Golden State: 109 Utah:119

After the All Star game one of the key dates I had pencilled in on a intense and tough schedule was the Utah game. It would show us just how much this team was ready to avenge an ugly end to the 2006-2007 season and a horrible beginning to this one. Months on last night showed us that Utah has every answer for the warriors. When agressive Low post defending was applied to Boozer or Okur they simply beat us with their outside shooting. Fustrating game.

Boxscore



And yet I never thought it would turn out so ugly. Both teams played an exciting run and gun game being tied at 36 each in the 1st quarter leading fans to believe this could be a repeat of the Suns game. Monta and Baron davis both started out strong and looked like they would both have big individual nights. Monta was assertive attacking the hoop when he wanted. Alas there's 48 minutes in a Basketball game and the Warriors tonight only gave 12 good ones

The 2nd quarter is when collectively it all fell apart and turned into a Jazz victory. There were two reasons. Number 1 there was a failure to rotate to the shooter whenever he was open Utah taking full advantage as they shot a ridiculous 71% and had 77 points at the half. Number 2 was Deron Williams. It was easy tonight toi see just why coaches prefer him more to Baron since he poccesses much more of a complete game. To put it simply he dominated collecting 29 points, 3 rebounds, 2 steals, and a whopping 12 assists. His size and strengh was too much for our backcourt.

Only way to stop Williams


On the other hand a lot of the Jazz success is not just down to Deron it's down to Sloan. You may not like the Jazz for their rough and physical style (I don't) but Jerry Sloan is the most underated Coach ever. What this Jazz unit thrive on is teamwork. The amount of cuts by Kirilenko or Boozer and assists made me realise they could be a sleeper team in this conference. Just look at the disparity in assists 31-21 most of them coming from the Jazz bench. It's impossible to win in a hostile arena when your players don't share the rock or hit the boards. The most dissapointing thing to see tonight was Beans, Barnes or Webber not rebound. Obviously Okur and Boozer will hit the boards but it doesn't help when the frontcourt does nothing but stand around.

Last night reminded me of May 2007. Missed Free throws to Barons limp meant the Utah ownage continues. Well we're , in 9th place in the West with one game out of 7th and 8th behind Houston and Denver. Does Mullin hit the panic or trade button. Find out Thursday