In your face, Denver

Seriously . . . today was a crappy day. Crazy rush hour traffic to get to the airport, long flight filled with nagging all the way, end up arriving in Austin, Tx late . . . don't check into the hotel until around 3 am on Saturday (left on Friday), find out that I lost my cell phone somewhere between Detroit and Austin . . . (and it was a fancy $500 dollar phone) . . . but the Jazz beat Denver. So this is good news, and ultimately, a non-crappy ending to a crappy day.

Jazz had to fight for this one, and came from behind to win it. Memo and Boozer had really off shooting nights, but Deron was the hero (as usual). I did not see any of the game, but I did set up my DVR to record it. I will watch it when I get back. Ten in a row, baby!

GO JAZZ GO!

Flashback Friday: "WE'RE GOING STREAKING!"

If you're between the ages of 12 and 40, and are a man living in Western society, you should know what I mean. Though, if you don't, there's this video: (totally not safe for work due to full-rear male nudity and frank talk of boudoir activities) (upon further inspection possibly not work safe for another reason: Leah Remini)

Why am I even blogging about this? Well . . . it's because the Utah Jazz are going streaking right now. The Jazz are on the precipice of a 10 game win streak, Frank the Tank would be proud, so would Frank Layden.

In the history of the franchise the team has won 10 games straight only 8 times before:

• 10 in a row during the 1977-1978 season;
• 10 in a row during the 1993-1994 season;
• 14 in 1994-1995 [an even more amazing 23-2 at one stretch];
• 15 TWICE during the 1996-1997 season;
• 10 games in a row during the 1997-1998 season;
• 11 games in a row during the 1998-1999 season;
• and most recently last season, 10 games in 2007-2008

Honorable mention goes out to the 1983-1984 Utah Jazz that only won 8 games in a row, but managed to go 13-1 during a stretch of the season (and followed that up with a 16-3 stretch). The Jazz play the Denver Nuggets tonight and can make it the 9th time in franchise history. If they win, it's great. If they lose, they join the 1989-1990 and 1999-2000 Utah Jazz teams with only 9 wins in a row. The average (over the 35 year history of the franchise) largest win streak in any given season is only 7 games -- a pretty high number, but it could be much higher if it wasn't for those early years where the longest win streaks were only 2-4 games long (4 of the first 10 seasons were like this).

In previous seasons (especially those dominant years of Stockton to Malone back in the mid to late 90s) these streaks included complete road trips against playoff teams, and beating Western powers at home. This streak, admittedly, has been a little different. Sure, this streak happened during the tail end of a difficult period in terms of injuries *and* this streak included wins over the World Champion Boston Celtics, the Los Angeles Lakers and the very respectable New Orleans Hornets -- but as many in the blogosphere will tell you, this streak isn't anything to be too happy about. Simply put, these were all games the Jazz were supposed to win. (This is an obtuse statement, how many people really thought that the Jazz would beat the invincible Lakers *and* Celtics? These were not all games the Jazz were supposed to win.)

That said, you still have to win the games, and the Jazz have done that (for the most part, the streak would be 13 wins in a row if they took care of business on the road in Oakland back on February 8th). As a result, I think that this is a pretty big deal . . . it's hard to win 5 games in a row (the Phoenix Suns have yet to do that this season, and they have at least THREE of HOF guys on their roster: Shaq, Nash and Grant Hill), but to win 10 would be awesome.

During this streak the Jazz have played only three games against 'bad' teams. While some may point to those games against Memphis, Minnesota and Sacramento as reasons not to hype up this streak, let's not forget that the Jazz won those three games by an average of 16 points. So they blew out bad teams during this streak, they didn't just scrape by. They also beat title contenders when the Jazz were missing key guys to injuries during this current win streak. The Jazz (playing without top scorer and rebounder Carlos Boozer) were able to beat both the Boston Celtics and New Orleans Hornets. Furthermore the Jazz defeated the mighty LA Lakers without Boozer, Andrei Kirilenko nor Brevin Knight. So the Jazz beat some great teams while they themselves were not healthy.

