"Big Easy" not so easy for Burke and the Jazz.

  Mark the day, November 20th, 2013 the first NBA game for Jazz point guard Trey Burke.  Unfortunately for the Jazz they were unable to come away with a win.  Jazz 98 Pelicans 105.  Jazz fought hard the full 48, and barring a few mental lapses, had a chance to steal this one.  Lets take a look....

• Early in the game, Jazz rotations on defense were good.  Getting hands in the passing lanes, getting deflections.
• The officials clearly do not understand the "verticality" rule.  Missing on this call more than any other.
• Trey Burke checks in at the 4 minute mark in the first quarter.  Drives to the hoop on first play and gets the bucket.
• Jeremy Evans was a pleasant surprise.  Knocked down jumpers 4-4. Played solid defense
• The Jazz had 5 blocks in the first quarter.  Finished the game with 7 total...
• I think Alec Burks may be the most excited of the Jazz players to have Trey back.
• The bigs were not aggressive enough in the 2nd quarter.
• The Jazz have a hard time stringing plays together.  They can get one stop, but not multiple stops.  Or they will get a good defensive stop, but will give up the offensive rebound.
• No run of Ian Clarke tonight?
• Richard Jefferson played 41+ minutes again.  I understand that this is due to the struggles of Alec tonight, but you are burning Jefferson and his effectiveness.
• Kanter was killing the jumper tonight.
• Who was that Jazz team in the 3rd quarter?  Knocking down 3 after 3.  Lucas scored 11 in the quarter.
• New Orleans Al-Farouq Aminu plays hard, but has bad hair.
• Kanter ripped down a defensive rebound right out of the hands of Anthony Davis.
• When Lucas got hot it was in the context of the offense.  The Jazz continued to try to get him the ball, but started to force the opportunities.  Killed the offensive flow.
• Tyreke still going right....always right....
• Jazz were right were they wanted to be going in to the 4th quarter.  Still learning how to close out games.
• Trey started the 4th quarter out with a nice rip from Morrow, scored on the other end.
• Trey's command of the pick and roll was fantastic.  He runs it and resets it if he does not get anything out of it.
• Trey hit a great 3 out of the pick and roll.  He is going to make a huge improvement to the Jazz offense.
• Trey was rolling early in the 4th and, sure enough, was pulled.  I understand minute restrictions, but....
• I have a concern with the inequality between the players and the staff.  Kanter and Burks miss on any rotation or turn the ball over, they get reamed.  Hayward missed on a close out on Evans on a 3 and the reaction is different.  Then misses on back to back defensive assignments resulting in 2 fouls.  No reaction from Ty.  
• I understand that Hayward is supposed to be the man, but Sloan expected the same thing from Stockton and Malone as his did from Greg Foster.  Greg Popovich expects the same thing from Duncan and Parker as he does from Patty Mills.  Ty needs to do the same....

  There were some really costly struggles tonight for the Jazz.  Hayward shoots 1-17 and looks dejected the entire time.  Alec Burks turned the ball over 4 times and was -15 on the +/-.  The Jazz really hurt themselves not getting to the line tonight, shot 20 free-throws to the Pel's 33.  On a positive side, the Jazz were 8-24 from 3, shooting 33%.  The majority of those shots came in the context of the offense again, a major plus.

Trey Burke had 11pts 1 reb, 1 ast, 1stl.  Not a bad first night for Trey.  I love what he brings to this team.  He wants to win, has toughness, and knows what he can do.  I hate the "comparison game", but Trey reminds me of Allen Iverson a bit.  He seems to have the same bounce and swagger that Iverson had.  Trey is going to be really good for this team, and I think over the next couple of weeks we will see the kind of development that we want from this young squad.

