Some fodder for a Friday
I talked to Mehmet Okur for a moment today before practice. He kinda limped off the court during Thursday’s game after Ronnie Price accidentally stepped on his right foot. Okur said it was “tweaked” a little bit, but it now “feels fine.” Good news for the Jazz, who have had more than their fair share of injuries this preseason.
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While Jazz players signed 700 balls for charities and community giveaways this practice, Matt Harpring joked that his autograph is getting “shorter and shorter.” Carlos Boozer said he’s had the same signature since the seventh grade. And Okur offered to sign a book for me when I jokingly asked if he wrote the children’s book “Would I Ever Lie to You?” he was signing at the time.
FYI, Caralyn Buehner is the book’s actual author — and I politely declined Okur’s kind offer (autographs aren’t part of the package deal that comes with a press pass, and I kinda need to hold on to that to keep my job. My Turkish reading skills are a little rusty anyway.)
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After not playing for the second time during the preseason, it looks like Morris Almond should probably circle Friday, Nov. 28 on his calendar. The Utah Flash open their D-League schedule that night in Austin.
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Jerry Sloan was still grumbling about his team’s first-half defensive performance against the Trail Blazers this morning. Utah allowed Portland to score 63 points on 55-percent shooting (8 of 11 from 3-point land) while falling behind by 14 while the Blazers’ best players watched.
The second half was much better for the Jazz, who outscored the Blazers 51-26 after halftime and even forced Portland into four shot-clock violations.
Sloan wasn’t exactly impressed.
“I don’t think you can do cartwheels over the second half,” he said. “But you certainly gotta be concerned about the first half when guys got lost completely and didn’t even know where their man was.”
Sloan also said he thought he could’ve made some 3-pointers the way his players were leaving the Blazers so wide open.
The Jazz coach also groaned when told about players saying they feared what might happen in practice today if they didn’t play better in the second half Thursday.
“They should have been scared to start with if they like their job. That’s a sad commentary. I don’t care if it is an exhibition game. If you’re going to be scared with that then you’re going to be scared playing them in the next town when they’ve got all of their horses out there to play against — you’ll really be scared. Those guys had to be licking their chops watching us play last night sitting on the bench.”