Game 7 Recap: Utah 93 - Philadelphia 80

Game at a Glance:

The Jazz bounce back from the ridiculous loss to the New York Knicks and win a game on the road. This was the first win on this five game Eastern Conference Road trip, and was a necessary win in the first game of a back-to-back set. Adding to the drama of this event was the fact that it was Kyle Korver's return / revenge game against his old club, the Philadelphia 76ers. It was also Kosta Koufos' first start in the NBA because every other bigman was out: Mehmet Okur was in Turkey to be there with his ailing father; Jarron Collins was still injured from his golf cart incident during the summer; and Kyrylo Fesenko had to leave the country due to visa issues. Oh yeah -- it was also Deron Williams' first game of the season as well. Pretty big game, storyline-wise. The real story of the game was the dominating performance by the Jazz bench (38 to 12 points), and the Ronnie Brewer show in the 4th quarter. Philly had no answer. (and haven't had him for a few seasons now . . .)

[ ESPN.com's boxscore -- Yahoo!Sports.com Game Recap -- NBA.com's game highlights -- SLCDunk.com -- TrueBlueJazz.com ]

Jazz Quartet -- Top Four Players of the Game:

Andrei Kirilenko	Carlos Boozer	Paul Millsap	Ronnie Brewer
Photographed by Ron Cortes for Philly.com	Photographed by Tom Mihalek for AP Photo	Photographed by Jesse D. Garrabrant for NBAE/Getty Images	Photographed by Jesse D. Garrabrant for NBAE/Getty Images
Andrei seems to have a permanent spot here as the team continues to have a wide variety of injuries this season. Andrei had a much better game than the last one, and he finished with 16 points (6-8 shooting, 4-4 from the FT line), 8 rebounds, 3 assists and 1 block in 33 minutes of action (and only 1 turn over!). Andrei was patient on offense finding his team mates, out-rebounded Dalembert on some misses and shot at least three outside jumpers with a high level of confidence, and swished each of them. He was one of four guys with at least 16 points in the game!	Boozer had another double double, this time with 19 points and 16 rebounds. If he was shooting better from the FT line he would have had a 20-10 game, something that has so far been elusive to him in the last few outings. He made himself a good target for Deron Williams, and the side pick and roll was called often, and worked often -- Boozer actually had a double double before halftime in this game, and Deron Williams had 8 assists. Boozer was a beast inside, scoring in a variety of ways, but his jumper was off -- and that's something that we're going to need to be on during the rest of the season against harder clubs.	Millsap tied Kirilenko with 16 points off the bench (though, he was slightly less efficient, going 8-12), and added 6 rebounds, 3 blocks, 2 assists and 1 steal. His defense and rebounding was instrumental during the 4th quarter run by the bench, and his hard work was rewarded as his team mates looked for him inside. So far the unselfish play of the Jazz has really been a key reason why they've continued to win games with so many guys out. Millsap is a great example of this unselfish play.	Ronnie Brewer is going nuts these last few games. Last game was a 12/7/7 with some other stats for change. This night Brewer started off slowly (zero points at half, after missing all of his shots), but his team continued to work the ball to him, and he delivered when it counted. Ronnie finished the game with 16 points (6-16 fg, 0-3 3pt, 4-4 ft), and had 9 assists and 4 steals. Yes, he and Andrei almost had double doubles in this game, and both are 'second' tier players on this team. That's depth!

Digging Deeper:

There were several points to this game. The first is that, really, the Jazz won yet another game while being vastly short-handed. Kosta Koufos has to start, and nearly played half the game, against some of the best bigmen in the business (Brand and Dalembert). He did a fantastic job, and while he did not shoot a great percentage (3-8 fg), the times where he caught the ball somewhere close to the rim he did not hesitate and made a good, solid move to score. He still managed to get 6 points, 5 rebounds, 2 blocks and a steal and an assist in his time on the court. I was impressed with him on the offensive end with his ability to actually make a fluid post move. I was also impressed that he got the rebounds he was supposed to get. (nothing amazing, like how Boozer or Millsap get rebounds they should not get, but at the same time, not like Collins who misses rebounds he should get) Lastly, while he was really nervous (as any rookie should be), he manned up and played good ball. He had a good sequence in the 2nd quarter where he was making life hard on Elton Brand (who would finish with 13 points and 5 rebounds), and tied him up and forced a jump ball -- which Kosta won. Great job, Kosta!