Others contend still that since a majority of these games have been at home (and scheduled in 'favor' of the Jazz) that these wins shouldn't count. If that's the case, then I propose that you throw out all the losses the Jazz 'earned' on their poorly scheduled road trips as well. Either the schedule is a factor that absolves teams of some losses (and takes away some wins); or the schedule eventually evens out over the course of a season and all wins (and losses) are created equal. Which is it? I'm going for equality.

Hence, this streak is legit . . . especially since this streak isn't just for the sake of winning games, but also evocative of a greater improvement of play by the Jazz. It wasn't but a few weeks ago that the Denver Nuggets were up 6.5 games on the Jazz for the division lead. In what appears to be the blink of an eye the Jazz are now poised to close the gap with the Nuggets for the division lead. A win tonight against the Denver Nuggets will do more than just consummate a 10 game win streak (#9 in franchise history), but also send a message to the rest of the West that the Jazz are going to be major players the rest of the way. The schedule for the rest of this month isn't horrible, and as a result, some would wish for the streak to go to 15 maybe . . . though I'd be happy with 10 right now.

Go Jazz Go!

Good dinner guests always help with the Dishes

If CP3 increases his AGP to 11.5 for the rest of the season, what will Deron need to average in order to win the Assist per game crown?

The New Orleans Hornets are 36-22, which adds up to 58 games played. There are 24 games left this season for the Hornets to play in. So far Chris Paul has played in 53 games, and has amassed 583 assists. I think he'll play in the rest of the games for his team, so . . . 24 games x 11.5 apg = 276 more assists. That would give Chris Paul a grand total of 859 assists in 77 games. His APG for the season would then be 11.1558.

The Jazz have played 60 games so far this season, and will only play 22 more. Deron Williams has played in 45 games, so his grand total of games will only be 67 this season. Right now he has 463 assists, and with his 45 games played so far, has an AGP of 10.3. In order to surpass CP3's projected number of 11.1558 Deron will need to considerably up his average. First we need to see how many total assists for the season Deron would need to get to beat 11.1558. He can play a max of 67 games this season, so 67 x 11.1559 = 747.4453 assists for the season. Let's round that up to 748 just to be safe. That would give Deron 11.1641 apg for the season. Next, we subtract the total he would need (748) from what he has now (463). This leaves Deron with 285 assists he needs to collect in 22 games. So for the rest of the season Deron needs to average 12.9545 to beat Chris Paul -- if CP actually increases his current rate of APG.

Nothing suggests that CP3 will increase his APG rate by that much (or that little), or if he will even maintain his current pace of 11.0 apg for the last 24 games. Deron was gunning for assists tonight and finished with 20 -- but he's going to have to look to score a little bit more down the stretch for the Jazz to beat some of the better teams. This type of play may work against Golden State, but it's not going to work against the Spurs or Lakers.

It'll be hard for D-Will to win the assist crown from CP3 this season, but it's not out of the way crazy. If CP finishes his last 24 games averaging 10.5 apg then Deron only needs to average 12 apg to win -- which is much more plausible.

The Requisite CP vs. D-Will head to head tracker

We all love Chris Paul, we love his smile, and his fancy dribbling, and all of his commercials on TV. We also love his temper tantrums, how he gets frustrated and starts to hit people in the nuts . . . or just last night with the game in hand and an opportunity to run out the clock in a classy fashion on the homecourt of a team whose owner just died the day before he decided to drive in for a dunk -- only to get blocked by Andrei Kirilenko (who was not credited for the block on that play for some reason). Chris Paul is awesome. He's the whole package. He just can't beat Deron Williams -- a fact that's known to the NBA and the schedule makers, that's why the Jazz and the Hornets have only played each other 3 times per season twice in the last three seasons. Anyway, here are how they fare against each others' teams:

