7 a.m.: Everybody has something they detest about their job. I find back-to-back sets of games almost torturous. Waking up after getting three hours (and change) of sleep, dealing with O’Hare Airport, sitting through an hour-long flight delay, finally arriving in Detroit and pulling up to the hotel around 2 p.m. That’s just the start of the day: You haven’t written the first word that’ll appear in tomorrow’s newspaper. The Jazz have five sets of back-to-backs remaining after this one and they can’t get over with soon enough. It’s amazing to me that teams don’t actually go winless in the second game of back-to-backs.
1:10 p.m.: We arrive at the Walt Perrin International Airport in Detroit. I’ve named it such after the Jazz’s vice president of player personnel, who’s one of the many people behind the scenes who work to contribute to the Jazz’s success. Perrin is the lead college scout and lives in suburban Detroit. Most amazing to the two beat writers, he almost reached Diamond Medallion status as a frequent flyer on Delta last year. This is a Ruthian number (125,000 miles) that even those of us who spend our lives on planes can’t fathom.
Of course, Perrin’s not around to catch the Jazz’s annual visit to Detroit. He’s on the road scouting college tournament games. Soon he’ll be attending predraft camps and setting up workouts and filling out summer-league rosters. Every time you watch Wesley Matthews, credit Perrin and Kevin O’Connor with seeing something in the undrafted guard from Marquette that everybody else missed. You can say the Jazz missed, too, but they were on the phone reaching out to Matthews before the 2009 draft was even over.
Now consider the prospect of spending all that time on the road scouting college players . . . only to see the Jazz trade away your/their newest first-round draft pick (Eric Maynor) to Oklahoma City to get rid of Matt Harpring’s contract and save $10 million in salary and luxury-tax considerations. It’d be like me writing “War and Peace” and then throwing it out the window five months after finishing the last chapter.
O’Connor did make a point back in December of crediting Perrin (as well as Dave Fredman, Richard Smith and the rest of the Jazz’s scouts) with finding a player who proved to be worth $10 million to the franchise.
5:20 p.m.: We’re waiting for Matthews outside the Jazz’s locker room more than two hours before game time. Normally, the media is allowed into locker rooms for a 45-minute period beginning 90 minutes before tipoff. Matthews, though, regularly spends that entire time shooting on the court. He might be a starter on a top-four team in the Western Conference, but Matthews still takes the early bus to the arena for every game. With the Jazz heading to Milwaukee next on this trip, Matthews is the obvious subject for an advance story given his improbable rise as an undrafted rookie out of Marquette.
Kyrylo Fesenko also was on the early bus - - in fact, he’s been told to take the early bus no matter if the world is coming to an end after last month’s miscommunication that left him deactivated for a game - - and was surprised to see us when he walked out of the locker room. We mentioned Matthews’ homecoming in Milwaukee, but Fesenko suggested we write a story about Chuck Norris’ 70th birthday instead.
“Amazing Chuck?” Fesenko said. “Haven’t you heard the jokes? He uppercut a horse and that’s how a giraffe was made.”
6:15 p.m.: The visiting locker room at the Palace of Auburn Hills might be the smallest in the NBA. The debate is between the Palace and Arco Arena in Sacramento. At least the Palace quarters have been remodeled from the “yellow” that Andrei Kirilenko remembers in earlier years. The Jazz players come and go during the pregame period. Fesenko reveals that Kyle Korver told him the Chuck Norris joke before he delivered it to us. Korver says he bought a book of Chuck Norris jokes last summer and has one favorite: “Chuck Norris counted to infinity . . . twice.” Short and sweet and perfect. Mehmet Okur shares that he has his Pistons championship ring at home in Utah. C.J. Miles takes a seat with a brace on his left knee after getting hit by Derrick Rose in the fourth quarter of Tuesday’s game in Chicago. Miles’ knee was flexed inward on the play, but he’ll be good to go against the Pistons.
6:50 p.m.: Each team has a p.r. staff that produces pages and pages of notes for each game. (If you’re interested, the Jazz’s are available at
http://www.nba.com/jazz/news/notes.pdf. Just insert a different name in that same space for other teams.) There’s more numbers than you could ever need, but to get the 2 or 3 percent that might prove useful on a given night, they have to produce the other 98 percent that won’t make it on air or in the newspaper.
