Portland Trail Blazers vs Utah Jazz / Feb. 3, 2010
Energy Solutions Arena 7:00 PM MDT
(Note: Changed from previous 8:30 PM start time)

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by Clint Peterson / Special to Salt City Hoops

Salt Lake City, UT - Don’t let anybody try and tell you that games this time of year don’t matter. The Jazz are riding the West’s best win streak and have a chance to clinch a second straight season series versus a Western postseason contender in as many games when Portland limps into Salt Lake City for Wednesday night’s divisional duel. Holding the advantage in tiebreakers in the West is paramount to postseason success in a conference with so many solid teams. Two of the Blazers’ three divisional losses have been to the Jazz. With Portland’s Brandon Roy joining the long list of Blazer wounded, Utah has a chance to kick the Trail Blazers while they’re down. A win for the Jazz locks in a third season-series win over a Western Conference contender (Dallas, San Antonio), so this one matters. It matters a lot. Despite the injuries, Portland never quits, as shown by the way they fought back last week after the Jazz opened the game with a 21-4 run.

And how ’bout this Jazz? Smack dab in the middle of a 12-game West-heavy schedule, with seven of the next eight against Western Conference playoff contenders, the Utah Jazz are as hot as they’ve been since their epic run to the conference finals in 2007. The current core is playing its best ball ever, and more importantly, they’re having more fun than they’ve had in recent memory. It’s been a shocking turnaround for a team that seemed to have lost all aptitude for offense just a month or two ago. Now they have that ever-important defensive trust and intensity that was lacking before. The new Jazz have shown that they can rely on tough D to put games away, rather than squander leads. For a while there I thought this team’s inverse relationship between offensive and defensive effort would mean I’d have to be satisfied with one or the other — like Kelly Bundy and her finite capacity for knowledge. But this team is having its cake and eating it too, dropping a C-note in 8 straight games now while holding teams far below their averages.

What to watch for:

In the last week’s win (the Jazz’s first in Portland in nearly four years), Utah came out swinging, winning the first quarter 37-16 with an anything-but-anemic offensive onslaught, giving them the luxury of coasting home. Thurl Bailey called it the best quarter of Jazz basketball he’d seen in years. A similar effort from the Jazz at home would put the game away very early. Deron Williams cautioned against the guys getting “cocky” or “too confident,” and with Carlos Boozer almost certainly not playing until Saturday’s game against the Nuggets, I expect the team to come out hungry for the win.

Speaking of Booz, he has been upgraded to “Doubtful” for the game, which always means “No Chance” in Boozer parlance. This lets Paul Millsap get in there and abuse LaMarcus Aldridge, who tends to shy away from the contact paint-game. While Aldridge is 9th in scoring among power forwards (“power” being a relative term here, as you’ll see shortly), and 10th in rebounding, he is only 18th in free throw attempts-per-game among PF’s. Oddly enough, he also happens to be 18th in FT%, too. Aldridge likes to “pick and pop,” rather than roll, and is actually quite a nice shooter doing so, at 47% from the floor. He’s smooth, so Millsap will need to disrupt his rhythm.

The Jazz must control the pace, not letting themselves get drawn into that slowest-of-the-slow paced Portland game. The Jazz  won the two previous meetings with the Blazers by a combined 27 points, due largely to the fact that Utah got ‘em out of their game, taking smart shots, while forcing Portland to take not-so-good ones. In the last week’s game the Jazz took 63 field goal attempts to the Blazers 92.

Utah also won both previous rebounding battles, holding Portland to less than their season average on the glass. Since losing Joel “Vanilla Gorilla” Przybilla and the Odenator they have fallen from the 12th place rebounding team to the 26th. When Utah out-rebounds their opponent, they win more often than not.

And then there’s Andre Miller and his fifty-two cents’ worth. With Brandon Roy OUT, he’s led the team in scoring four of nine times, but…and it’s a big but, he struggles head-to-head with D Will. In the three previous games before that improbable career high against the Mavs, Miller scored only a total of 15 points in three games. Three games! He’s now averaging 15 in Roy’s absence, which is two above his season average. At least he was. That one 52 point game alone bumped his average a full four points, to 19 a game.

