s. hansen
It appears that the lack of depth at point guard has finally caught up with the utah jazz. The jazz were unable to maintain their meager fourth quarter lead, and consequently lost their first game of the season by a score of 104-95 to the upstart Raptors. Utah led 84-78 with less than 10 minutes to play, but the offensive juggernaut that had averaged over 100 points and shot over 50% through the first four games stalled when it was needed most. "We came down the stretch," Coach Jerry Sloan said, "and weren't quite sure where to be in our offense, and couldn't execute at the right time." While regulars Carlos Arroyo and Raul Lopez looked helplessly from the bench, the jazz’s fourth quarter unit went into a bizarre lapse of offensive stagnancy: Kirilenko missed a running jumper, harpring’s shots sailed sour, Memhut Okur warranted the nickname “ghostertag” with his in-the-paint misses, and Malone’s clone, Carlos Boozer, looked downright ugly while missing a 3 foot jumper and a running lay-up. The Raptors fourth quarter comeback was aided without usual starter Vince Carter. Carter, whose trade talk continues to be a locker-room cancer, sat the bench while Chris Bosh and company led the fearsome charge. Sadly for Utah, they probably would have preferred to play against Carter, because the Jazz could do nothing to slow Kevin Garnett’s prodigy, Chris Bosh. When the Jazz put Boozer or “ghostertag” on Bosh, he stepped out and drained the mid-range jumper. The jazz would counter by placing Kirilenko on the sophomore power forward, but Bosh was unimpeded by the hustling Russian, and easily posted up on the smaller force. “My personal defense was too far from what I can do,” Kirilenko later said. Kirilenko struggled from the floor as well-9 points on 3-11 shooting. He kept prestigious company though, as the whole Jazz squad shot poorly in their first outing under the 50% clip. Starting point guard Keith Mcleod, one of the Arroyo/Lopez replacements, looked strong with a career high 16 points, but managed only one assist in 27 minutes of play. The Jazz retake the court Saturday night against the defending champion Detroit Pistons.Game Notes: Both Kirilenko and Boozer left part of the game due to external bleeding… Former Cougar Rafael Araujo played sparingly in his return to Utah; he had one board and one foul in 4 minutes…Gordon Giricek scored fourteen points on 6-8 shooting but oddly didn’t play in the fourth quarter…Pistons will be without Ben Wallace for next two games.
