when the player passed out of the double team, the rotation by the Jazz players covered the open men and stopped the Blazers from getting an easy shot. The Blazers have a much bigger team than the Jazz. It was clear that the defensive game plan for the Jazz was to force the ball to the outside and make the Blazer beat them with the jump shot. They did that to perfection and luckily, Portland had a hard time finding the bottom of the net from 3-point land. Portland was only 6-27 (22%) from the 3-point line.

With the powerful offensive first half and a strong defensive second half, the Jazz beat the Blazers 97-88 and moved into a tie for second place in the Northwest division.