1.10.08 Jazz vs. Suns

I wanted to start out talking a lot of smack to all the Suns fans out there. I quickly realized that anyone who is a basketball fan should realize that there was no way, I mean absolutely no way the Jazz were going to lose this game. Suns playing without Sprite (Grant Hill), Nash, and The Matrix really had no chance against Utah. It didn't help they were playing at the ESA and coming off of a back-to-back OT game the night before.

Let's talk smack anyway.

Utah dominated this game in the paint. Memo Okur showed us a glimpse of what he was last year. He throws down a 22/17 'player of the game' night. I love the guy when he is on, but I don't know how many more ebbs and flows I can take with him. I think Utah should be throwing his name out there as trade bait to see what we can get in return.

How many times did I hear the TNT talking heads say "Utah is a young team who is trying to find out who they are...". What the crap does that mean? I know who they are. They're a good team in an excellent conference. Doesn't winning define who you are? If that is the case, they are a team trying to win more. Right? I don't know why it bothered me so much, but do we really need ex-NBA players pulling psychology theories on us during the middle of the game? Stick to what you know.

Two things really made this game worth watching for me.

1. Sean Marks

He played great in his 14 minutes of play. But I seriously want to punch his image consultant in the face. That guy needs to lose his job.

-Image consultant in a lispy fruity voice. (No offense if you have one.) "I know you're in the basketball players league Sean, but for serious, we need to frost and highlight those curls of yours. The boys...er girls will go crazy. And we need to get you a little scruffy, everyone loves a little red facial fuzz".

When I see Sean Marks play, I feel like I am watching some sort of cheap beer commercial where some lurp on the third row gets a jersey thrown in his face by the coach and and he simply yells "Get in there kid!"

As he walks on the court with his eyes as big as silver dollars and his furrowed brow thinking "Holy $#!+! I'm playing in the NBA. I hope my buddies are watching this...". Classic.

2. The hit reality show in the waiting, "The Millsap Family".

Here is a priceless video of little brother Paul watching older brother John's game with the Utah Flash (D-League).

Momma Millsap: "Paul, John's got a game tonight in Arum (Orem), you need to go down there and support him."
Paul: "Momma, you serious? He's only gonna play if they up by 50 in the last two minutes..."
Momma Millsap: "Don't you lip me boy, get down there...take that nice Ronnie friend of yours with you."

If you are a TV Network producer looking for a new reality show, thanks to the Writers Guild strike, you HAVE to jump on this. When this show is a hit, I am taking all of the credit. Here's a classic John Millsap post earlier in the year.

Final Score: Jazz 108, Suns 86

Not much to say other than Jazz did exactly what they needed to do. WIN. Suddenly the team we were starting to love to hate has won 4 of their last 5.