Season Record: 18-38

A back-to-back against one of the better teams in the league? And Boozer is back? And we have to fly home from Canada overnight? This all equals no chance in Hades.


PREDICTION:

Wolves 85 - Jazz 110

It's definitely a loss, but probably not by much. Probably because the Jazz will rest all their starters, and allow us some dignity.

Atleast Gomes is in good form, and Miller is doing everything else but scoring.

Jazz 107 - Wolves 102

The Jazz have turned the corner. Boozer is auditioning for a new contract. They are my second favorite team.

Jazz 108
Wolves 96

Well at least we have PF Mike Miller to counter Boozer in the post in crunch time, What do you guys think of playing Carney at Center a little more this game? Seems really logical to me given his golden hamstrings. Maybe he is the answer?

I'd like to see McHale continue to limit Love's minutes though, he does look like a big, puffy, strawberry marshmallow out there and certainly cannot handle the pace of the NBA game and we dont want one of the most efficent rebounders in history on the floor, well, EVER. Not to mention Craig Smith is a much better defensive rebounder and post defender. My suggested lineup does leave us without a 3 with Gomes on the bench resting. Maybe we can put Bobby Brown at the small forward position? and Ollie at the 2? That sounds like a matchup nightmare for Utah if you ask me.

Wolves win it with my strategies 101-84.

WallyWorld wrote:



That was hilarious. I laughed out loud. Howl.

College Wolf wrote:


AGREED! so did I.

Vegas has Utah by 8. I would probably bet on the Wolves, but not much $ at all. Can we please see Love in the 4th tonight? Actually, the more I think about it...The Jazz are HOT. We would seemingly matchup horribly against them, since 3 of their top 4 scorers are big guys, they have a nightmare of a matchup at Point Guard, and they are very well coached. I would not bet on the Wolves.

The Great Salt Lake State: 110
The Many Fresh Lakes State: 97

And its a back-to-back AND we had to fly home from Canada overnight. I would definitely bet on the Jazz.


egads.

We looked amazing during the majority of the 1st quarter, then had an epic collapse, and now are just down 1 now that we have our starters.

I never thought I'd say this, but Miller is playing REAL well right now and I love what he's bringing. Love and him are commanding this game... Love is such a beast!!

Update: 2 minutes later...

I honestly don't want to say anything about how messy both teams have been, but I like the way we're playing. Our starters are making us look like a real ball club. Our bench instantly gave up our 12 point lead, and as soon as they came back in, we fought back from 7 down to take a 4 point lead going into the half. It's not even so much our starters, but mainly Miller and Love. I said it once earlier, I'll say it again: they're playing at an amazing level right!

PS: Shoutout for Gomes for playing real well for us as well. Bass/Foye hasn't done as much, but are still contributing.

If Okur opts out of his deal he should be near the top of the list.

I didn't watch the game tonight but when I was driving home from church (I know, very exciting) I listened to the post game show on the radio. This is Utah but all they talked about was Kevin Love and how remarkable he was. It was nice to hear.

mmaland wrote:


He went off, Hey how hard is it to get tickets in Salt Lake? I am thinking of comming down.

Jazz 120
Wolves 103

Boxscore: www.nba.com/games/20090225/UTAMIN/boxscore.html

Love- His best game as a pro so far, simple as that (not counting defense)

10-12 FG 24 PTS 15 REB

We really have to get him out of playing center. When we were on defense, the paint looked like a ghost town. The Jazz players could go in and out as they pleased without being touched by anyone. It was quite sad really.

Bassy- those games where he shot well seem like a distant memory. He shouldn't be allowed to shoot 3's anymore.

4-12 FG 10 PTS 6 AST

Foye- his D is downright embarrassing. And he looks like Mr. Potato Head. McHale needs to hold him accountable for how bad his D is. In the 1st half Korver made him look like a fool (who ended the game with a 33 +/- by the way). In the 2nd half Brewer did much of the same.

4-15 FG 14 PTS 4 AST

Gomes- Nice game once again. He's looked really good lately. If he can keep this up and with Brewer coming back next year, SF becomes one of our more solid positions and we can focus on PG, SG, and C in the offseason.

