Game 40 Jazz vs. Heat: A Good Old-Fashioned Blowout Meltdown Comeback

You might want to go grab a cup of coffee and give this time to load…

Stop me if you’ve heard this before. The Jazz came out of the gate roaring (ok, not that part) and played a fantastic first half, shooting 68 percent from the floor and tallying 20 assists in the half. It was the Big Al Jefferson and DeMarre Carroll Show in the first quarter, and Gordon Hayward playing out of his mind in the second quarter.

The Jazz had a 21-point lead with 3:31 remaining in the 3rd. Over the next 12 minutes, they go something like 3-19 with a gazillion turnovers and their lead is down to two by 3:30 in the 4th. Fortunately, Hayward turned it on and scored 10 of the Jazz's final 14 points to allow the Jazz to hold on to win the game.

P.S. I think we finally know what Gordon’s nickname is.

Some sights and sounds more sights from the game:

a) Either all the Jazzmen share a chapstick, or Brian Zettler is Derrick Favors’ personal chapstick purveyor.
b) Sidney Lowe talking to himself.

c) This is how you set a pick.
d) Things that make me grin my face off, Exhibit A.

e) Enes Kanter skipping over to hi-(low-)five Derrick Favors during a timeout…even though both of them were on the bench.
f) Marvin Williams, leaving Hayward hanging.

Post-Game Quotage
** Tyrone Corbin, on the Jazz’s meltdown: Teams gon make runs, man, and, and you, you know, you looking at, you had the luxury of, of being able to weather the storm because you, you had the lead, but you know, it gets a little nerve-racking because now what do you go and how, how’s the team going to see where you can go to stop their run. And we missed a few shots. They, they got down. We turned the ball over a few times, and we gotta make sure, one of the lessons that we talked about here is, we wanna control, when we get up on guys, we wanna control the clock. We control the tempo of the game to make sure we get a shot. And we run the clock down instead of having, you know, we turned it over, they get back and score, it’s a four-point swing. So we gotta make sure we get in our offense then.
** Paul Millsap: We got more bigs than they do, so we wanted to beat ’em up down low.
** Al Jefferson: Big win. You know, I still had, Atlanta game, that taste, that bad taste in my mouth. I think now I’m over it.

Random Stuff, etc.
** The Jazz now have 21 wins on the season. Based on the records of teams on Jan. 14, however, this win was just the Jazz’s fifth win against a team with a winning record. Ouch.
** DeMarre Carroll, post-shootaround via @saltcityhoops:

** People still calling Alec Burks “Alex”: the Heat commentators. (H/T @dianaallen)
** JazzFanatical *exclusive*: An inside look at Marvin Williams’ left nostril.

** Cute :)

Unintentional Dirty Quote Machines of the Night (UDQM)
** Chris Bosh, shootaround: I just like to take advantage of what I can do well. I like to go inside and out.
** Hayward, shootaround: Turn it over, you just kind of play into their hands. They got too many guys that can finish in transition.
** Millsap on Bosh, shootaround: One of the fastest guys in this league.
** Marvin, shootaround: It’s part of the learning process. You gotta learn how to play from behind.

** Boler as Foye shoots: Is he hot? A little short.
** Boler: Chalmers deep. Jefferson couldn’t block out.
** Harpring: Usually when LeBron comes out and Wade comes in, they kinda go back and forth. (H/T @SurlyMae)
** Boler: LeBron holds it with one hand.
** Harpring on Favors: Just his length alone is killing the Heat.
** Horny, halftime: The biggest key is to not just sit there and hold it.
** Harpring: Chris Bosh is having a hard time staying in front of Millsap tonight. Millsap knows it, and is attacking him.
** Harpring: Kobe always tries to do it hard. (H/T @JazzmanJoey)
** Harpring: Look at DeMarre Carroll, just going into LeBron James.
** Harpring: Jazz have been unable to get inside in the 4th quarter.
** Harpring: Millsap has come up huge.
** Harpring on free throws: Bosh and Wade only went three times, combined. (H/T @bjcseven)

** Big Al on how big the win was, post-game: It was real big. I still got that bad taste in my mouth from Atlanta.
** Marvin on the kids, post-game: Those guys are huge, man. They been big for us all year.
** Beat writer: Ty, we’re starting to see a pattern. They get physical, you come right back. It’s like blow-for-blow. That’s got to make you feel good. Corbin: Well, it does.

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From the “you can’t make this up” files, I was checking to make sure all the links worked on the post and clicked on the picture of Matt Harpring wearing the gloves. This is the 404 message that came up (temporarily):