[spongyfungy]

<Center> Who will suck less ?
@

<IMG WIDTH=100 HEIGHT=150 BORDER=0 ALT="ABDUR-RAHIM, SHAREEF" TITLE="ABDUR-RAHIM, SHAREEF" SRC="/img/headshots/100x150/blazers/ABDUR-RAHIM, SHAREEF.jpg"><IMG WIDTH=100 HEIGHT=150 BORDER=0 ALT="KHRYAPA, VIKTOR" TITLE="KHRYAPA, VIKTOR" SRC="/img/headshots/100x150/blazers/KHRYAPA, VIKTOR.jpg"><IMG WIDTH=100 HEIGHT=150 BORDER=0 ALT="PRZYBILLA, JOEL" TITLE="PRZYBILLA, JOEL" SRC="/img/headshots/100x150/blazers/PRZYBILLA, JOEL.jpg"><IMG WIDTH=100 HEIGHT=150 BORDER=0 ALT="TELFAIR, SEBASTIAN" TITLE="TELFAIR, SEBASTIAN" SRC="/img/headshots/100x150/blazers/TELFAIR, SEBASTIAN.jpg"><IMG WIDTH=100 HEIGHT=150 BORDER=0 ALT="STOUDAMIRE, DAMON" TITLE="STOUDAMIRE, DAMON" SRC="/img/headshots/100x150/blazers/STOUDAMIRE, DAMON.jpg">

vs

<IMG WIDTH=100 HEIGHT=150 BORDER=0 ALT="OKUR, MEHMET" TITLE="OKUR, MEHMET" SRC="/img/headshots/100x150/jazz/OKUR, MEHMET.jpg"><IMG WIDTH=100 HEIGHT=150 BORDER=0 ALT="HARPRING, MATT" TITLE="HARPRING, MATT" SRC="/img/headshots/100x150/jazz/HARPRING, MATT.jpg"><IMG WIDTH=100 HEIGHT=150 BORDER=0 ALT="COLLINS, JARRON" TITLE="COLLINS, JARRON" SRC="/img/headshots/100x150/jazz/COLLINS, JARRON.jpg"><IMG WIDTH=100 HEIGHT=150 BORDER=0 ALT="MCLEOD, KEITH" TITLE="MCLEOD, KEITH" SRC="/img/headshots/100x150/jazz/MCLEOD, KEITH.jpg"><IMG WIDTH=100 HEIGHT=150 BORDER=0 ALT="LIVINGSTON,RANDY" TITLE="LIVINGSTON,RANDY" SRC="http://www.388hoop.com/Media/wawn/livingston_randy.jpg"></Center>


GAME NOTES: This ends a seven-game homestand for the Jazz, who play their following four on the road. . . . It opens a back-to-back set for Utah, which visits Minnesota on Wednesday. . . . The Jazz have been idle since losing their third straight, falling Friday 108-91 to Golden State. . . . Portland has dropped four straight after Saturday's 103-97 loss to Denver. . . . Blazers interim coach Kevin Pritchard is 2-15 since taking over March 2 for the fired Maurice Cheeks. . . . Portland big man Zach Randolph had arthroscopic knee surgery last Thursday. . . . Utah and Portland are 3-3 in their last six meetings.

[halfbreed]

Jazz win.

Jazz 90
Blazers 79

[spongyfungy]

'Frail' Blazers fall flat in listless loss to the Jazz

The Portland Trail Blazers played pretty hard their last two games, against Seattle and Denver, but the results were two- and six-point losses.
Tuesday night in the Delta Center against the Utah Jazz, who led the Blazers for fourth place in the NBA Draft Lottery, interim Portland coach Kevin Pritchard was expecting his team to play hard again.
Instead, he got fairly listless play for much of the game before youngsters like Victor Khryapa and Richie Frahm picked the Blazers up in the fourth quarter to cut a 23-point Jazz lead to nine before Utah pulled out a 90-79 win to break a three-game losing streak.
"I can handle a lot of things, but I don't handle not playing hard," said Pritchard. "I didn't think we played hard the first three quarters — not consistently (hard)," even though the Blazers had an early 10-point lead by making seven straight shots — three dunks, two 3-pointers, a 17-footer and a layup that made it 18-8.
But the Blazers are having some of the same woes as the Jazz, with Darius Miles, Theo Ratliff, Derek Anderson, Zach Randolph and Nick Van Exel injured and Ruben Patterson playing 22 minutes with the flu.
When Utah was able to stymie Shareef Addur-Rahim, who had six points in 30 minutes, Pritchard said it made it tough on the Blazers to get anything more going.
The Jazz came into the game having lost 13 of their last 15 and 17 of the last 22. The Blazers have now lost 12 of their last 13 and 20 of their last 23.
Fourth-year center Joel Przybilla is trying to make the most of his opportunity now and had 13 points, seven blocked shots, nine rebounds and an assist in 34 minutes Tuesday, but he finds it less rewarding than it could be.

http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,600124082,00.html

[spongyfungy]

Jazz triumph in battle of lottery-bound clubs
Utah uses its 28th different starting lineup in rare victory

After using their 28th different starting lineup of the season, some might suggest the Jazz seem suspiciously like a team with its focus smack-dab on the NBA Draft lottery.
Jazz coach Jerry Sloan vehemently denies it, and he had a platform for making his case after Utah beat Portland — another club that clearly is lottery-bound — 90-79 on Tuesday night at the Delta Center.
The victory, spurred by Matt Harpring's game-high 17 points, snapped a three-game losing streak for the 23-50 Jazz, who open a stretch of four in a row on the road tonight at Minnesota.
It also aided the Blazers' shot at moving past the Jazz in the lottery, which amounts to a fight among non-playoff teams for improved draft position.
"Regardless of what everybody says," Sloan said, "I want to move up as high as we can."
He meant in the standings, not on the list of lottery contenders.
"I'm not in the business of wanting to lose and trying to get a better draft pick," the Jazz coach said. "I really don't care about the draft pick.
"I've never said we're playing for the lottery in any time that I've been here," added Sloan, who is finishing his 17th season in Utah. "If it looks like we're trying to get into the lottery, for crying out loud, I don't know what that teaches you."
The Trail Blazers, for their part, appear to be a textbook case of a team that could not care less about winning.
Portland is now just 2-16 since Kevin Pritchard took over for the fired Maurice Cheeks.
Several Blazers packed it in some time ago, injured-list regulars Zach Randolph and Nick Exel among them, and several others evidently are eager to do just that.
"I really need a vacation," Blazers forward Ruben Patterson said.

http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,600124096,00.html