Utah Jazz (27-15) @ Boston Celtics (32-9)

[Efernand]

When Okur is ready to play big minutes he needs to be inserted into the starting lineup so Al Jeff can move to PF where I'm sure he'll be more dominant offensively. Hell, I think Okur is the best rebounder left on this team.

[BarneyGumble]

This is NOTHING like a Sloan-led team. I don't remember this bull being such a regular occurrence in the days of John Stockton.

56 points scored against the Bulls in game 3 of the NBA Finals. The lowest at the time in the history of the shot clock era. That's what failing to adjust your game plan will get you.

[The59Sound]

This is NOTHING like a Sloan-led team. I don't remember this bull being such a regular occurrence in the days of John Stockton.

56 points scored against the Bulls in game 3 of the NBA Finals. The lowest at the time in the history of the shot clock era. That's what failing to adjust your game plan will get you.

One game in a series we played very well in. To say that "this is the same stuff we've been seeing for 22 years" just isn't credible. We have never seen the Utah Jazz be so simpering and lethargic so much of the time.

[Neon Black]

This is NOTHING like a Sloan-led team. I don't remember this bull being such a regular occurrence in the days of John Stockton.

56 points scored against the Bulls in game 3 of the NBA Finals. The lowest at the time in the history of the shot clock era. That's what failing to adjust your game plan will get you.

Thank you. Boston's coaching staff taught them a lesson tonight...did you hear Deron? Every time he signed for a play the coaches were up yelling at their players about what they needed to take away, and they did.

I may not be original in saying so but the definition of sanity is doing the same thing again and again and AGAIN with no real results. Hell I wish this team could have legitimately sucked for a few years straight to stock up on real draft picks.

This just-above-average mediocrity only serves to propagate with itself in an orgy of constant self-defeat, with the sporadic glimpse of what COULD be.

[Sloanfeld]

This is NOTHING like a Sloan-led team. I don't remember this bull being such a regular occurrence in the days of John Stockton.

56 points scored against the Bulls in game 3 of the NBA Finals. The lowest at the time in the history of the shot clock era. That's what failing to adjust your game plan will get you.

It was actually 54. 96-54.

[yonexpro1]

Look the ultimate prize is winning the Title, in 22 seasons sloan hasnt gotten us a title running his bull schemes, I am not saying throw them out the window, I am saying change it up a little bit and play with more straight pick and rolls, I think they should put auto and power as a secondary or third option on offense.

[Ern III]

He was never a 20/10 player in BOS and really only started coming into his own his last year there....as far as success in MIN, name me the next best player on those teams.....DWill,AK,Sap are all better with the exception of Love who plays the same position as Al

I'm so over this. You say he helps more than hurts; I say the opposite. I'll leave it there.

[The59Sound]

I want to see adjustments too -- Hayward playing massive minutes chief among them. But Sloan's offense isn't just crap all the sudden. The players are just plain not showing up. Put that on Sloan if you want, but at the end of the day, these guys are supposedly playing a game they love and they're being handsomely compensated to do it. All the yelling, coddling, or lineup changes in the world won't change the fact that THEY need to act like they give a ****.

And it's funny that people want them to freelance MORE. One of the big problems I see, personally, is that they're not running the offense; they're freelancing too much already, with disastrous results.

[yonexpro1]

I want to see adjustments too -- Hayward playing massive minutes chief among them. But Sloan's offense isn't just crap all the sudden. The players are just plain not showing up. Put that on Sloan if you want, but at the end of the day, these guys are supposedly playing a game they love and they're being handsomely compensated to do it. All the yelling, coddling, or lineup changes in the world won't change the fact that THEY need to act like they give a ****.

And it's funny that people want them to freelance MORE. One of the big problems I see, personally, is that they're not running the offense; they're freelancing too much already, with disastrous results.

I can see what your saying about already freelancing, but if your gonna freelance dont try to run plays and try to compensate. I would love to get gordon more burn, he did it with matthews who in my opinion was not as solid a player at this point of his career. Maybe I am high but I cant remember matthews being so potent offensively, and gtimes D isnt that bad at all.

[The59Sound]

I want to see adjustments too -- Hayward playing massive minutes chief among them. But Sloan's offense isn't just crap all the sudden. The players are just plain not showing up. Put that on Sloan if you want, but at the end of the day, these guys are supposedly playing a game they love and they're being handsomely compensated to do it. All the yelling, coddling, or lineup changes in the world won't change the fact that THEY need to act like they give a ****.

And it's funny that people want them to freelance MORE. One of the big problems I see, personally, is that they're not running the offense; they're freelancing too much already, with disastrous results.

I can see what your saying about already freelancing, but if your gonna freelance dont try to run plays and try to compensate. I would love to get gordon more burn, he did it with matthews who in my opinion was not as solid a player at this point of his career. Maybe I am high but I cant remember matthews being so potent offensively, and gtimes D isnt that bad at all.

Yeah, Matthews was perfectly competent on offense and a very good defender, but Gordon is looking like a more complete rookie, especially from a play-making perspective.

[yonexpro1]

The best part of gtimes game for me is not only his ability to create for others but his understanding that he can......PAGING CJ MILES paging cj miles.


Oh and his IQ is out of the building.

