Spurs-Jazz Preview

[duncan228]

http://www.nba.com/games/20080128/SA...scoreboardhome

Spurs-Jazz Preview
By BRETT HUSTON, STATS Writer

After suffering their worst home loss in nearly 11 years, starting a lengthy road trip may not be the worst thing for the defending NBA champion San Antonio Spurs.

Paying a visit to Utah, however, hasn't turned out well for anyone lately.

The Jazz (26-18) look for their fifth win in a row overall and ninth straight at home on Monday when they host the Spurs.

San Antonio (28-14) has one of the NBA's best home records at 20-5, but is coming off a 102-78 loss to New Orleans at the AT&T Center on Saturday. It was the Spurs' worst home defeat since falling to Toronto 125-92 on Feb. 19, 1997 - four months before they selected Tim Duncan first overall in the NBA draft.

One of the few teams to have a better winning percentage at home is Utah, which is 18-3 at EnergySolutions Arena.

But the Jazz have been far from a dominant road team, going just 8-15 away from Salt Lake City. Still, Utah won back-to-back road games for the first time since mid-November after beating Houston 97-89 on Sunday.

Three players had 17 points each for Utah, including Kyle Korver, who scored his most points in a Jazz uniform since being acquired from Philadelphia on Dec. 29.

"It took me a couple of games to get the feel for the offense,'' said Korver, who has reached double figures in eight of 12 games with Utah. "It's different than what I was used to in Philly. Here, I feel like on every play, there is an opportunity for you to get the ball and score."

Since Korver's arrival, the Jazz are 10-2 and are tied with Portland for second in the Northwest Division, one-half game behind Denver.

Deron Williams and Andrei Kirilenko also had 17 in the win over the Rockets, and Carlos Boozer finished with 13 points and 10 rebounds. Despite his off night on offense, Boozer remains among the league's top 10 with 22.5 points and 10.8 rebounds per game.

Boozer scored 28 points and grabbed 17 rebounds in Utah's first meeting with San Antonio this season, a 104-98 loss on Dec. 7. In that game, the Spurs were without Duncan, who had a sprained ankle, but got 37 points from Manu Ginobili.

San Antonio's offense sputtered in their loss to the Hornets. No Spurs player scored more than 17 and they shot just 41.8 percent from the field, scoring only 51 points after the first quarter.

"We hung for a half and then we lost our juice, we just didn't have anything left and that was due to their great play," San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich said. "It was mentally debilitating after awhile."

The Spurs have lost two of their past three home games, but things haven't gone well on the road for them all season. San Antonio, which went 56-26 away from home the past two seasons, is just 8-9 on the road in 2007-08.

This game begins the annual rodeo trip for the Spurs. They will play nine straight on the road, including stops in Boston and Cleveland before returning home on Feb. 19 against Charlotte.

"We'll have fewer distractions then when we're at home," Popovich said. "So we try to use it in that regard and hope we really nail down the way we want to play."

[duncan228]

Spurs.com

http://www.nba.com/spurs/gameday/080128.html

Spurs vs. Jazz Preview

Probable Starters

T. Parker
Guard
19.6 PPG
M. Finley
Guard
10.2 PPG
B. Bowen
Forward
5.4 PPG
T. Duncan
Forward
19.3 PPG
F. Oberto
Center
5.0 PPG

Injury/Inactive Report
Brent Barry (grade II strain of the medial head of
his gastrocnemius muscle, left calf) is out.

San Antonio (28-14) has one of the NBA's best home records at 20-5, but is coming off a 102-78 loss to New Orleans at the AT&T Center on Saturday. One of the few teams to have a better winning percentage at home is Utah, which is 18-3 at EnergySolutions Arena.

Utah won back-to-back road games for the first time since mid-November after beating Houston 97-89 on Sunday.

Three players had 17 points each for Utah, including Kyle Korver, who scored his most points in a Jazz uniform since being acquired from Philadelphia on Dec. 29.

Since Korver's arrival, the Jazz are 10-2 and are tied with Portland for second in the Northwest Division, one-half game behind Denver.

Deron Williams and Andrei Kirilenko also had 17 in the win over the Rockets, and Carlos Boozer finished with 13 points and 10 rebounds. Despite his off night on offense, Boozer remains among the league's top 10 with 22.5 points and 10.8 rebounds per game.

