Jazz 108, Blazers 92

For the second game in a row the Blazers have found themselves down by at least 14 points at the end of the first.  This is definintely NOT how you want to start off your games especially on the road and in Utah.  Some coaches would call this “coming out flat” I call it “sucking.”  The Blazers defense missed tonight’s game as the Jazz lit up the remnants of the Blazers defense by shooting a sizzling 60% from the field!  The stat that stood out the most to me was the Jazz had 36 assists to just 11 turnovers and were led by 24 points, 15 assists and just 2 turnovers by Deron Williams.  Carlos Boozer almost recorded a triple double on the night with a line of 26-12-7.  The Jazz were hot from behind the arc as well shooting 7-12, very efficient! 

The bright spot for the Blazers tonight was the possible emergence of Jerryd Bayless.  He played 21 minutes and was extremely aggressive, getting to the foul line 11 times on the night and hitting 8 of them.  Andre Miller only played 6 minutes and Bayless was backup PG for much of the night.  Part of the reason Boozer and crew dominated the paint was because of Oden’s foul trouble but the Blazers are trying to get away with playing Oden through foul trouble so he can make in-game adjustments.  Clearly they didn’t work.

Clown of the game: The Blazers team bus.  The driver forgot to drop off the defense.

Lakers 130, Warriors 97

The Lakers dominated this game in every sense of the word.  They had 7 player score in double digits including Gasol (22), Kobe (20), Artest (19), Brown (17), Fisher (13), Bynum (12) and Farmar (10).  That is production if I’ve ever seen it.  The Lakers only had 8 turnovers during this game as well and made 11 3-pointers to the Warriors 4, ouch.  Even Mbenga got into this game, that’s how you can judge if a game is out of hand for a comeback from the Lakers opponent.  The Warriors did have 10 offensive rebounds (3 more than the Lakers) but that’s because they had a hell of a lot more misses after shooting just 39% from the floor.  The Warriors just don’t mesh well in my opinion.  I know this isn’t a true statement, but I feel like every player on their team is a SG/SF combo player.  Do they really have anyone playing a true position?  Maybe, but Don Nelson always finds a way to screw that up.

Clown of the game:  The Blazers team bus.  The driver forgot to drop off the defense.

-The Basher