[Neon Black]

59Sound, I absolutely agree with you in that the offensive schemes are not what are inherently flawed. My biggest issue is on defense. I think what they are doing is dated.

offensively, I think it's a collective thing right now that's hard to pinpoint among all the players. There's just no chemistry, it's so agonizing to watch. It's no single person's fault, not Jefferson, Millsap, Deron or Sloan's. It's like the conglomerate of each players little faults and weaknesses are such that when playing together, they magnify and affect each other negatively. That's the opposite of chemistry. Players are supposed to compensate for each others weaknesses, but that just isn't happening.

Is the the problem inherent and unfixable in that it requires line up changes and/or trades? Or are these things that each player can improve upon? I don't know. I don't know anything about this team for sure, which is kind of sad.

All I see is that these guys are not playing to each others strengths.

[yonexpro1]

I honestly think that we can play good ball with leaving everything how it is, no trade is required nor a lineup change. They just need to trust each other and play with more intensity.

[kebutah]

You just can't win (against the good teams) with three guys who need to be inside: AK, Jefferson, and Milsap. Their defenders can help each other with little added effort.Raja is much too inconsistent to start and play extended minutes. When they back off of Raja and double Deron it makes him work too hard. We need a consistent outside shooter to spread the floor. This is reminiscent of when Brewer was here and nobody guarded him when he was outside, Memo looks lost on the floor so I doubt he is the answer, unfortunately.

[seejaydeja]

The thing that bums me out most about this losing streak is DWill's piss poor attitude. He's not acting like a leader, he's pouting like a little bitch

[idajazz]

The thing that bums me out most about this losing streak is DWill's piss poor attitude. He's not acting like a leader, he's pouting like a little bitch

AGREE

[Matt007b]

Just wanted to add in my.."I agree" with what most have said. More of a venting and my thoughts post so I apologize in advance.

The Jazz system basically flows through the PF position so 1. I think now having a Center who doesn't really pass the ball well taking over has screwed things up a bit..Milsap should either come off the bench in the 2nd squad or Fesenko/Okur should start at center with Jefferson at PF and RUN THE SYSTEM!! Set screens! Hard cuts! If not ...bench em' and trade em! Jefferson still.. is talented but needs to do something with the ball quick or get rid of it. Another frustrating part is when Boozer had a bad game..we still had others pick it up. Now if Jefferson has a bad game..it's..over like there's nobody else.

2. Bell/CJ are near worthless..especially Bell, I don't know why he's so bad now coming back. I love the defensive intensity Bell brings but it's almost worse than when we had brewer...least brewer would slash to the basket and slam it down or pull off some athletic move. Bell strictly is a jump shooter...but much much worse than Korver! Every time he's shoots I feel it's not going in! I was for CJ and Brewer leaving..Brewer couldn't hit a shot but least he ran the Jazz offense and attacked the rim unlike Bell who.. really doesn't do much on the offensive side.

CJ ticks me off.. his game is shoot the 3.. if it's not there, attack the rim..great..but his defense in my opinion sucks and he's streaky as ever. We need someone who will light it up outside as well as play defense (like Matthews...). Right now we live and die by the 3's. If CJ makes em' great if he doesn't we suck.

TOTALLY AGREE Hayward should start.. kid brings energy/defense - if there's a lineup change I'd like to see him out there starting, and send CJ/Bell packing for a *starting* SG that can create a shot off the dribble for once. 2 for 1! Hamilton..I know has that godawful contract but watching him at a pistons game a few weeks ago...sure looked a lot better than bell or cj..plus if we did some 2 for 1 player deal it would also allow evans to play instead of going in and out of the inactive list (AND SAVE $$)

So frustrating watching this. I don't blame Deron for being annoyed but he needs to step it up as well.

[outerspacefella]

The thing that bums me out most about this losing streak is DWill's piss poor attitude. He's not acting like a leader, he's pouting like a little bitch

AGREE

+1
And half of the games this season he's played crappy, really crappy basketball.
I watch Williams and I see a guy looking for excuses and on the verge of throwing dudes under the bus. That's what I see. May be all the talk about supertstars playing together in major cities finally touched is mind. Anyway... someone should tell him he's not playing like a star anymore... he's really hurting his team...

[BarneyGumble]

This is NOTHING like a Sloan-led team. I don't remember this bull being such a regular occurrence in the days of John Stockton.

56 points scored against the Bulls in game 3 of the NBA Finals. The lowest at the time in the history of the shot clock era. That's what failing to adjust your game plan will get you.

One game in a series we played very well in.

A series? It was the NBA-freakin'-FINALS. Some coaches are lucky enough to make it there once, let alone twice. But Sloan's failure to adjust costs him Finals games, and in horrific fashion, and that's why he blew it when he had a chance against the greatest the game has known thanks to the players he had. We were blown out once each of the two series against the Bulls, and that costs you BIG in a series and that was due to Sloan's inability to adjust. The Bulls had Jordan an over the hill Pippen and no one else. We could have beaten them. A combination of reffing and coaching cost us those series. So maybe you should reconsider the emphasis of importance you place on this one "series" that lends me no credibility to mention.

[BarneyGumble]

The thing that bums me out most about this losing streak is DWill's piss poor attitude. He's not acting like a leader, he's pouting like a little bitch

I agree. Deron needs to learn to weather the storm a little bit. He needs to work harder when we get down, and stop making poor decisions. I also dont mind seeing him get in people's faces, if he does it in good taste, and not to be an ass.