10:56 p.m. MT Nov. 7, 2007
Jazz Block Out the Cavs
SALT LAKE CITY-- Leave it to Utah Jazz Head Coach Jerry Sloan to complain about his teams defensive effort after a game in which Andrei Kirilenko set an NBA record with 21 blocked shots.
On a night when the Jazz bounced back from a Sunday night loss to the L.A Lakers by outlasting the 2006-2007 Easter Conference Champion Cleveland Cavaliers,106-99, the real story was Kirilenkos defensive effort against the Cavs and LeBron James. After referring back to a dunk attempt he had that was rejected by L.A's Kobe Bryant on Sunday, Kirilenko said "I decided I was going to block shots in this game." During the post-game press conference James admitted to having admired Kirilenkos defensive play while in high school. "I hadn't seen that (play from Andrei) in a couple of years, but I saw it tonight," said James.
Kirilenkos defensive presence was critical during a game that was close until the final minute. The Jazz led by one with just around one minute to play when reserve power forward Paul Millsap fired his first 3-pointer of the season and swished it. As the Cavaliers brought the ball up the court to respond, C.J. Miles, the rarely used bench warmer, stole the ball and pulled up for another 3-pointer that put the Jazz up for good, 106-99. Carlos Boozer led the Jazz with 29 points and 7 rebounds, while James had 28 points for the Cavs despite being constantly hounded by Kirilenko.
Although the Jazz held their opponent under 100 points for the first time this season, Sloan was still Sloan after the game."We're gonna work on our defense ... we need to step it up," the coach said. "I feel our guys could do better on defense." The Jazz play next on Friday against Seattle.
Wow! You got alot of info in there. You sound like a good sports write, and you know what you're talking about. I also liked that you gave Jerry Sloan a bad critique, but I can't decide if that makes the story seem less objective.
ReplyDeleteYou gotta love it baby!!! This article was almost as good as Kirilenkos blocking bonanza! You did a good job, and typed fast. You seemed to cover most of what we talked about, although it was almost all about the Jazz. It;s pretty tough to talk more about cleveland's performance when we only talked to James, so I guess that's a critique on everybody. Oh, and the Cavaliers were the eastern conference champions not the easter conference champions.HA HA
ReplyDeleteI like that you added a different spin on the intro, by slamming Sloan, however, like whitney said, it might take away from the real point of the article. Overall I think you did a great job and got a ton of information fit in, especially in a small amount of time.
ReplyDeleteGreat article! Felt like i was reading a real news pice. I could tell you were a little bias for the Jazz team but hey...win a little lose a litte. Good job.
ReplyDeleteIntresting how you turned it around and made the coach look bad. Good job on putting a different spin on the article.
ReplyDeleteum... this is great if it were an opinion column. other than your obvious disdain for the head coach of the Utah Jazz, you had your facts striaght.
ReplyDelete