It was a rough weekend for the Utah Jazz -- what with the embarrassing loss to Sacramento, the canceled practices, etc. -- but by Monday night, things were perking up. This is how up: Jerry Sloan was praising Greg Ostertag's effort.
It's just seven games into the season, but at least the Jazz know this much: They can still play with the big boys, i.e. Tim Duncan, David Robinson and friends. Two hours and 19 minutes after tip-off, the Jazz walked out of the Delta Center with a 91-85 win over the defending NBA champion San Antonio Spurs.Is this the start of something big? Have the Jazz finally fired up the engine on the new season? Does the rest of the league have to stay awake nights worrying about the Jazz?
The answers are, in order, not necessarily, not necessarily and not yet.
Still, a win over the Spurs has the Jazz figuring they're a force to be reckoned with -- even if they didn't make it past the second round of last year's playoffs. "San Antonio is the world champ, but teams are still coming after us," said center Olden Polynice. "That's because we are the last Western Conference champions . . . from a real season."
The last Western Conference Champions from any other season rolled into town intending to extend their record to 7-1. But it didn't happen. The Jazz bore down on them like an early winter storm. The Spurs unleashed a deep and dangerous bench, to no avail. They went regularly inside to Duncan, and he responded with 32 points, but it wasn't enough. They tried running the Jazz, muscling them, finessing them. The Jazz didn't flinch.
Whether the Jazz are capable of these performances regularly is another issue entirely. Sacramento didn't seem all that scared, as the Kings beat the Jazz up last Friday night. Seattle overcame a 17-point deficit to win during the first week of the season. The Lakers came into the Delta Center and whipped them on opening night. Clearly, the Jazz aren't intimidating people the way they once did.
They struggled more than they should have to beat the Clippers, handled Houston and -- in their other impressive outing -- took care of Portland. Overall, though, Sloan wasn't happy with their effort. You could chalk it up to chemistry disruptions, training camp injuries, old age or post-nasal drip. Whatever the case, the Jazz haven't looked like the Jazz who went to the NBA Finals two years running.
The boiling point came in Friday's loss to the Kings. Sloan was so incensed that he told the team if it wasn't going to try harder than that, he may as well cancel practices over the weekend -- and he did.
OK, it's an old motivational trick, but it worked. Karl Malone called a team practice on Sunday, and by Monday night the Jazz were in the frame of mind they wanted.
"We haven't had any emotion," said Sloan. "You've got to have some emotion and toughness somewhere along the line."
He added, "You may jump up and down and still have no emotion. You can make all the gestures you want, but it doesn't make any difference if you don't run the floor."
Monday, though, the Jazz ran fine. Five players scored in double figures, they outrebounded the Spurs by 15 and disrupted shots. Though the Spurs led by 12 in the first half, the Jazz hung around. They were as annoying as Fran Drescher's laugh. With 23 seconds to go and the Jazz up by four, Ostertag altered a Tim Duncan slam. Duncan missed the shot and the Spurs walked out losers in the Delta Center for the 13th time 18 regular-season tries.
So seven games into the season this much can be said about the Jazz:
They can run with the big dogs when they really try.
They still have no answer for Duncan.
They are far more effective when their scoring is spread out among several players.
They will be dangerous at home but struggle on the road against the better teams.
Ostertag really is improving.
Opponents are still taking them seriously.
"Call it redemption, salvation, whatever," said Polynice. "The other teams will be coming at us all year."
Which is far preferable to having Sloan coming at them.