Game 27: Orlando Magic (12-14) @ Utah Jazz (15-11)

[red4hf]

This game is the Jazz season in a nutshell...... Play well, build a lead, play like crap, lose the lead, furious flurry, retake the lead..... To be seen if the can hold on......

[KqWIN]

We really just out talented them here at the end. Several tough plays made by Mitchell/Bogey in a row.

[red4hf]

Mitchell and Bogey carried the team in the 4th...... Gobert played well the entire game though......

[Rauxcee]

If Orlando had an average shooting night from 3 we'd lose this game.

This team just isn't fun to watch anymore and these wins against lesser talent is only masking the problems this team has.

[Knightro]

Good luck tonight!

The Magic have been hilariously bad against teams with winning records (1-11 with the only win being against Philly who was resting Embiid) compared to teams without (11-3).

Vucevic played on Sunday after missing 11 games with an ankle and showed no rust putting up 20/9 in 29 minutes.

I expect your boys to pull away late, but it should be a competitive game.

Jazz 108, Magic 101

Almost nailed it exactly

Good game. Wish the outcome had been different.

[BudTugly]

This board sounds depressed. Which I can relate to.

I dunno. I think there is a lot yet to be seen from this team. The Jazz seem like an animal that has a thorn in its foot. They are just much better as a collection of players than they are as a team at this point.

I don’t believe statistics are telling a story that explains why.

[Inigo Montoya]

Another disappointing game. The Jazz were up 17 and then stopped playing. We were once again lucky to pull out this win at home against a significantly weaker team that shot very poorly while out shots were falling. Again, several good individual performances for several players but the team itself looked very meh, despite some moments of nice ball movement.

Bojan was once again a savior for the Jazz with his hot shooting. I thought Conley played well (it's all relative with him, really) in that he didn't make any mistakes other than fouling Augustin on a three point attempt and he did make good plays and reads, but still, he's playing like a role player and does nothing special for this team that a regular mid-level type player can't do. The broadcasters said during the game that he aggravated his previous injury so we'll see if he's due to miss some more games.

[Crunch 99]

I turned on the game with the Jazz ahead 13-10, and just in time to see DM make a pass out to a wide open Joe Ingles at the top of the three point line. Instead of shooting, Ingles faked a shot, took a dribble inside and passed back out to Bogey, resulting in a three second violation on Rudy and a turnover. Everyone expected Ingles to take that wide open three. It is infuriating when Ingles passes up a wide open three to get us a turnover or a worse shot.

So it seems that I tuned in to the game just in time to see Ingles have his worst play of the game. There was a timeout after this play and Rudy said something to Joe as they walked back to the huddle. I have to think Rudy told Joe to shoot the damn ball when he is wide open. Ingles went on to have good stats for this game, scoring 16 point on 8 attempts along with 12 rebounds.

I just noticed that Ingles as a starter (that's seven games), is averaging 11.3 ppg on 7.7 attempts, including 51.9% from the field and 50% from three. Off the bench Ingles is only averaging 7.6 ppg on 7.1 attempts, including 36.2% from the field and 31.2% from three. It would be nice to keep Ingles as a starter if he is much more productive in his old starting role, but I don't know what to do about our bench problem.

[Crunch 99]

I guess in order to try to the lessen game time with bench players, Ingles, Bogey and Rudy played 37 minutes each last night. Not sure that is a great long term solution, because It raises the risk of injury or poor play from weariness. We need to start getting some positive minutes from the bench.

[Crunch 99]

MItchell sure looked great late in the game.

[KqWIN]

This team is almost the exact opposite of last year. Last year we played great basketball and had strong depth, but we lacked shooting and couldn't close games. This year, we have great shooting, no bench, play selfishly, but have also done well in close games.

[KqWIN]

I turned on the game with the Jazz ahead 13-10, and just in time to see DM make a pass out to a wide open Joe Ingles at the top of the three point line. Instead of shooting, Ingles faked a shot, took a dribble inside and passed back out to Bogey, resulting in a three second violation on Rudy and a turnover. Everyone expected Ingles to take that wide open three. It is infuriating when Ingles passes up a wide open three to get us a turnover or a worse shot.

So it seems that I tuned in to the game just in time to see Ingles have his worst play of the game. There was a timeout after this play and Rudy said something to Joe as they walked back to the huddle. I have to think Rudy told Joe to shoot the damn ball when he is wide open. Ingles went on to have good stats for this game, scoring 16 point on 8 attempts along with 12 rebounds.

I just noticed that Ingles as a starter (that's seven games), is averaging 11.3 ppg on 7.7 attempts, including 51.9% from the field and 50% from three. Off the bench Ingles is only averaging 7.6 ppg on 7.1 attempts, including 36.2% from the field and 31.2% from three. It would be nice to keep Ingles as a starter if he is much more productive in his old starting role, but I don't know what to do about our bench problem.

I've been hating on Ingles, but he is playing very well. Right now the Jazz have 5 good players. Or should I say, 5 players who don't stink. Conley needs to be #6 at the very least. All we'd need for the playoffs is 7-8 guys, but the wheels might fall off before the playoffs because we have to play the starters so many minutes.