The Utah Jazz take on the Boston Celtics tonight in Boston. This game takes on the special meaning tonight as the loser is in the driver seat for the #1 pick early in the season. The Jazz really struggled last night just making a shot. Richard Jefferson went 1-7 from the field 0-4 from three. Favors was 2-8 and Tinsley was 1-5. That is just not going to cut it. The defensive end of the court, the Jazz just had no answer for Brook Lopez and his size. On the season, Lopez is shooting nearly 70% in the lane. That is where he got the majority of his shots. Jazz did not push him out and do their work early. Overall was a tough night all-around. Lets take a look at tonight's match-up versus the Celtics.
Defensively-The Jazz will really need to tighten up their rotations. Last night versus the Nets, there was a play early where Richard Jefferson rotated to the player going to the basket and his man dove to the basket received the pass and scored. Jefferson, clearly upset turns to the bench basically asking where his help was. Guys looked tired and star struck last night. They will need to come out with better effort and energy on the defensive end. Boston's highest scorer is Jeff Green averaging 16.8. Boston is not a team that is going to light it up and put up a lot of points. This team does not have a lot of offensive weapons so the Jazz should be able to really focus on fundamentals and their team defense as a whole. Boston does have two very good young players in Kelly Olynyk and un-drafted rookie Vitor Faverani. Faverani is averaging 9.5 pts and 7.3 rebs. He is a big that likes to get out and run the floor. He has a big body and will use it inside. The Jazz bigs will need to transition well. Olynyk is a really good pick and pop player and a fabulous passer. Probably the best passing big man since Greg Monroe came in to the league. Boston runs a lot of offense through him a the high post as he looks for teammates cutting and coming off screens.
Offensively-This is really where the Jazz need to focus tonight. The Jazz will not win games with Jefferson, Tinsley and Favors shooting the ball the way they did last night. The Jazz did run a number of new sets last night. Most of them seemed to come out of the "FLEX" offense. The Jazz did not execute these plays well at all. According to David locke, these were installed recently and the Jazz have not worked on them much. Tonight could be a night to build on that offense, but I believe you will see the Jazz go back to a more pick and roll, pick and pop heavy offense tonight. The key to the offense has to be the execution. Also the Jazz did not run the floor well last night. On occasion, I have noticed John Lucas really push the ball ahead of the defense and get all the way to the bucket. The issue there is is his lack of size and inability to finish. Also, there is no one else running with him in these circumstances. Look for the Jazz to push and get some easy baskets. I feel that Ty is also searching for someone besides Alec Burks that can come in and give this team a spark. Last night he played Ian Clark 12 minutes. He was 1-2, the one make he had was a 3 pt shot from the wing that he seem to get off quickly. Look for Ty to give Clark some more time on the court tonight, especially if he is able to knock down shots and spread the floor. Tonight just might be the night that the Jazz get their first win of the season. Albeit against the Boston Celtics. But a win is a win. It will be interesting to see how the Jazz handle all of these losses and come out tonight after getting thumped by the Nets. I will be very interested to watch players body language to see how involved they are. Kanter mentally seems to be a little fragile right now and he really beats himself up. After last nights performance, which really wasn't too bad on his part, it will be interesting to see how he bounces back. Always excited for a Jazz game even if they are really struggling. The effort is there and these guys want to improve. GO JAZZ!
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