Basketball News:Utah Jazz better than the Cavs?
Article Summary:
How can this be? The Utah Jazz are ranked number one in the NBA.com power rankings just ahead of the Los Angeles Lakers and the Cleveland Cavaliers.
No moment of Utah’s 17-2 stretch can top Sundiata Gaines’
Article Content:
NBA Obsessed takes you into the hit and run game of NBA Basketball.
How can this be? The Utah Jazz are ranked number one in the NBA.com power rankings just ahead of the Los Angeles Lakers and the Cleveland Cavaliers.
No moment of Utah’s 17-2 stretch can top Sundiata Gaines’ game-winner to beat the Cavs, but Sunday’s comeback in Portland was as impressive as it gets. The Jazz have won seven straight on the road, holding their opponents to 39 percent shooting.
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These are the dog days of the NBA when everyone is kind of hurting and trying to find a way to nurse themselves back to health and gear up for the stretch run. Odd things can happen during this time of the season. Utah outplaying LA and the Cavs is an odd thing.
Carlos Boozer is having a great year in Utah
Some in Utah think Carlos Boozer’s improved play is making the difference and some people in Utah are just boozing and not knowing how it is getting done.
Boozer’s teammates should be glad he’s still there, too. The Jazz have won 17 of their past 19 games, with their most remarkable victory coming late Sunday when they roared back from a 25-point second-half deficit to beat the Portland Trail Blazers on the road in overtime. Boozer totaled 22 points and a career-high 23 rebounds in the game, and it was his difficult follow shot at the buzzer – that he somehow banked in with Blazers’ center Marcus Camby(notes) lunging at him – that forced OT.
Boozer has also enjoyed one of the best seasons of his career, averaging 19.4 points and 11.2 rebounds. Often injured in the past – he missed at least 30 games in three of his first five seasons with the Jazz – he has played in all but three games this season.
“Winning,” Boozer said, “cures everything.”
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The Lakers are trying to get Kobe back in the lineup and yet have watched their defense improve. Who knows maybe it will pay off in the long run to try to find life in Laker land without Kobe? Then again it didn’t seem to help against the Celtics.
The Lakers didn’t need clutch during their four wins without Bryant; easily handling Portland, San Antonio, Utah and Golden State in games they were never challenged.
On Thursday, they did.
The problem was Bryant was in the locker room getting treatment on his injured left ankle, and no one else had the goods to get it done when it counted.
That was painfully obvious over the final 2:24 of the game, when the Lakers failed to score a single basket. Neither did the Celtics, which only exasperated the situation.
The Lakers had four chances to take a lead, and squandered every one of them. Fisher missed a layup. Shannon Brown misfired on a 21-footer. Pau Gasol turned the ball over with a bad pass. And finally, Fisher missed in the closing seconds on a 20-footer. Think Bryant wouldn’t have made a difference at some point over those final two minutes?
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Meanwhile the Cav’s are in as much disarray as you can get when you have LeBron James playing for you. They have a different mix with much less up front defense and a little bit more scoring now that they have Antawn Jamison and have not quite put it altogether, which showed in their loss to Orlando.
Yes, it is the dog days.
Image: Zuma Press
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Post from: NBA Obsessed
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Tags:carlos-boozer, Cleveland Cavaliers, kobe bryant, lebron james, Los-Angeles-Lakers, NBA Basketball, Utah-Jazz