Game 46 Jazz vs. Hornets: Escape Clause

“He’s a beast. He just gonna continue to get better and better. And it’s gonna be scary for the NBA.” — Al Jefferson on Derrick Favors

The Jazz, sans Gordon Hayward, didn’t play their best ball, but they played well enough to beat the Hornets, who were sans Eric Gordon. On the flip side, they did not play well enough to beat the Hornets without the typical “Jazz escape with a win” ending. It also goes without saying that the Jazz did not play or look like a team motivated to put a 45-point loss behind them.

Pre-Game Quotage
** Tyrone Corbin on where the team needs to improve: We gotta get better. You know, we can’t, we want to keep teams in the 42-percent range for the year, and we above that now. So we need to get better at doing that.
** Marvin Williams on how much time Corbin devotes to defense: I mean, every day. You know, I feel like he’s a defensive-minded coach. You know, he gives you a lot of freedom on the offensive end within the system, but he really does put an emphasis on defense…we spend a great deal of time, I feel like, on the defensive end.
** Paul Millsap on the Hornets being renamed the Pelicans: It’s the state bird. I mean, state bird. … [Do you like that name?] I mean, it’s the state bird.
** Big Al, asked what he knows about the pelican (the bird): Aw man. It fly. It fly. That’s all I can tell you. [Bill Oram (@tribjazz)*: Al, what challenges do the pelicans present to the rest of the eco-system?] You know what, man? Can the media get fined? Anybody to talk to to fine the media? I’m talking to your boss.
* Thanks to @DJJazzyJody for the ID.

For a little while during the game, Karl and Kay Malone were watching the game as Kay tweeted with Jazz fans. And now we know this, that Favors is Karl’s favorite Jazzman!

Post-Game Quotage
** Tyrone Corbin: This team played hard, man. They’re a group of young guys that’s growing, and they’re learning, and they compete for 48 minutes, so I was proud of our guys for hanging in there and just continuing to fight.
** Tyrone Corbin on Gordon Hayward: He’s getting better.
** Al Jefferson: I don’t remember too many time when Paul [Millsap] have a great game, and we lose. You know, I have great games all the time, we still might lose. But when Paul have a great game, ain’t too many time that we gonna lose.
** Randy Foye: We got into the bonus early, and when we get into the bonus, my eyes light up, because I know I’m coming off screens and guys are chasing me. And I’m setting cross-screens and so I’m doing a lot of the bumping and, you know, the flopping, trying to get a foul call. And I think, you know, once you get to the free throw line, once you see the ball go through the rim with the free throw, it’s that much better for you.
** Derrick Favors: Playing basketball, you want to have fun. You don’t want to go out there and be robots, and, you know, make it boring.

Enes Kanter’s new hat, via @DJJazzyJody

Unintentional Dirty Quote Machines of the Night (UDQM)
** Millsap on the Hornets’ frontcourt: We know that they bring, you know, length. You know, their length, they’re real length, long, down low. So, try to take it to their bodies and you know it’s gonna be some pump fakes thrown at them.
** Big Al on the Hornets’ frontcourt: They got some big boys down there. But we got big boys too.
** Harpring: Huge for the Jazz to get someone off right away.
** Boler: You see him going backdoor… Harpring: Anthony Davis trying to saddle Paul Millsap.
** Harpring: If you’re going to allow Davis to get inside all night, it’s going to be a long night for the Jazz.
** Harpring on Roger Mason Jr.: You’ve really got to be on him, because he can really fill it up.
** Boler: Jazz had trouble with penetration… (H/T @5kl, @bjcseven)
** Boler on Favors: He just did Earl a favor. (H/T @da_breezman)
** Locke on Millsap: [U]sing angles, lots of contact and forcing action (H/T @D_West5)
** Boler: Foye tries to force it inside, Favors grabs it back.
** Harpring on Big Al: When he’s got his individual moves going, he’s got the entire package…When he’s got his total package going, he’s one of the hardest guys to guard.
** Boler on his hair: I went long in college. (H/T @D_HUG)
** The entire conversation Boler and Harpring had about meatpackers and packing meat at the 10-minute mark in the 4th
** Favors, post-game: We came together.