Back at it tonight.....Home Sweet Home

  Well the 4 game east coast trip for the Utah Jazz was not a friendly one.  Unfortunately for Another Level Sports I had more pressing things on Friday and Saturday than to cover the back-to-back blowouts the Jazz suffered.  I was lucky enough to spend a day on the lake with my 9 yr old son!  Good times and caught a lot of trout!  I did witness both of the beat downs and to be honest I am ready to move on.  Going to chalk them up to a long road trip, young team and the other teams were just better than the Jazz.  Lets look at tonight's match-up with the equally futile 1-4 Denver Nuggets.

  Personally, I have struggled the entire road trip with how the team played and how they were handled by the coaching staff.  The previous posts, I have tried to break down key match-ups, things that need to be accomplished on both the offensive and defensive end of the court.  Today I am going to try to look at this from a different perspective, from a glass half full perspective.  Most importantly I want to look at the areas that the Jazz, as a team need to improve or have made improvements....

Defensively-The Jazz started the season (first 4 games) with really solid rotations and great effort on the defensive end. The same can not be said for the last 3 games.  The Jazz really need to get back to "selling out" on the defensive end.  Giving all they have at that end.  Derrick Favors must be the key to this component.  If he can give greater effort there and cover for some deficiency that others may have, those that are not as gifted defensively can focus more on the offensive side of the ball.  Giving a greater effort there and possibly converting on more offensive attempts.  This is a balancing act.  As the Jazz offense struggles, Favors feels the need to step it up on the offensive end, which is just not his strength at this point.  The past two games the Jazz have done a good job with deflections and getting into the passing lanes forcing their opponents to turn the ball over.  Unfortunately, all the turnovers they are creating are not being converted on the other end of the court.  Jazz MUST keep the energy up and get those deflections creating opportunities for easy buckets.

Offensively-Free-throws were a huge concern the first 4 games of the season.  This is one area we can clearly see some improvement.  The Jazz were shooting less than 70% as a team from the line those first 4 games.  Now they are shooting 73%.  Not a huge jump, but I am not going to complain about any improvement I see this team make.  With as many times as this team can or does go to the line, they need to be shooting 78-80%.  They must take advantage of the "freebies" that they get.  Offensively this team is not great, so any easy points are great points.  The guys get to see the ball go in the basket and can help them with their confidence.  The Jazz must also continue to move the ball as a team.  First 3 games, they averaged almost 20 assists as a team.  A TEAM WITHOUT A POINT GUARD!  The ball can not stop, it needs to move, strong sided/weak side.  They need to make the extra pass, again setting themselves up for the easiest, best shots they can get.  Gordon Hayward has done a great job on the boards.  Increasing his rebounding by almost 2 boards a game as opposed to last season.  This is what is needed from Gordon.  He needs to have at least 6 boards a night.  With the Jazz being a poor defensive rebounding team, this is an area that he and Burks both can help out and be extremely successful.  I can understand why they do not at times, as the staff wants to play an uptempo style.  They feel that they need to be leaking out to get buckets in transition.  I have to look at this from a little different perspective, Jason Kidd was arguably the best rebounder (barring Oscar Roberston) from the point guard position.  Kidd was known for crashing the glass, getting the board and being shot out of a cannon starting a transition opportunity for his team.  I think this is something that could be looked at closely for Hayward and Burks.

  Tonight's game is extremely important, possibly the most important of this young season.  The young guys are at home, and need their first win.  Denver has an ailing Kenneth Farried (Hamstring) and are without the likes of JaVale McGee (Shaqtin a fools favorite target).  The Jazz will need to take advantage of the Nuggets  best defenders being limited or out.  They must attack the basket at every opportunity.  Put the onus on the officials.  Lastly, if they do that and are not getting calls I need to see Ty and his staff go to bat for these players.  This is where the staff needs to develop along with teaching the game.  It can't all be left up to Brad Jones.  Jazz have a great opportunity tonight and Jazz Fans need to go out and support this team.  GO Jazz!

P.S.....Trey Burke has a follow up with docs today!  Let's keep our fingers crossed and hope the Jazz get their POINT GUARD back!

http://www.nba.com/gamenotes/nuggets.pdf
http://www.nba.com/gamenotes/jazz.pdf