Dre tends to plays defense on his heels, always has, so there’s a very good chance we’ll hear, “Is there a medic in the house?” as Deron licks his fingers in preparation for a little of his patented Shake ‘n Break.

So long as the fellas come ready to play all 48, and Sloan keeps finding the hot hand, as he has, there’s no reason why this won’t be lucky number 7.

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Clint Peterson is a new contributor to Salt City Hoops. Follow him on Twitter @clintonite33

Dallas Mavericks vs Utah Jazz / Feb. 1, 2010
Energy Solutions Arena 7:00 PM MDT

January 31st, 2010 by Clint Peterson / Special to Salt City Hoops

Salt Lake City, UT - Monday night’s game is the third of just three installments for this pair this season, and while showdowns between these two teams are always interesting, the Utah Jazz come into the game among the hottest of the hot in The Association, along with the Denver Nuggets and Cleveland Cavaliers. The teams split the two previous meetings, both of which were in Dallas. This time the venue will be Energy Solutions Arena, where the Jazz have re-discovered their home-court swagger. Utah holds the 4th-best home record in the Western Conference as of this writing, while Dallas is 11-12 on the road this season, 5-6 versus Western playoff contenders this NBA year, and 4-3 versus the Northwest Division overall.

The Mavs come into Monday’s matchup reeling from a tough overtime loss on Saturday to Portland, courtesy of Andre Miller’s 52 point game. Dirk  Nowitzki is having a great year, but has struggled of late, relatively speaking. He’s garnering fewer rebounds and taking fewer 3-pointers than he has in years. I suppose what I’m saying is that this Dirk has been MIA for a while, after getting some sparse MVP talk earlier in the year. Nowitzki has reached the free throw line more times than usual over the last few games as well, making the talk that he’s skittish due to the enamel in his elbow, courtesy of Carl Landry, suspect in my book. Slump or not, Nowitzki is always a tough matchup for the Jazz.

Returning to the lineup for the Jazz will be  first-time All-Star Deron Williams (’bout time, huh?), back from his personal leave of absence to attend a funeral. He may not hang 52 on Jason Kidd and Co., like former Ute Andre Miller just did, but it’s also not needed. The Jazz are sharing the ball well lately, and since the loss to the Celtics in Boston way back in November, Utah managed to grow their league-leading team assist total by a full dime-a-game over the last month, amazingly enough.

Things to keep an eye on:

Dirk is gonna get to the line; 27 times total in the two meetings so far. It’s who defends him that will make the difference. Teams have had success denying him the ball recently, and we all remember just how frustrated Nowitzki can get with a certain Jazz player who just happens to be playing at his former All-Star level right now, Andrei Kirilenko. These two have history! Personally, I was surprised that Sloan didn’t put AK-47 on Dirk more in the first meeting. Memo Okur just can’t seem to slow him down nearly enough (go back and watch the “this Dirk” video again, for proof of this).

With Carlos Boozer most likely out (he wore practice gear Sunday, doing cardio work) until the end of the week, the key to victory for the Jazz will be defensive rotations and keeping the Mavs’ Jason Terry from slicing down the middle. There must be a presence in the paint, especially on the offensive end, and crisp passing. The Jazz turned it over too many times in the first game vs Dallas, but matched a franchise low with a mere 5 giveaways in the second showdown, earning the W in Dallas.

Making smart shot selections is critical. Deron Williams shot 53% in the win over the Mavs. He could be the difference between a “W” or an “L.”

In the loss, the rebounding gap was much wider than in the win. The Jazz aren’t a top rebounding team, but tend to win games when they win the battle of the boards. Mehmet Okur, I’m looking at you.

Paul Millsap is a matchup problem for Dallas, so his continued stellar stand-in play will be a big factor in determining the victor.

Now, the only questions that remain are, will D Will be done doing his Billy Gibbons impression? Will Andrei be thanking Old Spice? And will the Jazz have pulled to within one-half game of the 3rd spot in the West?

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Editor’s note: Clint Peterson is a new contributor to Salt City Hoops. Let him have it in the comments, and catch him hosting the ESPN Daily Dime Live chat during the Jazz-Mavs game on Monday night.