As a Jazz fan, I am glad this 6 game collapse happened earlier instead of later. This are the main problems
1. Deron Williams has gotten impatient.
The entire reason Utah took him over Chris Paul is that Williams fit the Utah system better. Even though he has great ball handling skills, alleged hard noze man-man defense, passing skills, and a sweet jumper, his strongest trait for us has been Pace Control. By only running when it is an automatic 2 points, he kept us dangerous and had perfect execution last year. Lately he has taken it on himself to be the answer with a quick two after Utah's defensive collapses. He is crazy clutch, but he doesn't have the patience to control the pace to make this Jazz team look good again with perfect half court execution. It also looks like he has lost confidence in his teammates, and maybe they haven't deserved it lately anyway. He is definately frustrated.
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An intentional foul call on Williams late in the game proved costly for the Jazz. Outlaw made two free throws before Roy cut through the lane to put the Blazers up 91-86 with just under 2 minutes left.
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2. Defensive rotations=molasses
Compare tape of Utah to any college team and it is painfully clear. There is no attempt to get there when the ball is swinging. Boozer and Milsap are strangely slow when it comes to D. Brewer and Kirilenko do well at getting to the ball, but they can't lock anyone down any better than Boozer can. The scrubs look a lot better here, but none of them has any offense to speak of. Hehe, Giricek might be the best on the team at that.
3. Bad Fouls take place of physicallity
Utah was known as a rough and tumble team. Hard picks, aggresive rebounding, good size and effort. This made up for the lack of the traditional Sloan defensive cork (historically: Mark Eaton, Greg Ostertag). AK privided help side blocks and we got along ok. Now you can count on a foul if anyone beats their man and takes a step in the paint, and a lot of them give up and-ones.
Can they fix it?
Yes. The fastbreak, top scoring team that we have seen this season has been exciting, but now we have come back down to earth and realized that will get you to a decent regular season, but nowhere when it counts. They will still make the playoffs , and they can still win their division.
6 straight losses
what on earth is going on?? we lose to portland TWICE and they are one of the worst teams in the NBA, as soon as AK gets on form (scoring more points, getting consistant rebounds) Booze scores more and so does DWill our perimetre D drops out... the 3-pointers are killing us... whats happenin to us guys??
