1. O.K. Okur
While Carlos Boozer has received most of the praise for Utah’s fast start this year, it will be Mehmet Okur who must keep the Jazz in tune over the next month. Okur has been far more important to the Jazz than his stats show, and his last two games are far more indicative of how Jerry Sloan will utilize the Turkish big man. Against the Spurs, Okur had 31 points (10-14), hitting three 3-pointers, and 11 boards. He followed that with a 29 point, 12 rebound effort against the Suns. The Jazz won both games. Okur is a poor man’s Dirk Nowitzki who must now play at a consistently high level for Utah to maintain in the West. That’s something he hasn’t done over any significant span of his career.
2. Road Trip Detour
The Lakers thought they were heading to a routine morning shootaround before meeting the Wizards on Saturday. Instead they received a 45 minute long tour of the historical landmarks surrounding the D.C. area by a bus driver who doubled as an untrained tour guide. Call it one of the Zen Master’s many means of motivation because it worked as Los Angeles beat the Wizards with all five starters scoring in double figures. Kobe Bryant was so inspired that he dropped 39 on Washington. This might sound like odd pregame behavior, but Phil Jackson is known to have some very eccentric conduct. Jackson won’t touch fans before a game because it disrupts his aura; which is probably a medically sound decision when in L.A.
3. Gambling Man
Gilbert Arenas combined two of his favorite things in life, gambling and filling the hoop, to make a little extra cash off teammate DeShawn Stevenson. Arenas bet that he could make more college treys with one hand than Stevenson could with both. And Agent 0 came through again, hitting 73 of 100 one-handers while Stevenson started hot but couldn’t keep his cool and came up short as Arenas constantly taunted and distracted him. How much does a simple wager of this sort cost friends in the NBA? Just a meager $20,000; that should be enough to pay off the ice sculptures Gilbert had at his birthday party.
Sunday’s Player of the Day: Joe Johnson @ New Jersey 49 min, 37 pts (FG: 12-23, 3FG: 4-6, FT: 9-10), 5 reb, 8 ast, 1 blk
Monday’s Game to Watch: Chicago (28-20) @ Utah (31-17) Ben Gordon is smoking hot and the Bulls are rolling because of it as they have now won eight of their last 11 games. Chicago received a scare when Ben Wallace went down last week, but he seems to be back to his normal intimidating self again. The Jazz are undermanned without All-Star Carlos Boozer in the lineup but they still hold an impressive 17-6 record at home. The Mehmet Okur/Ben Wallace match-up should be interesting, considering Okur use to ride the pine behind Wallace in Detroit. While Gordon and Deron Williams will provide plenty of backcourt highlights.
Buzzer Beater: New Jersey just cannot get over the hump as they lost yet another game by two points or less. Two weeks ago, the Nets lost three games in a row by a single point each. Then it looked like they might have finally gotten on track when they beat Denver and Utah in back to back games. New Jersey even got a little break of their own when Vince Carter buried a buzzer beating 3-pointer to beat the Jazz by a point. But now, the Nets have lost three in a row that includes Sunday’s home loss by two points to the lowly Hawks. The only thing worse for New Jersey than all of the close losses are all of the blowout losses.
