Pressure, and no big deal

PORTLAND, Ore. – A few lingering items prior to Thursday’s night game at Denver and following Tuesday night’s loss at Portland. …

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Portland pressured Deron Williams early, and the Jazz didn’t deny that it affected him.
“It hurt us a little bit,” he said. “We turned the ball over a couple times because of that. It made us rush a little bit, took us out of our sets. They did a great job.”

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Everyone with the Jazz was blown away by Portland’s strong early play, which led to their shooting 61.8 percent (47-of-76) from the field – the best by a Jazz opponent since Houston made 47-of-75 (62.7 percent) on Feb. 2, 1995.
“They came out and they really didn’t miss anything from the start, regardless of what defense we had,” Williams said, They just came out, shot lights out, and we kind of got discouraged by that.”
“It seemed like they hit every shot the first five or six minutes of the game,” Carlos Boozer added. “We looked up, we were by 10, 11, 12, 13 points – whatever it was. … That first quarter, they just kicked our butt – and we were playing uphill since then.”
Even Jazz coach Jerry Sloan was impressed.
“We had a difficult time trying to guard them,” he said. “They were just sensational. They moved the basketball, passed the basketball, beat us down the floor. There wasn’t much we were able to do with them.”

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Boozer didn’t seem overly concerned by the blowout loss, even when asked by an interrogator if he was alarmed by the margin.
“It’s the NBA. You don’t get blown out very often in the NBA,” he said. “I understand where you’re coming from as far as it being alarming.
But, Boozer added, “I believe in my teammates, I believe in our coaching staff. I believe that we have the strength and the will to come back from this and bounce back on Thursday, and I think we will.”

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Reporters were ready to walk away following Sloan’s postgame comments, but the Jazz coach had one more thing to say.
It was the suggestion that maybe the loss wasn’t as horrific as so many were making it out to be.
“It doesn’t mean it’s 10 games they won,” he said. “They just won game.”

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