‘School’s In’

Final Score - Jazz 99 Mavs 90
Strong win and a great crowd.
Good balance.
Holding the Mavs to 90 points is very impressive defensive work
Dirk Nowitski was not impressive in this game.
The Jazz had great starts in the 1st and 3rd quarters.
Okur was 2 of 10 and he nailed back to back huge shots.
CJ had another good outing off the bench.

1:44 4th Quarter — Jazz 96 Mavs 89
Mavs are living by the three — they have 5 in the quarter
Jerry Sloan just popped off the bench and called a play, he has done that rarely this year.  However, with the close game losses he may be taking a bit more control.
He called the C play and it lead to back to back Boozer baskets.
The Mavs went zone and Memo hit back to back tough really tough fade away jumpers that busted the zone and got the Mavs back into a man.

5:37 4th Quarter — Jazz 88 Mavs 80
Very impressive stretch by Deron Williams.
The Mavericks are running pick and rolls to create a switch and then posting Deron up.  He stopped Howard and Stackhouse on back to back possessions.
On offense he answered with a 16 foot J.
Jazz have 5 stops in a row.

8:26 4th Quarter - Jazz 84 Mavs 80
Jazz are playing very well and lead by 10 but Devean George just hit back to back three’s.
If Devean George is going to beat you maybe you have to tip your hat and say ok.
Jazz are defending well, the Mavs aren’t in a rhythm.
Harpring just got an open 15 footer off a great pick from Memo
Milsap has been a beast on the boards.
Ronnie Brewer left with an injured hand or finger

End of 3rd Quarter — Jazz 78 Mav s 70
I swear if the Jazz run a two for one at the end of the quarter end this year it will be one time too many.  They haven’t made it work yet.  It costs them 2 to 4 points a night and that has been some games.  It kills me even more when the front end of the 2 for 1 is a Jason Hart pull up three. It is always two bad shots for us and 1 good shot for them.
Jazz had good energy the whole quarter.
For the most part they executed the offense on each possession.
The Jazz have altered how they are guarding the pick and roll and it seems effective
Holding the Mavs to 70 points in 3 quarters is really impressive.

10:09 3rd Quarter — Jazz 55 Mavs 48
Nice surge by the Jazz to open the half.
Good energy.  AK hit a 16 footer and Brewer hit two 15 footers in the early offense.
D-Will go his knee bumped and is gutting it out.

Halftime  — Jazz 47 Mavs 46
The Jazz trailed until AK dunked with :02 left in the quarter.
The Jazz went on a 16-0 run to start the Mavs went on a 46-31 since.
The Jazz just stopped running their offense that was so effective in the first half.
The Mavs were able to get out and run and got lots of easy baskets,
The Mavs are the #1 offense in the NBA so you knew they were going to come back but not this quickly.
I will mention this again I am sure but the key here is the Jazz are 3-7 in games decided by 6 or less and the Mavs are the opposite - 8-4

5:11 2nd Quarter — Jazz 40 Mavs 32
Having Memo on the floor really changes everything.  He is very active defensively as well.
The Mavs have gotten an offensive rhythm.  This is not going to be easy it will be a night long struggle to hold the lead.
The Jazz have stopped executing the offense instead going 1 on 1, both Deron and AK took 18 footers.  The jazz are getting what they want when they run a play.
Jazz had 18 of the 29 1st Quarter points in the paint

End of 1st Quarter — Jazz 29 Mavs 18
Very strong quarter.
The Jazz defense was very good.  They handled the pick and roll. Lots of help from the bigs.
The Jazz seemed more active than they have been in a long time.
The Mavs are not a strong defensive team by nature.  They have to be forced to play it.
The Jazz execution is good and the shooting is in rhythm.  The Mavs aren’t breaking the rhythm at all.
the big question is can the jazz bench have a decent start to the 2nd quarter
Jazz forced 8 turnovers by the Mavs and committed only 1.

8:03 1st Quarter — Jazz 14 Mavs 0
Great start for the Jazz
It all opened with Boozer taking Dirk in the post.  Immediately I wondered would he have been able to do that if Memo had been out of the game.
The Jazz are terrifically active on defense, stealing and getting into passing lanes.
Boozer has 10 points.
Avery has called two timeouts and shuffled most of his line-up.
Energy Solutions is going nuts.

STARTING LINE-UPS
Jazz:  Deron, Ronnie, AK, Carlos Boozer, Memo Okur
Mavs:  Devin Harris, Eddie Jones, Josh Howard, Dirk Nowitzki, Erick Dampier

STATS — 2007-08 SEASON
Note: Efficiency Stats are based on possession.  Therefore, equalizing for pace of play.  Efficiency rankings are based upon 100 possessions.   Example: The Jazz average 111.1 pts per 100 possessions

Pace:  Jazz 93.4  possessions per game (9th in NBA) Heat 90.6  (15th in the NBA)
Offensive  Efficiency: Jazz 112.0  (5th in NBA) Mavs 115.0  (1st in the NBA)
Defensive Efficiency: Jazz 107.8  (17th in NBA)  Mavs 109.3  (23rd in the NBA)
Jazz Defensive Glass: Jazz Def Reb % - 76%  (21st in NBA)  Mavs Off Reb % - 27% (16th)
Mavs Defensive Glass:  Jazz Off Reb % - 32% (1st in NBA)  Mavs Def Reb % -73% (19th)

Officials
Ron Garretson, Leon Wood, Gary Zielinski