Game 35 vs. MEM: See What Happens When You F#@^ing Play AK at the 4?

The Jazz win by 20+ points without Deron. For whatever reason, the few times this season that the Jazz have played actual, competitive basketball have been when DWill is out. I don’t know what that means and I’m avoiding thinking about it.

Andrei was AK-nobody-fills-up-a-stat-sheet-like-he-does-47 tonight (5-10 for 12 points, 6 boards, 4 assists, 4 steals, and 3 blocks in 28 minutes). He was dunking in traffic, outhustling Grizzles for rebounds, and passing between his legs. I don’t know if the fact that he had product in his hair for the first time in two months has anything to do with it, but several of his plays made me get up out of my seat and raise my arms in the air (which, yes, is somewhat lame as I was watching on my computer, but whatever).

Other notables: Ronnie B had 10 assists, Boozer had 1 block (raising his season average to a scintillating 0.6 BPG), and CJ shot 2 FT (yes, a big deal since he had only taken 8 all season prior to tonight in 400 minutes of PT).

How long has it been since the Jazz got a real win where it was like “We won!” rather than “We didn’t lose”? Probably about as long as I’ve written up a real game recap with more text than image content. Our boys showed up tonight and they played like a team. 12 or 18 months ago when I thought we had the deepest team in the league and were potential contenders, this is how I thought we would be rolling night in and night out.

Our newest Jazzman, Sundiata Gaines, who, according to Yahoo! Sports, doesn’t exist–

–got 21 minutes of burn, which is 21 more than I expected (I was absolutely certain and would have bet money that Jerry was going to play AK/CJ/Ronnie B at backup point). He didn’t shoot well, but collected five assists.

Now, all that said and all the feelgood aside, do I believe that the Jazz have the ability to put the same team away twice in a row, no matter how mediocre that team might be? No, I do not. No corners, chapters, pages, new leaves, or arounds have been turned tonight. This team is still what it is. I’ve come to accept that the Jazz are NOT a good (chemistry) team in a funk; instead, they’re a bad (chemistry) team that has been underachieving for almost a full year now and will continue to do so until change comes. (Go ahead. Call me Downy Downerson of Downing Drive. I am what I am too.)

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