While Koufos was impressive Deron was somewhere between impressive and 'meh'. He felt the need to come back sooner than he should have, and while he did have an okay game (statistically at least, with 7 points and 9 assists, 2 boards, 1 block and 2 turn overs), he did not play a good game. He did control the pace and was able to break his man off the dribble and find an open man on occasion -- but he was just as likely to pass the ball to someone a bit off where it should have been. He also forced his way inside, but did not have the speed, lift, or balance to make layups. His outside shooting was also pretty off.

Photographed by Jesse D. Garrabrant for NBAE/Getty Images

All in all he finished with 1-8 shooting (worse than Kover's 1-7, or Price+Knight's combined 1-5) and was just not quick enough on defense. Lou Williams was going by him with regularity before halftime. Even worse is the impression this game may have left on the minds of some people -- Andre Miller finished the game with 25 points -- most of them coming on unmolested layups. Some people may attribute that to Deron's defense, however, that just is not the case. Miller got many transition buckets, and lay ups in the same way Brewer does -- camping under the rim and getting the pass. Still, 25 points to Andre Miller is ridiculous. It's a good thing that no one else showed up . . .

Or more precisely, that Philly only really showed up in the 3rd quarter when their defense really clamped down on the Jazz when Deron and Boozer went to the bench. What was once a 14 point lead ended up becoming a 4 point deficit after the 3rd quarter was in the books. While that may have been reminiscent of the previous game in New York, the outcome of the 4th was nothing like it. Why? I'll tell you why! The Jazz bench (Knight, Korver, Kirilenko, Millsap, and starter Ronnie Brewer) started the 4th quarter on a 9-0 run which was mix of hustle on offense (like Andrei's 2nd tip shot attempt basket) and defense (Millsap had 2 blocks early in the 4th). By the time the main timeout of the quarter occurred the Jazz bench had outscored Philly 15-4 in the quarter. After that it was lights out as Deron Williams and Andrei Kirilenko kept feeding the hot hand, Ronnie Brewer, and he finished with a high number of layups and 'and ones'. Game over.

Next Game: Wednesday, November 12th, 2008 -- Utah @ Washington Wizards [2nd night of a back-to-back]

Poll Result: What will happen first?

Wow, when I first put up this poll I had no idea what was going to happen first. Many visitors of the blog also did not know . . . up until 2 days ago when I had about 27 votes in one day. It's no surprise to see what DID happen first mirrored the popular vote in this poll.

		Votes	%	Notes:
	Jerry Sloan will win his 1000th game with the Utah Jazz.	25	56%	Jerry Sloan won his 1000th game with the Utah Jazz on November 7th, 2008.
	Deron will return to the court.	12	27%	Deron was recently told that while he is, indeed, ahead of schedule, only in the most optimistic of cases would he actually have been able to return to play after 2 weeks -- his current schedule aims for him to be on the court after 4-6 weeks from his initial injury.
	C.J. will return to the bench.	4	9%	C.J. Miles has started every game this season for the Utah Jazz, and his play has improved of late -- last game he scored 7 points (2-4 fg, 2-2 3pt, 1-2 ft), had 2 rebounds and 3 assists in 16 minutes of action.
	Ronnie Brewer will make 5 total three pointers.	2	4%	As of November 8th, 2008, Ronnie Brewer has gone 3-6 from three point range.
	Memo will start to hit threes, at the expense of his (current) double double averages.	1	2%	As of November 8th, 2008, Mehmet Okur is averaging 15.2 ppg and 7.2 rpg. He has hit a total of 3 three pointers this season -- when he was not hitting threes, he was averaging a double double. When he started to hit threes (the last two games) he has averaged only 6.5 rpg -- but 19 ppg. So, technically, this is what happened first, though only one person voted for it.

