Bell's back, Melo's unstoppable and Sloan's not sleeping
Raja Bell isn’t just excited to play again for the Utah Jazz tonight.
He’s excited to play again. Period.
That’s something the 34-year-old hasn’t done in a game with real meaning for almost an entire calendar year. After being traded from Charlotte to Golden State on Nov. 16 last fall, Bell only ended up playing in one game for the Warriors.
Just after joining the Warriors, Bell injured his left wrist. He then had surgery on Dec. 3 and missed the final 58 games of the 2009-10 season.
That’s why Bell just might be the most excited player on the court tonight when the Jazz visit Pepsi Center to take on the Denver Nuggets.
“I haven’t played in a game that meant anything in a long time,” Bell said. “So to get back out there in the regular season, I’m ready to go.”
Even his recent bout with bursitis in his left rotator cuff won’t keep him out of his return to the Jazz and the court.
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Jazz coach Jerry Sloan admitted he doesn’t know too much about this year’s version of the Nuggets. But he does know one thing: They have a superstar who’s about as unstoppable as anyone in the game.
“I know they’re a tremendously talented team and they have a great, great player in Carmelo Anthony that can cover up a lot of mistakes for you because his ability to shoot the ball, to rebound the ball,” Sloan said. “He’s just a great player. And all of those things make it tough. We’ll have to play extremely well as a team to try to compensate for that.”
Sloan’s moral of the story?
“We haven’t handled him to make a long story short. … We aren’t going to stop Carmelo Anthony. Nobody’s stopped him that I’m aware of in the years that he’s played.”
Tonight in Denver, small forward Andrei Kirilenko will get the unenviable task of trying to slow down Melo. Kind of ironic considering AK-47 nearly became a Nugget just before fall camp started in a proposed four-team deal that would’ve also sent Anthony to New Jersey.
Kirilenko looks forward to the challenge: “Personally, I’m going to have Carmelo who’s one of the best players in the league and it’s going to be tough matchup.”
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Is Sloan concerned that the Nuggets might want to exact some revenge after being upset in the first round of the playoffs last spring by his Jazz?
“Nobody cares what you did yesterday,” Sloan said.
Sloan is losing sleep over worrying about his own team and possible rotations, etc. His response to a question about his team’s health:
“I think OK. Memo’s out. He’s not going to be able to play for a while, but everybody else seems to be in pretty good shape to start with. We just have to see where we are. The uncertainty really kind of makes you jump out of bed in the middle of the night and wonder what’s going on in the world, kinda scary.”