Boozer scored 28 points and grabbed 17 rebounds in Utah's first meeting with San Antonio this season, a 104-98 loss on Dec. 7. In that game, the Spurs were without Duncan, who had a sprained ankle, but got 37 points from Manu Ginobili.

The Spurs have lost two of their past three home games, but things haven't gone well on the road for them all season. San Antonio, which went 56-26 away from home the past two seasons, is just 8-9 on the road in 2007-08.

This game begins the annual rodeo trip for the Spurs. They will play nine straight on the road, including stops in Boston and Cleveland before returning home on Feb. 19 against Charlotte.

Spur in the Spotlight
Ime Udoka
Ime Udoka netted 13 points and grabbed seven rebounds against the Hornets on Saturday night.

Did You Know...
Tim Duncan and Utah forward Carlos Boozer were teammates on the 2004 U.S. Olympic team … prior to their game on 1/10/05 the Spurs had won the previous 18 in a row against the Jazz …George Gervin holds the Jazz opponent scoring record when he had 63 points on 4/9/78 … San Antonio owned the draft rights to Jazz guard Gordan Giricek before shipping them to Memphis on 6/26/02.

[ancestron]

Thanks for posting these articles like you do, Duncan228.
It's really great to just have the relevant ones here on Spurstalk, instead of surfing through 4 ot 5 different sites. Makes them much easier to read while at work also!

[duncan228]

Thanks for posting these articles like you do, Duncan228.
It's really great to just have the relevant ones here on Spurstalk, instead of surfing through 4 ot 5 different sites. Makes them much easier to read while at work also!

My pleasure.

I've got it down now. I try to put just the main three up. NBA.com, Spurs.com, and the opponent's preview. The Jazz is using NBA.com's, so that one isn't here today.

I read them so I figure someone else might be.
Glad it makes it easier for you.

[duncan228]

It's cold in Utah...

http://blogs.mysanantonio.com/weblog...onroe_brr.html

Mike Monroe: Brrrr!

When the Spurs boarded their bus for the short ride from Salt Lake City hotel to Energy Solutions Arena for their morning shoot-around before Monday night's game against the Jazz the sun was out and there were patches of blue sky. The air was crisp and cold and the wind was gusting.
But at least the sun was out.
When they walked from the arena to the bus an hour later, there was an inch of snow on the ground the visibility was, oh, about 20 feet. The sky was entirley gray. Dark gray.
Salt Lake City had been bracing for a blizzard for a couple of days, and its arrival didn't miss forecasters' predictions by more than a half-hour. Those same forecasters believe the storm will pass through the city by tipoff time for tonight's game, and the Spurs are hoping they are as correct about its departure as they were about its arrival. They are scheduled for a post-game flight to Seattle, where they are to play the SuperSonics at KeyArena tomorrow night.
Most of the players wore only sweats to the shoot-around, so it was a good thing the bus was only about 20 feet from the arena exit, or you might have been reading about an entire team ballting bad colds for the rest of the rodeo road trip.
Gregg Popovich was smart enough to wear a coat. I asked Popovich about the Spurs having switched on pick-and-rolls in the Saturday night loss to the Hornets. New Orleans ran high pick and roll over and over, with great success. He pointed out that the Spurs switch a lot against the Suns, too, and that they were't leaving Tony Parker to defend power forward David West all by himself. He also pointed out that they tried several approaches to the pick and roll from the start, and the defense had worked well enough in the first half for the Spurs to have a lead at intermission.
I had run into Hornets assistant coach Darrell Walker in the airport on Sunday morning and asked him how the Hornets had gotten so many open shots on Saturday. They had expected the switching, he said, and had told Chris Paul and West to swing the ball to perimter shooters Peja Stojakovic and Morris Peterson or Jennaro Pargo.
Few teams in the league rely on pick and roll as heavily as the Jazz. It will be intersting to see how the Spurs defend it tonight. One big difference between Utah and New Orleans: The Jazz doesn't send their bigs to the rim as often as the Hornets rolled Tyson Chandler or West to the rim on Saturday.

[ORION]

spurs play the jazz

[ClingingMars]

gahhh another game not on TV

-Mars

[duncan228]

It's on NBA TV.

[ClingingMars]

It's on NBA TV.

Don't have digital cable/satellite oh well, at least it's broadcast on the radio.

-Mars

[dbreiden83080]

I'm desperately hoping for some signs of life here from the Spurs. Gotta bounce back after the debacle the other night.

[Mr.Bottomtooth]

Today is the day Udoka will prove he should take Finley's place in the lineup.