This was fun, because I felt like any number of these possibilities was -- truly -- possible. The sure bet was Jerry Sloan though, and was a mortal lock after the Jazz beat Portland to go up 4-0.

Things to look for this season: Matt Harpring

Love him or hate him, we can all be pretty secure in the knowledge that when (not "if") Matt gets back off the IR, that he's going to play at least 10 mpg at small forward for the rest of the season [Unless Ceejay levels up a few times while Matty is out and becomes a real NBA Starter, of course, but I'm not going to hold my breath]. I could go on and make this a very short post, but I think Matty deserves better.

Like so many other players (Mark Eaton, Thurl Bailey, Jeff Malone, David Benoit, Donyell Marshall, etc), his best years were playing off of Stockton and Malone -- but those years were almost a lifetime ago. In my mind he is now probably best suited as a 'life coach' for our younger players . . . if they could adopt his work ethic then I think we'll be sitting pretty at the center spot in a few seasons. That said: he is still useful on the court. Before you leave this website forever let me further explain what I mean. Harpring is a physical three who rebounds well for his position and doesn't back down from anyone. In recent seasons he's been a thorn in the side of everyone from Carmelo Anthony to Ron Artest. Guys like Korver, Miles and Almond are just not going to be able to make Ron Artest get ejected or take 'Melo out of his game. He's useful in specific situations, especially because we do not have anyone who can replace what he gives on the 'toughness' angle just yet. [I highly recommend this uploaded video by xunlucky17x]

That does not mean I think he needs to be playing big minutes, but he's a special type of player that is useful in certain situations. He's like your 2nd string fullback in American football -- he may not be the starter, or useful in all situations, but on a 3rd and short he's going to get the job done. If you put Harp out there to muscle up against another physical small forward then he is actually useful.

If the other team isn't using a physical small forward then don't put Harpring in the game. Simple as that. Why? Well, for starters: statistically he is getting worse, his shooting range seems to be positively correlated with my shrinking hair line. Back in the early 2000's Harpring could hit threes and I had a full head of hair. Now Harpring misses layups and I have to comb my hair down. It's a sad time for both of us. You don't want to have Harpring on the floor unless you really need to have him on the floor. (Especially when we're close to a title and need to have our younger guys be developed now rather than later) If you need any other reason why you don't want him on the floor just ask yourself if you think Harpring is quick enough to defend any perimeter small forwards any more. The answer is, of course, no.

Harp will not let go of playing time without a fight, just like he wont let go of this ball unless he gets to keep Luke Ridnour's forearm as a prize.	Click on the image to make it bigger

Here's a chart that (tries to) depict how many games Matty has played in each of the 6 seasons that he's been with the Utah Jazz. [This is the dark blue bar] This chart also (tries to) depict how many minutes he plays per game.[This is the light blue bar] As you can see he usually plays over 70 games per season (he has averaged 75.5 games per season in the last four seasons). He played 36.6 minutes per game back in 2003-2004 -- his most as a Jazz player -- but since then there's been quite a decline which corresponds with accumulated injuries and advancing age.

If you've done the math (and I have, if you want I can e-mail you the spread sheet) over the last four seasons (from age 28 to 31) his minutes per game has been going down by (on average) 4.625 mpg in each successive season. [Data: -3.5 between 2002-2003 and 2003-2004; -5.7 between 2003-2004 and 2004-2005; -1.9 between 2004-2005 and 2005-2006; and -7.4 between 2006-2007 and last season, 2007-2008] For you math geeks out there who remember their y=mx +b and slope = y2-y1 / x2-x1 formulas the average rate of declined MPG (in this case, -4.625) is also equal to the slope if you use the points (2, 36.6) and (6, 18.1).

