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Off-beat Jazz still too much for Toronto

The Jazz grinded out a great game. Deron better watch out because AK means business in the assist category. Two games in a row AK has more assist. AK--Mr. Intangible, Deron--Mr. Clutch, Brewer--Mr. Larceny, Booz--Mr. Double-Double, Memo--Mr. Inconsistent.

I don't think D-Will cares if he gets 15 assists a game, AK wins games, D-Will likes that.

Solid win againgst an Eastern Conference playoff team on the road.

@ KM

Jimmy likes this game. Milsap--Mr. Boardwork, Harpring--Mr. Knee, Hart--Mr. Escalade-rental, Collins--Mr. Invisible, Fes--Mr. Dane Cook, Gira--Mr. Stutter-step-traveler.

It's nice to see the Jazz doing well, particularly on defense.

AK's strength is in defense and assists. If he can overcome his past desires to be a scoring leader.. he'll be an all star again just from his other stats. Kudos to the Jazz on a great beginning this year!

D-Will went flying for the block on T.J. Ford first two tries to get the shot off at the end. I would have done the same thing, but I'm pretty sure that's not kosher D in Sloan's book. But whatever, we got the win, and Memo stepped up and put a hand in the shooter's face. The Jazz are getting pretty good in close games.

Go ahead Memo..You're good at defence and offence.

An ugly win but nonetheless it is a W. It is nice everyone seems to be settling into their roles.

AK is piling up the stats and is probably the difference in this game. Obviously we can not get the win without D-Will and Booz scoring down the stretch but the fact is that we would not have been in the position to win the game without all of AK's stats.

On another positive note, we held the best 3 point shooting team in the league to a very average night. Defending the three has forever been our achilles heel. Everybody playing their role equals a gutty win on the road when we were not really playing that well.

Cleveland will be an even tougher test--we do not seem to be able to run and score alot on them either. If we do not play some tough D there Friday night we will be toast.

The T E A M is coming together nicely.

Go Jazz!!

Anybody else regret taking Milsap for their fantasy team. He is killing me!

The jazz are doing pretty good this year so far- they almost lost the lead to toronto but they won, Boozer has been getting it done every night, i really think that he ought to get mvp, hes better than garnett by far. Williams is the best PG in the leauge. Ak is doing alright, i still think that sloan should get rid of him, he misses more shots than he makes, but his assists, rebounds, and blocks are still high, and memo, i dont even know wat hes been doing lately, hes starting to get inconsistence. But brewer, that kids got talent, he could be good one day, i just hope the jazz keep on winning and make it to the playoffs
GO JAZZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Where are all the jazz fans and even the owner that were wanting AK traded all summer. There is not another player in the league as versatile as he is when it comes to his defense.

Who cares if he doesn't score, he does so many other things. And lets face it if AK was gone booz and memo certainly won't pick up for him on defense and blocks.

Milsap is good defensively and a good player. But I thought all along jazz fans were nuts for wanting to trade Kirilenko.

I'm not a jazz fan but they look good and with kirilenko they can go a long way. Without him they would struggle in the playoffs without his defense and blocks and big plays that spark the team.

In their crappy division they should be poised to have the best record in the western conference. Because SA, Dal, Hous and PHX are in tougher divisions and their records shouldn't be as good at Utah's record. It will be interesting.

Jimmy thinks the Jazz are a shoe-in for the playoffs. If this trend continues... OH YEAH!!!!! (Jimmy digs the Kool-Aid Man). D-Will is Mr. Good Friday. AK is Mr. Let's Get Bizzay! and Booz is Mr. Armageddon.

Trade AK? Your points are invalid. If the owner had wanted to trade AK he would've done it before training camp. It was AK himself who wanted to be traded. As for the Utah fans? We have always had the attitude...if you don't wanna play here then get out! We don't want you. (Remember Shandon Anderson, Howard Eisley, even Karl Malone to some extent when he first left).

I heard a lot of fans say during the offseason that if AK were to not get traded we would forgive him as long as he played hard and didn't stand on a corner of the court and sulk like last year. So far he's playing hard, focused, and exactly like we hoped. Let's hope he keeps it up all season.

"Who cares if he scores?" Of course none of the fans care the problem in the past with AK is that HE CARES! If AK can be content with his current role that will be great for the team. Something tells me he is pretending to be great with it but that he still thinks he should be scoring more. His comment to KK in the Trib that he didn't want to talk about his current happiness makes me think he is still not happy but playing his role because he has no other choice.

A team's division hardly affects a their record. The Jazz play each team in their division 4 times and they play the rest of the Western Conference teams either 3 or 4 times. It may give the Jazz 1 or 2 extra wins for being in a weak division. If the Jazz actually do win the Western Conference it would only be because they are good, not because their division is bad.

Last year Millsap was an unexpected surprise to everyone we played. This year they have game planned for him and things are not so easy. Welcome to the NBA.

This ought to make us appreciate our stars even more--they game plan for Booz, D-Will, Okur (has worked somewhat), and even AK (postioning his offensive man away from the hoop to prevent AK from getting blocks) every night and these guys have to overcome it.

That said it actually may make Millsap more affordable to keep on the team. He is a solid role player with occasional super strong games. Unfortunately the market will probably overpay him for that--probably more than we can afford. We can hardly blame him when the time comes and he takes the payday.

AK is shooting 45% for season, not exciting but better than Okur's 39%.

Win-Win trade: Okur, Kirilenko and 1st rounder to Indiana for J. O'neil and D. Granger. Everybody wins - everybody is happy.

AK finally realized he was literally stuck here in Utah if the situation stayed status quo (preseason). By that I mean, AK was viewed as having a bad attiude by playing poorly and demanding a trade. LHM could not get decent value as a result so he would not trade him (we were not getting Marion without Banks lousy contract). LHM was going to let him sit here and rot. No contract release for AK--bad precedent to set.

One of two things has happened. AK has realized he has to prove he is valuable enough for the Jazz to get a good player in a trade without taking a dog contract OR AK truly has gotten involved enough to be happy.

We will all know which it is, probably by the trading deadline.

As far as the other comment about fans wanting AK traded? AK was poor last year--nobody wanted another season of that, especially for your highest salary player. Of course we did not want him here, in that frame of mind, because he did not want to be here.

Fans would be, and now are, thrilled that AK is playing like we all knew AK was capable.

I'll glad let AK miss a few shots a game if he'll give us 2-3 blocks, 4-7 steals, 10+ rebounds, 7+ assists and who knows how many other altered or intimidated shots. He's like the pesky guy at a pick-up game that you should be able to beat but somehow seems to hustle his way into more plays than he should. He's the exact X factor the Jazz need. Last night was a perfect example, our offense went stale off and on all night, but we were able to get some great defense and easy buckets because of AK. We already have like 4-5 other guys that can score 30, we need a pure utility man to do the dirty work, and AK is the man. As far as utility men go, AK is a lot better shot than most (see Dennis Rodman etc...)