8-18 FG 24 PTS 8 REB


Miller- Looked like the Magic/Grizzlies version and not the Wolves version of himself. Now we just need to see it for more than one game.

9-11 FG 21 PTS 8 REB 6 AST

Our bench- is a hot mess. Cardinal went back to sucking, Carney may just be the worst ballhandling SF in the entire NBA, the Ollie/Brown backup guard tandem hurts the eyes to watch, and we have no big men that should even be mentioned.

Our bench scored 10 points tonight, and 8 of them came from Craig Smith. We need to stop the madness of our smallball and get bigger in the starting lineup and add a scorer to the bench.

Since Miller fancies himself a PG anyways, it makes the most sense for him to go to the bench. When he is in the game, for some reason he likes to be the primary ballhandler and distributor, which is counterproductive when he's in there with Bassy because Bassy is better at ballhandling and passing. So we move Miller to the bench and he can play primarily at PG and SG (because Ollie and Bobby Brown are horrible, although I'll give Brown a pass for now because he just switched teams and all)

It wouldn't hurt us defensively with Miller in at PG because it's pretty much a certainty he' going to be in the game with one of the following: Bassy, Foye, Carney, Brown, or Ollie, all of whom would match up with the opposing team's PG on defense.

So that means I'd like to see Shelden Williams (I don't even care if he's good at anything, he can't be as bad as Collins) at center, with Love and Gomes shifting over one position each.

PG: Bassy 32 Miller 16
SG: Foye 36 Miller 12
SF: Gomes 35 Carney 13
PF: Love 15 Cardinal 18 Smith 15
C: Williams 28 Love 20

I think that makes a whole lot more sense than what we're doing right now. If we had a SG on our team that was worth a damn, I'd put Foye on the bench as well but we don't.

jbird wrote:


I just don't know. I live 300 miles from SLC. I think they sell out a lot.

My jaw literally dropped when Miller drained a perfect looking J with a guy right in front of him. He's been so unwilling to take that shot.

I have trouble getting too mad at Telfair for taking 3's when Miller is driving and kicking to him open. If an offense is dribble driving and kicking to an open man that guy has to shoot. The problem is that Telfair should be the driver and Miller should be getting the kick.

I have no idea who is to blame but it doesn't work to just tell Telfair to stop shooting. We saw last year how defenses will shift when they know guys won't shoot (read Telfair and Brewer).

Another awesome recap by Roundhouse, thanks for that. I especially appreciate it because when the Wolves trotted the lineup of extreme awesomeness that is Kevin Ollie, Bobby Brown, Rodney Carney, Brian Cardinal, and Craig Smith to start the second quarter; I fell asleep and didn't wake up until 4AM. So, I didn't even bother watching the rest of the game... but I see that we lost.

I would like to point out a few things about our bench. This was an EPIC game of almost historic futility. Kevin Ollie, Jason Collins, and Bobby Brown almost ALL had Trillions! Typically, you are lucky to see even ONE Trillion in any given game, and that's if you are lucky. They played 11, 5, and 4 minutes, respectively.

But, what they DID do were put up some impressive Voskuhls. You just don't see something like this every game. Kevin Ollie with a mindblowing 11 minute 'Voskuhl.' Jason Collins was close enough to a Voskuhl that we'll give it to him, especially since he played more than a few minutes thus not rendering it a 'Madsen.' Bobby Brown notched a three minute Voskuhl. But most impressive of the night, Brian Cardinal notches a 15 minute Voskuhl! He had a combined 8 turnovers and fouls, against a combined 4 points and rebounds!


Lastly, here is my game recap:

Go figure, [Mike Miller] hit buckets in garbage time, [Craig Smith] only played [7] minutes?!?!, while [Foye] played [40] minutes?!?!, why didn't [Craig Smith] play in the [1st or 3rd Quarter]? [All our Bigs] looked undersized down low; [Foye], [Telfair], and [Miller] couldn't guard anybody, [Bobby Brown] looked completely lost out there, [Brian Cardinal] completely sucked this game, [Jason Collins] is completely worthless, [Randy Foye] usually played well but had a horrible game, and couldn't hit the broad side of the barn tonight. Where was [Sheldon Williams] tonight?

Wolves lose again.