Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Will the Defense Please Rise

Where has this beautiful defense been all season? The past two games, the Jazz have held two elite teams (San Antonio and New Orleans) to 64 points and 66 points, respectively. That's the best scoring defense Utah has ever had for two consecutive games! It was fun to watch New Orleans struggle to get open shots and to see Chris Paul completely frustrated on the offensive end last night.

The Jazz are a very deep team. On a night where Deron Williams has only four points and Carlos Boozer only has 10, Mehmet Okur stepped up with 22 points and 17 rebounds. He seems to be at the top of his game right now, which is good timing for the Jazz. Memo was hot from beyond the arc, he was driving to the hoop with authority, and he was playing some defense!! Besides these three stars, Utah has a solid supporting cast with Andrei Kirilenko, Ronnie Brewer, Matt Harpring, Paul Millsap, and Kyle Korver. They may be the most talented team in the NBA!

If we keep this stifling defense for the final four games, I think we will have home-court advantage, at least in the first round of the playoffs. We have been scary good the past few games, and now everybody should be healthy and ready to make the final push heading into the post-season. Git 'er done!

1 comment:

Ryan said...

I think for an 82 game schedule, it is tiring to maintain shut-down in your face defense night-in and night-out.

The Jazz seem to have saved it for the most critical time of the regular season and are buying in to Sloan's defensive mindset.

This will definitely pay off in the post season if they can maintain it.

Reminds me of the Spurs of the past 10 years.