"You Gotta Love It Baby" Official Jazz thread

[TripletDaddy]

Why MJ instead of, say, Robert Horry or Bill Russell?

I don't think Kobe will pass Horry or Bill Russell for total rings. Maybe Horry, definitely not Bill Russell. why?

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

the Jazz and Lakers didn't play that night. you need to read further down in the thread.

Not to worry the Jazz play the Magic tonight and we all know how solid they are on B2Bs. Magic are dead meat

[TheBYUGuy]

I don't think Kobe will pass Horry or Bill Russell for total rings. Maybe Horry, definitely not Bill Russell. why?

Just wondering why you were using MJ as the measuring stick. I wasn't sure if you were measuring NBA titles, Finals MVPs, or what. You left that sufficiently vague.

[TripletDaddy]

Not to worry the Jazz play the Magic tonight and we all know how solid they are on B2Bs. Magic are dead meat

At halftime, Sloan will have the Jazz change into the green jerseys. Orlando will get psyched out and then they will lose the game. After each Boozer basket, Jazz fans in the stands will do push-ups on top of the crowd.

[TripletDaddy]

Just wondering why you were using MJ as the measuring stick. I wasn't sure if you were measuring NBA titles, Finals MVPs, or what. You left that sufficiently vague.

Because MJ is next in line. He would have to pass MJ before a consideration is given to Russell. What is vague about that?

The Jazz suck. Kobe is really good. you need to get over it.

[TheBYUGuy]

Because MJ is next in line. He would have to pass MJ before a consideration is given to Russell. What is vague about that?

Steve Kerr, Ron Harper, and Dennis Rodman are in line before MJ.

Also, I agree that Kobe is good. I don't remember saying otherwise.

[TripletDaddy]

Steve Kerr, Ron Harper, and Dennis Rodman are in line before MJ.

Also, I agree that Kobe is good. I don't remember saying otherwise.

Kobe isn't being measured against those guys. At least not as far as I know. So their status isn't overtly relevant.

While Rodman has been discussed in the "greatest rebounders" conversation, I dont recall ever hearing any of the folks you listed above in the "greatest" overall conversations.

[Blueintheface]

Steve Kerr, Ron Harper, and Dennis Rodman are in line before MJ.

Also, I agree that Kobe is good. I don't remember saying otherwise.

Kobe is very good. Kobe is unreal he's so good but just once I'd like to see him win a game he knows his team will win anyway without having to spend half the game intimidating and complaining to the refs about the felony abuse he is taking at the hands of an undrafted NBA scrub.

[TripletDaddy]

Kobe is very good. Kobe is unreal he's so good but just once I'd like to see him win a game he knows his team will win anyway without having to spend half the game intimidating and complaining to the refs about the felony abuse he is taking at the hands of an undrafted NBA scrub.

You should have seen him in the Gold Medal game against Spain. That game fits all of your criteria. And he was a hero!

[Blueintheface]

You should have seen him in the Gold Medal game against Spain. That game fits all of your criteria. And he was a hero!

Complaining to referees about Euros playing rough defense is akin to me complaining to HR that my boss wears too much eye makeup. I think it makes him look cheap but who am I to complain?

[JohnnyLingo]

I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! 16 So, because you are lukewarm–neither hot nor cold–I am about to spit you out of my mouth.

eom

[MarkGrace]

A look at the Jazz road woes:

A longstanding problem with the Jazz stands with them still.

They can't win on the road.

Jerry Sloan addressed that shortcoming the other night, saying: "You've got to win games you're supposed to win. We can't afford to lose games out on the road.... We're still maturing as we go along."

At this rate, the Jazz will never grow up.

Call it the Peter Pan Principle.

If there's a road game, chances are pretty good the Jazz will lose it. That's been the case for years, and the trend is holding up this season.

Especially hurtful to them was their recent loss to the 3-19 Timberwolves in Minnesota. That kind of defeat is as aggravating to the players as it is flabbergasting to anyone who watched it. Truth is, the Jazz have no business falling to a team like that, even if the game were played in Kurt Rambis' basement. Heading into that game, the T-wolves had lost nine straight at Target Center, and, yet, the Jazz found a way to stumble against them.