Some nights are different than others, but Deron Williams often can be found reading the game notes in front of his locker. He was asking earlier this season about why Matthews hadn’t yet qualified to be included in some of the rookie statistical rankings. One day he pulled a pop quiz on the beat writers, asking the Jazz’s record when Matthews hits two or more three-pointers. (The answer is in the game notes: 9-2.)
Detroit has a pretty cool stat in their notes: Pistons teammates Ben Wallace (963 games) and Chucky Atkins (690) rank Nos. 1 and 3 in the most games played among active undrafted players. Brad Miller is No. 2 at 774, Kevin Ollie is No. 4 at 657 and Raja Bell is No. 5 at 604. The all-time leader since the ABA/NBA merger in 1976-77 is Avery Johnson at 1,054 games. Matthews now has a milestone to reach.
8 p.m.: The game proves to be exactly what you’d expect from one team that came in 41-22 and another that came in 22-41. The Jazz establish early that they can overwhelm the Pistons in one-on-one matchups between Williams and Will Bynum and Carlos Boozer/Okur and Jason Maxiell/Jonas Jerebko. The Jazz close the first quarter trailing 29-28 after settling for three-pointers and suffering some defensive/rebounding breakdowns. But it’s only a matter of time before they take control.
They strike quicker than anyone could have expected, with the second teamers opening the second quarter with a 14-0 run and the Jazz eventually building a 20-point lead. That they did it against the Pistons’ second team - - which includes both of Detroit’s featured free-agent signees from last summer in Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva - - is especially impressive. The Jazz are now-0 on their last two multi-game road trips. Watching them on the road has become a joy, I’m sure, for Jazz fans when it had to be misery in recent seasons. The Jazz also are now 18-1 when they score 110 points or more.
This was a night to talk to the role players afterward and I made it to the lockers of Korver, Price, Wesley Matthews and Sundiata Gaines in addition to Williams. Asked about the 35-14 second quarter, Jazz coach Jerry Sloan noted that it’s always been his belief that teams shoot better on the second night of back-to-back sets because the edge is off from the previous game. Some of Sloan’s best quotes are about bringing Williams and Boozer back from the bench with a minute left and the Jazz holding a 10-point lead as well as about Matthews’ defense on Richard Hamilton.
The situation in Detroit, by the way, is a disaster. The Pistons used to fill every seat at the Palace only a couple of seasons ago. Their attendance softened last season with the economy and the team taking a step back, but the crowd at Wednesday's game suggested a complete collapse in fan support. The Pistons made Ben Gordon one of the highest-paid free agents out there last summer and Gordon delivered 11 points on 4-for-11 shooting off the bench against the Jazz. You have to wonder if Joe Dumars wouldn't try to sign Boozer or Paul Millsap if given a second chance at the whole thing.
1:15 a.m.: It’s time for bed back at the hotel, but here’s one final thought: The first time I saw Oklahoma City play this season, I thought Scott Brooks had to be coach of the year. The Thunder obviously have an impressive array of young talent, but they also found the right coach with the right system and probably are ahead of expectations. It’s been a night-and-day difference for that team with Brooks as coach as opposed to P.J. Carlesimo. With what the Jazz have done in the last two months, however, I think Sloan deserves (and probably will receive) increasing support.
The case for Sloan is pretty compelling: He helped create an environment in which Boozer could return to the Jazz. Not only didn’t Boozer serve as a distraction, he’s enjoyed one of the most productive seasons of his career. Sloan also wasn’t afraid to start an undrafted rookie in Wesley Matthews and trust Matthews with a series of tough defensive matchups night after night. Sloan made the switch in returning Kirilenko to the starting lineup. He’s not too proud to admit the Jazz should have done it sooner than this season. He also helped create a better defensive culture by introducing daily accountability rankings. (This is one of the things that almost never gets mentioned.) Sloan helped keep the Jazz moving forward even as they were sitting out of playoff position in early January. Last but not least, Sloan never batted an eye when the Jazz made not one, but two trades that weakened his roster this season in the name of salary and luxury-tax savings. The Jazz are 8-3 since the Ronnie Brewer trade and 26-10 since the Maynor deal. If I were voting today, I’d probably go with Sloan over Brooks.
--Ross Siler
Reply With Quote