This game started out well as the UT starting five was right from the playoffs and we came back with:

Sergio
Jackson
TO
Shavlik
Oden

and we were only down a point after the first half and took a 3 pt lead into the lockerroom at half.

There was a section about halfway through the 3rd where the Jazz got out to a 5-6 pt lead and it pretty much went down hill from there and we were never able to mount any sort of sustained comeback after that point and the lead hovered around 10 pts +-4.

I too thought Oden did not have his best game but it seemed that UT would crowd the paint and throw everyone at him. Unfortunately, Rudy, Roy and Aldridge were not around him to open up the paint as much, so it seemed to slow him down quite a bit.

The good news is that he hit 4-6 FTs and got Okur into foul trouble pretty quick, in fact Fesenko, Milsap and Okur all had 4 fouls and a lot of that is due to Oden.

Segio looked good out there and had some good steals, although his shot was a bit off even though he did hit a nice 3. The best part is that he looks so much more confident and relaxed, in control of the game. Sometimes it is hard to see him as only a 21 year old, 3rd year PG but that is what he is.

Outlaw was back he looked strong and a bit more descisive this game, probably because he was not playing alongside Roy or LMA at the beginning of the game and he was able to get into his groove without thinking “Should I pass this to Roy or LMA?”

Diogu struggled as Ut is very good on the interior and being undersized, Diogu had a tough time getting his shot off consistently as evident by the fact taht he had as many TOs as fga’s.

Bayless had an up and down game. His shot was off and a few shots he missed badly. He was pounding the ball quite a bit and not next to Roy, Rudy or Sergio he did not look as effective. There were ties when the lineup was

Bayless
Jackson
Batum
Diogu
Pryzbilla

and there was bad ball movement all around which further amplified Bayless’ lack of PG skills at this point. I want to stress the “at this point” thing, but when Roy and Rudy are playing alongside him that problem should be nullified to a good degree.

The good news was that I made sure to watch him D against DW and I must disagree with set shot in the fact that I thought he did a good job overall staying in front of DW. DW only scored 9pts on 2-7 shooting and did not look as dynamic as he can and I was encouraged by Bayless’ play on DW.

Time will help Bayless and he will mature into a good player but PG is such a hard position to learn we can give him time.

But far and away the player that had the best game was Batum.
7-11 fg
2-2 3pt
3 reb
2 ast
2 stl
3 bs
16pts
??

THAT is just the type of stat line we need from our starting SF. His shot still looks like a work in progress and he can improve there, but everything else he has down. Kirilenko and Batum were matched up against each other a lot and Batum was at least even if not better than AK. His D and just overall hustle and being in the right place at the right time was impressive, all that stuff that does not show up on the stat line.

All of this from a 19 yo, very impressive. Now as with all young players, the question becomes, can he do this consistently? If he can we may be moving one of our SFs to find PT for him. We need him to work with John Townsend and if we can get him to better his 3pt shot to 37%+ we have a younger Tayshaun Prince for a mil/year.

KP must be smiling in what he has in Batum his BBIQ and athleticism are great for some one so young and he may be that final piece I wrote about here a while ago.

Final thoughts:

Yeah we lost by 13 but ut played all 5 of their starters and 2 of their best reserves against Shavlik, Batum and Luke and after the 1st Q only led by a point. Oden will foul out most of uts big men and Bayless can handle DW. My prediction is that we will win the series against the jazz again this year.

I got the exact thing you got. 10 regular season games and 1 preseason game. That seems about right. I hope that you get the same luck that I got……four of my games were in December….right during the middle of The Streak!!! I had also picked up the Christmas night game ala carte, so I went to 5 games during The Streak……that was freakin’ awesome!!

He’s tall and skinny and bouncy.

1/4 season for me last year was 10 regular season games and 1 pre-season. I wasn’t even expecting the latter.

I could gripe this year – half season 20 games and 2 pre-season while the other half got 21 regular games and (I assume) 1 pre-season. But they have to divide it some way and I’m glad it wasn’t splitting the two tickets into 2 games…

And I’m certainly on the Batum bandwagon. I really like that kid. Keep it up, Nic!

BATUM!!!!

Pre-season is just slightly more representative of team and individual performance than summer league. You can get a basic idea about player’s skills and/or their health. It’s great that Sergio has improved his shooting form and appears more confident. Batum has significant raw skills. It’s been encouraging and fun watching Rudy. Bayless and Greg have a lot to learn, but apparently Greg’s knee isn’t hurting. Brandon seems fully recovered. Ok, that’s enough analysis from pre-season performance for me.

Everything changes on opening night. Right now the vets aren’t playing with 100% intensity and they aren’t trying to make the same offensive or defensive moves they will make in the regular season. There is usually at least one player (usually more) in the game at any moment that hasn’t got a clue what he is supposed to do on the floor and that regularly breaks down the team offense and team defense. The offensive sets are often new, incomplete, and poorly executed. Ditto for the defensive plans. The referees don’t call the game the same way either. There are some refs that won’t be there in regular season, and veteran refs have been told to emphasize certain calls in preseason that will magically disappear in the regular season. I could go on and on, but after 38 years of pre-season games I’ve learned that there is a reason the coaches don’t pick the All-Star teams after pre-season and only 82 games count toward the playoffs.

Batum…gets his hands on a lot of balls and can get into his man without fear of being beat off…he reminds me of Scottie Pippen.

Who gets more minutes, Bayless or Batum?

Zero rebounds in 19 minutes.

Dude. [Shakes head].

this game really only counts as one-fourth of a game, does it not?

40/4 = 10 real games

1/4 = 1 preseason game

Or am I confused?

Is all regular season games. It was the only one like this, and the only one that came with opening night. I guess I lucked out.

About last nights game, like everyone else I was highly impressed by Batum. I think he’s a better back up for Martell at this point already. Jerryd is still frustrating me. He needs to either learn to pass the ball or sit on the bench. Or, if he really really really has no one to pass the ball to, DRIVE IT IN to the freaking basket already. Serious. That’s why he had hundreds of free throw attempts in summer league. Oh, he keeps missing his free throws as well so maybe that’s not the best idea.

Umm…All in all, I was pretty darn impressed that we only lost by 13. We had almost everyone out of that game and UT was playing their normal starting unit and best guys off the bench pretty much the whole game (I thought Sloan wanted them to get rest???). I also think we will own UT this season.