Deron Williams called the result "very tough," adding that the Jazz "wanted to get this one on the road, where we've struggled the last couple years."

It's been more than a couple.

The Jazz haven't had a winning road record over the past eight seasons, and it's likely the current one will make it nine. They rang up 25 victories against 16 losses in 2000-01. Since then, in chronological order, they've gone 19-22, 18-23, 14-27, 8-33, 19-22, 20-21, 17-24, and 15-26.

Thus far this season, they are 3-6.

Over the past two seasons, and now this limited one, they've gotten worse each year.

Youth is often blamed for the inability to win away games, but as the Jazz get older they seem less capable of winning on the road. Rings around the trunk aren't getting them any closer to rings on their fingers.

And victory on the road is a prime indicator for and identifier of legitimate title contenders. The last team to heft the Larry O'Brien Trophy without a winning road record was the Washington Bullets -- in 1978, back before the hardware was even named after O'Brien. In actuality, it was known as the Walter Brown Trophy. So, no team has hefted the Larry O'Brien without a winning record on the road.

It is a bare minimum for big dreams.

Back when the Jazz really bucked their losing trend on the road the first time --- with their best teams in the mid-'90s -- Karl Malone talked about the difference between being a good team that loses on the road and a good team that wins on it. In the midst of a now almost-unimaginable 15-game road win streak, he said the key was "being together, confident and calm."

Those words were ironic, since Malone later struggled at times in pressure situations, but they were nonetheless accurate.

And they came to mind Wednesday night when the Jazz played three mostly terrific quarters of basketball -- anybody not impressed early on? -- against the Lakers at Staples Center, and then ... blew apart in the fourth. Magic Johnson used to refer to that last stretch as "winnin' time," and the Jazz made the winning easy for the Lakers.

They freaked out, throwing up and missing quick shots, throwing away routine passes, and royally acquiescing to L.A., helping it to a gimme triumph in its own building -- on account of the Jazz not being together, confident and calm.

They likely will do better in Saturday night's rematch at EnergySolutions.

The Lakers are clearly the better team, and the Jazz will have to make personnel changes to close the gap in any authentic way. But the requirements on the mental side of gaining victory on the road, against the T-wolves and the Lakers, will forever be fundamental, whoever's in the lineup, to bridging the gap from good to great.

Sloan was right when he said the Jazz "can't afford to lose games out on the road." Whether he was right about the Jazz "still maturing as we go along," remains a dubious claim, at best.

http://www.sltrib.com/jazz/ci_13969474?source=rss

For as long as I can remember the Jazz have struggled on the road. Even with Stock and Mail they did, and their fortunes weren't reversed until Horny finally joined the team. I get that it's hard to win on the road (only six teams in the entire league had winning records on the road last year), but its just puzzling why the Jazz have been so inept for so long.

[JohnnyLingo]

They don't play good defense. Shots don't drop as easily on the road, and when that happens, you have to compensate with better defense.

The Jazz can't do that.

[MarkGrace]

But the puzzling thing is that they can't even get their defense to remain constant on the road. I get the whole thing with the offense, but there's no reason for your D not to remain constant, even if you're not capable of turning it up a notch. At one point a couple of years ago they were giving like 96-97 ppg at home and about 106-107 on the road (I know that points scored is not the best measure of defense, but it's just an anecdote I remembered). That's just ridiculous.

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

A look at the Jazz road woes:


http://www.sltrib.com/jazz/ci_13969474?source=rss

For as long as I can remember the Jazz have struggled on the road. Even with Stock and Mail they did, and their fortunes weren't reversed until Horny finally joined the team. I get that it's hard to win on the road (only six teams in the entire league had winning records on the road last year), but its just puzzling why the Jazz have been so inept for so long.

Didn't the Jazz set the NBA record for consecutive road wins with Stock/Mail? I remember them breaking the record against Houston, I want to say 16 in a row.