From Italian Beef to Millsap mania to turnover troubles
MILWAUKEE ‘ Some Milwaukee leftovers while waiting for an Italian Beef sandwich and pepperoni-and-sausage slice from Pizza Shuttle, arguably the best late-night (open to 3 a.m. weekdays) downtown delivery place in any NBA city ‘
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It will be interesting to see whether or not the Jazz’s decision to play Paul Millsap in the second half of Tuesday night’s loss to the Bucks, after the power forward went down late in the first quarter with an injury to his left knee that had him in agony, comes back to bite them.
Millsap suggested it was his call to return.
‘I thought I felt something pop,” he said. ‘But after they examined it, I walked on it a little bit and it felt good.
‘I (saw) we were down,” Millsap said afterward. ‘I thought I could get in and at least try to spark a little energy. So I got out there and hobbled on it. I felt good for a little bit, but it’s real sore.”
Said Jazz coach Jerry Sloan: ‘He said he was okay. I have to take their word for it when they say that. I don’t have anything else to go on.”
If he isn’t able to play when the Jazz return to action Friday night vs. Dallas, Millsap’s streak of consecutive games played ‘ currently seventh-longest in the NBA ‘ would end at 194.
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Millsap, who admitted he missed some layups he usually would have made, joked about playing all of the second half after missing all of the second quarter while his knee was being examined and fitted with a brace.
‘I guess I had to make up some minutes,” he deadpanned.
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At what USA Today newspaper deemed to be the quarter pole of the league’s season, and heading into Tuesday night’s game, Millsap led all NBA players in fouls committed with 114. At 29 before Tuesday and 30 after, though, the front-loaded Jazz had played more than a fourth ‘ and actually more than a third ‘ of their 82-game season.
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Rather than have their usual Christmas-night practice, Jazz players choose to practice this morning ‘ just a few short hours after returning to Utah from a five-game, 10-night trip ‘ so they wouldn’t have to cut short their time with family and friends on Thursday’s holiday.
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Jazz point guard Deron Williams is featured on the cover of the February 2009 edition of Slam magazine, which is on newsstands now.
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Sloan was fuming after Tuesday’s game over the 24 turnovers committed by the Jazz, who also were missing All-Star power forward Carlos Boozer for an 18th straight game and had seldom-used big man Kyrylo Fesenko making his first NBA start ‘ it lasted less than four minutes ‘ in place of center Mehmet Okur (back spasms).
Williams was tagged with seven of them, and 22-point team-high scorer Andrei Kirilenko ‘ who also had 11 rebounds for his third double-double of the season ‘ another seven.
But the Jazz coach wasn’t about to rip Williams, who helped Utah come from 19 points down in the third quarter to tie the game before eventually losing.
‘I thought he played pretty well trying to get us back in the game, and give us some life that we didn’t seem to have,” Sloan said. ‘But it has to come from everybody.”
Regarding the turnovers, which the Jazz are committing at a clip of more than two more per game than they did last season, Sloan said this: ‘That’s when you’ve got to be stronger mentally. That’s when you’ve got to be tougher mentally. And I thought we weren’t quite in that mode tonight, most of the time.”
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Asked about the turnovers, Williams said, ‘I just turned it over. Careless with the ball.”
But it was what he didn’t say that spoke volumes.
Asked about fouls and the turnovers, Williams simply showed turned over his arms and showed off several fresh scratches and cuts ‘ many of them evidently courtesy of Bucks point Luke Ridnour.
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The Jazz finished their annual pre-Christmas trip 2-3, with losses as well at Boston and Chicago but comeback victories at New Jersey and Detroit.
Sloan ‘ especially frustrated by Utah’s starts of late ‘ said he was ‘very disappointed” with the five-gamer.
‘We had some moments where we fought,” he said, ‘and we had some where I didn’t think we did.”
Williams concurred after Utah’s streak of eight straight victories over the Bucks came to a close.
‘This turned into a bad road trip,” he said. ‘It already was not as good as we wanted it to be after the Chicago loss, but this one here made it even worse. You know, we felt like we had to come in and get this one.”
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