Minutes for the taking
But Sloan looking for who deserves them
By Linda Hamilton
Deseret Morning News
Utah Jazz coach Jerry Sloan seems ready to hand out minutes like Christmas presents, if only somebody wanted them.
"People know there's minutes out there. If they want to play hard enough, they can get some of them," Sloan said before his Christmas-night practice that was held without forwards Matt Harpring (stomach flu) and Carlos Boozer (permission from Sloan to arrive in Salt Lake City late Monday night after spending the holiday with his family in Florida).
Utah, an unsatisfactory 3-2 on its pre-Christmas road trip, gets back into action tonight at 7 in EnergySolutions Arena with the Los Angeles Clippers, who've fallen on harder times than the Jazz after a strong start to the season.
They've won only one of their last seven games, beating the McGrady/Yao-less Rockets in Houston on Saturday, after starting the season 5-1. They're 2-9 on the road and have lost seven of their last nine. Rumors have it that Corey Maggette, reportedly at odds with coach Mike Dunleavy, is about to be traded to Sacramento for Ron Artest.
Utah has gone from 12-1 to 20-8 in the past month and hasn't had consecutive wins since Dec. 11-13, when it beat Dallas and the Los Angeles Lakers. It hasn't won more than two in a row since ending an eight-game streak Nov. 25 at Golden State.
All season it has often had wildly fluctuating success from quarter to quarter and often relied on furious comebacks to keep the wins coming.
"In the beginning of the year, teams were kind of slow, and we were in great shape, and we kind of force it," said Andrei Kirilenko at Monday night's practice. "Now, everybody wake up and look at us differently. That's why it's much tougher to play." That and "lack of concentration at the end — New York game, Sacramento game at home."
"Overall we're still in a good place," said guard Derek Fisher, noting Utah must be careful tonight. "Going into (this) game, that first game off a long road trip is oftentimes really tough, so we're going to have to be really focused and ready to play."
It's tougher for youngsters to play on the road, said Sloan, who early in the season seemed to get production from whomever he put into games but is now getting less from the bench. And other teams are catching on to the kinds of things someone like a Paul Millsap can provide and devised ways to slow him or others.
He gave us such a big lift there for a while, but he's had a dropoff," Sloan said. "That's part of the learning process."
Minutes
Minutes for the taking
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