COLUMN: NBA doesn’t get much better than Jazz vs. Thunder
The Utah Jazz and the Oklahoma City Thunder. What do these two teams have in common? A lot, actually. Both clubs have incredibly talented point guards, Deron Williams for the Jazz, and rising star Russell Westbrook for the Thunder. Utah and OKC are both up-and-coming teams in this league, with a good core of young guys surrounded by older veteran players; the average age on the Thunder is 24.5 years, with the Jazz men averaging 27 years. Both teams operate in small money markets, which is a big deal when you compare SLC’s nearly 200,000 people to New York’s nearly 8.5 million people. And lastly, the Jazz and the Thunder are furiously fighting each other for first place in the Northwest division. How the heck Oklahoma City qualifies as “Northwest” is beyond me, but anyway, back to the point.
Yep, the Thunder and the Jazz are bound to be compared against one another, especially when they are fighting to be the top dog in their division. In the past two years, the Thunder have gone 4-2 against the Jazz. All but one of those games were won by fewer than 10 points, and two of the games were decided by a single point. This season, the Jazz trounced the Thunder in Oklahoma City by 21 on Halloween night, only to have OKC repay the favor by beating the Jazz in Salt Lake a few weeks later.
These two teams have been going at it all year, neither one letting up or backing down, which has made the Northwest divisional race an interesting one. Actually, it’s really the only division where there is a race. Every other divisional leader, except for the Heat in Southeast, is up by at least 8.5 games over the second-place team. Where’s the divisional drama? Where’s the excitement?
I honestly don’t know who will end up champion of the division. I’ve watched enough of the NBA and basketball in general to know that it is downright impossible to predict how a team is going to play the last half of a season. Injuries, slumps and player problems are way too random for anyone to actually know for sure who’s going to win. But, it’s fun to think about, and despite the fact that I can’t say I know who will win, I can say that I know what each team needs to do to give them the best shot.
The Jazz: First thing the Jazz have to do is rebound the ball. I was very surprised to find that Utah ranks 28th in the league in rebounding per game, which is unacceptable when Jerry Sloan is your coach and you have two big guys like Paul Millsap and Al Jefferson. Secondly, despite how exciting and fun it is to watch, the Jazz cannot let themselves fall behind in a game and rally in the fourth quarter. It gives players a bad mindset where they think they can fall behind and then sometimes they are unable to dig themselves out. It also requires a huge amount of energy to come back from a deficit, and come playoff time, they are going to need all the energy they can get. Lastly, the role players need to step up. D-Will is almost a lock for 20 and 10 every night, but players like Andrei Kirilenko, Raja Bell, and the bench with Ronnie Price, Earl Watson, and Francisco Elson have got to play well when their numbers are called.
The Thunder: Oklahoma City has two legit stars, Westbrook and Kevin Durant. These two combine for 50.8 points a game, the most of any duo in the NBA. But my suggestion to them? Don’t overload the stars. Find the right balance of Durant, Westbrook and the rest of the team. Basketball is a team game, and two guys makes a pretty small team. Second, the Thunder need to start playing some “D”. They allow 102 points per game, much too high for a team trying to win the division and go far in the playoffs. The last thing the Thunder need to do is pass the ball as a team. Westbrook leads the team with a solid 8.4 assists per game, but after him it drops all the way to Durant who averages only 2.9. Oklahoma City is 25th in the league in assists per game and really needs to pass the ball better as a team to continue to be successful in the second half of the season.
Mark Israelsen is a freshman majoring in mechanical engineering. Mark has also been lifelong Jazz fan. He can also be reached at mark.israelsen@aggiemail.usu.edu