Game 21 vs. DAL: The Utah Jazz and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

In [haiku] sum:
Jerry broke up SWARM
Then Deron started pouting
With that, we were done.

A couple of nice shots aside, the first quarter was a thing of uglyness. AK and Sap both got into early foul trouble, which made things too, too easy for the Mavs. Elson and CJ came in for AK and Sap, but they–understatement–weren’t great. In order words, we were in desperate need of SWARM [(TM) Basketball John; SWARM=our second unit].

And then, in they came. CJ and Elson looked better instantly, and it was suddenly a wonderful fun-filled circus and colorful carousel ride of 300-pounder spin moves and flying old man alley-oops. Pure fun, pure enjoyment…it was like watching basketball through a pair of childlike-wonder-colored glasses.

The Mavs took off on a 15-5 run in the 3rd, and went 11-0 to start the 4th. The Jazz were playing so soft it was like 2009. Everyone was just standing around; there was no ball movement whatsoever; Deron, who didn’t have a FG in the second half, got all pouty; things plummeted downhill fast. As soon as I saw that pout that Jazz fans have come to know and loathe take over Deron’s face (and realized that Jerry was keeping him in the game instead of bringing Ronnie P in to play with Earl), I knew we were done. Sad, but true.

–We shot 20 more FTs than Dallas, and were called for 4 less fouls.
–We had a +9 offensive rebounding edge.
–Turnovers were even.

And we still lost…which just goes to show just how wretchedly we were (non)executing. I suppose we were due a bad game/loss like this, but it doesn’t make it suck any less.

Unintentional Dirty Quote Machines of the Night
** Thanks to @prodigal_punk:

** Hubie on Haywood: That’s the second time he’s tapped that Al Jefferson.
(OK fine, what he really said was “That’s the second time he’s tapped that over Al Jefferson.”)

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Thanks to @texas for helping me identify Jerry’s tie color today, as I was unable to do so watching a very non-HQ stream.