Episode 22 – All of the local teams are playing well, so life is good, right?
Hello and welcome (back) to the Utah Sports Cast. This is Nate, and I have returned from Disney World/fixing my stupid broken heater to resume the blogging duties. I would like to thank Zach for writing an excellent post and keeping everything running smoothly. He really is the brains behind this whole thing; I am just privileged to be along for the ride.
Anyway, the Utah Jazz have won five games in a row, as of last night. I know that wouldn’t be significant news if this was the Dallas Sports Cast and we were talking about the Mavericks, but five games happens to be the second longest win streak for Jerry’s Kids this year. They are in the middle of a nice resurgence to the upper echelons of the NBA, having won 10 of their last 15 and secured the third best record in the league and the Western Conference. Aside from the juggernaut
The part that fans and media are finding most impressive about the recent five game winning streak is that the Jazz are getting it done without All-Star, MVP Candidate Carlos Boozer. (Note: I have to confess it feels good to write that about Booz. I had my doubts after his somewhat rough start and the missing year of basketball.) The Jazz are 5-1 during his injury absence, and getting it done with exceptional teamwork and elevated play by certain key players, like Paul Millsap, Andrei Kirilenko, and Derek Fisher. Of course, the lion’s share of the credit should go to Mehmet Okur, who has been outstanding. His 29 point performance against the Knicks last Sunday while battling stomach flu should be rightfully honored among the best efforts ever turned in by a player wearing a Jazz uniform. He was named the Western Conference Player of the Week during our missing week, which was very well deserved.
Along those lines, Jazz fans are waiting breathlessly to see if Memo or Deron Williams will be picked to play in the All-Star game due to some unfortunate injuries. Steve Nash and now Allen Iverson will not be competing, so David Stern has some deciding to do. At least one national NBA writer has mentioned his opposition to either of the Jazz players being chosen, but I believe at least one of them will. I also happen to think it will be “Slick” Williams, although I would probably prefer to see Memo go if only one were chosen. No disrespect intended to the future star point guard, but he will almost certainly get more chances to be an All-Star. I don’t know for certain that this would be Memo’s only serious consideration and I hope it isn’t for his sake, but it could be.
The Utah and BYU men’s basketball teams are both in the middle of winning streaks, although Utah’s (2 games) is a bit more modest than BYU’s (6 games, and 14 of the last 16 incidentally). The Cougars have become one of the three best teams in the Mountain West Conference, and currently have the best conference record at 9-2, although Air Force (8-3) and UNLV (8-3) both have better overall records (and both are nationally ranked, incidentally).
As for
Our three stars of the week:
3) Paul Millsap
2) Keena Young
1) Mehmet Okur
As always, we considered many others, but decided on this three. If you have any thoughts or comments, we would love to hear them! Please feel free to contact us, as always.
Thanks to our sponsor, ShieldZone! I would heartily encourage everyone to check out their homepage, the blog articles, and the invisibleSHIELD in general.
posted by Nate and Zach @ 2:11 PM
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