If you extrapolate this to the next season, this current season (2008-2009), then you get 18.1 - 4.625 . . . or 13.475 mpg. I could live with Harpring playing 13.5 mpg this season, I'd be happier with 12, but I'll take what I can get. It remains to be seen if his playing time decline is going to be so linear . . . he may very well just play in under 70 games this season, but in those games play closer to 20 mpg for all I know. All of this gobble-dee-gook aside, what three things can we look for this season from Matt Harpring?

1. He's not going to be rushed back: The Jazz have enough wings to weather the storm until he comes back to "anchor" the 2nd unit with his veteran play. (Anchor, as in, he brings the play down, check out his +/- stats sometime, 4th worst on the team last season) In as way, his injury has come at a good time when Sloan is more open to trying out different line-ups and open to developing his young talent. We've already seen C.J. Miles take the starting role while AK supplants Harpring and the key bench veteran. Matt Harpring's current injury is the main reason why Jerry Sloan has had to change up the line up this off-season. (Sure, Deron's injury is an acute issue right now, but the line up was changed before he got injured) You can be sure that when he comes back that Jerry Sloan will shuffle things all over again. Right now AK is being put in the veteran off the bench role that our second unit really needs for stability. This is usually Harpring's role, and I can easily see Jerry Sloan immediately revert to putting AK at the 3 in the starting line up after Harpring is back. Though, Jerry does some funny things time to time, like how in 2005-2006 to finish the season Memo was the starting 4, and Carlos was the 5, because Memo had been playing the 4 most of the season while Carlos was on the injured reserve. I can't really predict what's going to happen when Harpring gets back, but I know that he's going to play. He's not going to give up playing time without a fight either. Thankfully, there is no current time table for his return, so we're not going to see him for a while.
2. Frustrate the fans: Some fans are going to complain that when he comes back that he still plays too many minutes. Some will complain that he's not playing enough and that "we need his _____" (defense, rebounding, toughness, scoring, veteran play, hustle, flops, crew cut, fouls, whiteness ?). Both sides are not going to be placated until he retires from the NBA and joins the Georgia High school Football Hall of Fame. (Apparently there is such a thing, and here's Harpring's high school team's record) He's one of the most divisive players in Utah Jazz history, and part of the reason stems from the fact that many fans would rather develop his eventual replacement instead of keep giving a guy all these minutes as he breaks down every season. (Jazz career average for games played per season: 68.5) He's injured right now, and there's no time table for his return -- so the "sit Harpring" contingent will have an undisclosed amount of time to sit Harpring all they want. To be clear, I think I fall neatly in that contingent as well, but I don't think that it's time to take him out behind the barn and shoot him yet. (That's next season...)
3. Continue to play physical, smash-mouth basketball: If the Jazz are in the playoffs, he is going to play in them. I don't know when his immune system is going to be back online, but I can empathize with him as I've been a little sick lately. When he does come back, I feel bad for the forwards that'll match up with him when he's finally been given the green light to play at full velocity. (Speed just isn't a strong enough word to describe his game) He only knows how to play the game one way, and you can be sure that he'll be a force to be reckoned with when he's on the court this season. (Just a force for which team, ours or theirs, remains to be seen) If we have to face a team with a physical small forward in the playoffs I can see him getting a lot more burn than 10-14 mpg like he will this regular season. I'm pretty sure that he can rattle a guy like Artest if they face off against each other in the playoffs.

I don't know when he's going to play for us, but it's a safe bet that the Jazz may start off by watching his minutes very closely. This may contribute to continuing a downward trend in minutes played per game for Matt, and as a 32 year old with the knees of a 45 year old, I'm sure his body (if not his mind) will appreciate it. Now only if he can continue to teach the younglings (Kosta and Kyrylo) how to throw their body around and play physical like he has all these years . . .