	Games	MPG	PPG	FGMPG	FGAPG	FG%	3PTMPG	3PTAPG	3PT%	FTMPG	FTAPG	FT%	APG	TOPG	A:TO	STP	BPG	RPG	PFPG
C.Paul	12	35	15.67	5.08	12.50	40.67	0.50	2.25	22.22	5.00	5.83	85.71	8.67	2.58	3:25	2.25	0.08	3.00	3.00
D.Williams	13	35	16.92	6.77	12.54	53.99	1.15	2.77	41.67	2.23	3.23	69.05	8.00	3.15	2.54	0.69	0.08	3.31	2.92

The first thing that shows up is that Deron has played one more game, it's not his fault CP missed one of these head-to-head marquee match ups. Secondly, Deron is killing Chris on shooting percentages (save for the FT line) -- 54 fg% > 41 fg%, 42 3pt % > 22 3pt%. Deron scores more and is way more efficient in his shooting, and Chris assists a little more -- that's pretty much a wash. Chris steals more and Deron rebounds better in this match up. They both have the same number of blocks per game. Chris has a better assists:turn over ratio, but he also fouls more.

Probably the only stat that matters is W 10 - L 2. What's that? That's the score between Deron and Chris, and Deron's beaten Chris 10 times.

Go Jazz Go! and RIP LHM!

Possibly the worst ever pre-season game?

Tonight the Utah Jazz face off against their Northwest Division rivals, the Denver Nuggets in the Pepsi Center. This is a game that would usually be pretty interesting to watch. Unfortunately this game has a few things going against it. First of all, it's in the pre-season, and the major stars (Allen Iverson, Carmelo Anthony, Carlos Boozer, Mehmet Okur and Andrei Kirilenko have all been NBA All-Stars, and a guy who isn't, Deron Williams, just won a gold medal a few weeks ago) wouldn't be going at each other has hard. Secondly, there are just so many injuries that there will be stretches of this game where very little basketball will actually be enjoyable to watch.

Two of these four guys aren't playing tonight . . .

In a nutshell, this game has the potential to be really bad (especially for fans) because Utah and Denver are both so banged up (or slightly injured -- but injured enough not to play). Here are the players who are out for both teams:

Utah	Injuries			Denver	Injuries
Matt Harpring	Out	Ankle		Allen Iverson	Out/Doubtful	Sore Knee
Brevin Knight	Out	Sprained Left Thumb		Chris Andersen	Out	Calf
Jarron Collins	Out	Tendinitis Right Elbow		Steven Hunter	Out	Knee
Paul Millsap	Probable	Corneal Abrasion Poked eye		Sonny Weems	Out	Groin
Andrei Kirilenko	Game time decision	Sprained right finger		Chucky Atkins	Out	Knee
Ronnie Price	Game time decision	Bruised lower right leg		Carmelo Anthony	Probable	Calves, Finger
Gerry McNamara	Game time decision	Stomach flu

For the Jazz I think they can afford to have all of those guys rest save for either Price of McNamara -- we're going to need to have one other PG playing tonight. Can you imagine how interesting it could be to watch Deron Williams be backed up by CJ Miles (as the three other PGs on the team could be out of action)? Or for the Denver fans, how great is it going to be for them to drive to the arena, pay all this money, and then get to watch the Nene and K-Mart show? Thankfully, though, 'Melo looks to play and his Nugget's will have their hands full as the Jazz still run through Deron Williams and Carlos Boozer. The Jazz *should* win, but who is going to be able to handle Melo with both Andrei and Matt out?

YouTube Tuesdays! The Price is Right

Ronnie Price Alley Oop Dunk [0.28] by freedo50 -- Not much build up for this one, just a great deflection by Ronnie Price, resulting in a steal by Ronnie Brewer, and the ensuing Alley-Oop during one of the regular Utah Jazz beatdowns that they give to their Northwest Division Rivals, the Nuggets. Great job Ronnie x2! The "best" part is Carmelo's reaction at the end . . . at least after swiping this time he didn't run away to the other side of the court to hide behind Nene again.