Can't beat the Heat

3-POINT SHOTS from a game that turned into just the Al Jefferson-Zydrunas Ilgauskas shootout everybody figured it would:

* POINT 1: Wow, those Jazz starters played an awful lot in the 111-98 loss to Miami. Raja Bell was the most well-rested of the starting five, and he logged over 38 minutes. Here were the starters’ minutes:

Deron Williams: 42:26
Al Jefferson: 41:13
Paul Millsap: 40:30
Andrei Kirilenko: 38:50
Raja Bell: 38:01
Combined bench: 39:00

It’s no wonder the Jazz looked like they were running on empty in the final quarter. At practice this morning, Paul Millsap even used the word “fatigue” to describe the starters in crunch time. Playing a lot of minutes is one thing. Playing a lot of minutes against some of the best players in the world, as Millsap pointed out, is quite the challenge.

* POINT 2: Turnovers killed the Jazz, especially in the fourth quarter when they coughed up the ball seven times to give the Heat 13 free points. Miami, meantime, only had two TOs in the final 12 minutes.

Turnovers in the fourth:

11:25 Williams bad pass
9:22: Elson bad pass
7:16: Kirilenko bad pass
6:40: Kirilenko bad pass
4:39: Williams bad pass
3:56: Millsap lost ball
3:23: Williams bad pass

For the game, the Heat scored 26 points off of Utah turnovers.

“They got a lot of deflections,” Millsap said. “We turned the ball over a few times and it cost us the game.”

* POINT 3: If LeBron James goes off for 33 points, nine assists and seven rebounds on a night when Dwyane Wade goes off for 28 points AND Big Z hits 7 of 10 shots for 14 second-half points, well, the Heat are going to win an awful lot of games. Against everybody. Period.

As others have said, the Jazz will likely look back come season’s end and be thrilled they were able to get a split on the Heat.

* OT POINT: I couldn’t resist getting this photo out there again. Go ahead, give it a caption:

I’ll give it a shot:

No, LeBron, no! I don’t wanna go to the basket again!