Life advice from Fes, beating up bad teams and (not) rebounding
3-POINT SHOTS as I wait to be frozen inside my home for eternity by Utah’s Blizzard of the Century that apparently has been delayed by body-searching TSA agents:
POINT 1: While the Jazz beat the Sacramento Kings 94-83 in a rout in which they led at one point by 25, this doesn’t mean they’ve solved their home woes. Utah has now beaten four teams at ESA – the Clippers, Raptors, Nets and Kings – that have a combined record of 16-40.
Their three home losses have come against teams – the Suns, Thunder and Spurs – that are a combined 29-12.
The Jazz will have a chance to notch some impressive home wins Wednesday vs. the 11-2 New Orleans Hornets and Friday against the 13-2 Los Angeles Lakers.
POINT 2: They’ve managed to win three of their last four games, but the Jazz will be lucky if they continue winning at that rate while getting outrebounded by double-digit margins like they did during that stretch. Overall, Utah has lost the rebounding battle in 12 of 15 games, including six straight.
They’re playing with fire – and need to play with more fire in attacking the glass.
“Our rebounding is really getting to be going downhill,” Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said. “I think we are 29th in the league in rebounding. If you’re going to have a chance to do anything, you have to be able to rebound the ball more than we do.”
That will likely be the case against these better teams, too.
But on a bright rebounding note, Deron Williams is having a career year on the boards. He’s almost averaging half of a rebound more this season (4.4 rpg) than his best year to date in 2009-10 of 4.0 rpg.
POINT 3: Center Kyrylo Fesenko made a rare appearance in Monday’s game, and he made a big difference as well while playing a pivotal role off the bench with Francisco Elson, Earl Watson, Ronnie Price and C.J. Miles. (Or the Euro Twin Towers, Spark & Spunk, and Mr. Hot Hand, for this night at least.)
Here’s what Fesenko had to say after the game in which he played 14-plus minutes, which was nearly 10 more than he’d played in the last four games combined (including a couple in which he wasn’t called off the bench at all):
“That’s what we do, second squad, we hustle. Maybe we’re not as efficient on offense, but we try to do our best on defense, try to rebound. Whenever coach calls you in, you need to be ready. I had two DNPs, so I don’t care. I stayed with it and I hope it paid off.”
After Monday morning’s shootaround, I asked Fes how his mindset was after having not played much in the past week.
Fesenko: “Nothing changed. My mind’s still set on do whatever team and coach needs me to do, do my max, help everybody out on defense. When you get into the game, show your perfect game and show your 100 percent, that’s it.”
Me: Have you been frustrated not playing much lately?
Fesenko: “I’m not letting these thoughts into my head because what can you do? Just get upset, why? Don’t ask stupid question if you don’t want to hear stupid answer.”
Me (laughing and wondering about the stupid question remark): Me or you to the coach?
Fesenko (also laughing): “In general.”
Jazz employee not named Fesenko (also laughing): “Life advice.”
Heeding that life advice I followed up with a non-stupid question about Fes’ four stitches, which turned into a conversation about his fuzzy facial growth, after which he revealed that his girlfriend had named his soon-to-be-shaved beard “It” after the Addams Family character, which impressed me that the 23-year-old Ukrainian knew about the Addams Family, all of which reconfirmed why I enjoy asking Fesenko questions of almost any variety.