The Essentials:
Wizards (38-35) at Jazz (48-26)
9 p.m.
Delta Center
CSN
This Year:
February 1: Jazz 96, Wizards 87
Notable Jazz numbers this season:
8th in expected winning percentage (.698)
9th in pace factor (92.3 possessions per game)
2nd in offensive efficiency/offensive rating
14th in defensive efficiency/defensive rating
Key Links (drop any others in the comments)
Basketball John
Jazz Notes
My Utah Jazz
Why Gilbert taking a pay cut shouldn't be a shock to anyone.
Wizards Insider: No update on AD as of yet.
Starting Lineups:
Jazz
PG: Deron Williams
SG: Ronnie Brewer
SF: Andrei Kirilenko
PF: Carlos Boozer
C: Mehmet Okur
Wizards
PG: Antonio Daniels
SG: DeShawn Stevenson
SF: Caron Butler
PF: Antawn Jamison
C: Brendan Haywood
Tonight's Lines
Wizards at Jazz: Jazz by 8
Over/Under on Total Scoring: 209
Utah might have some added motivation tonight: It's bad enough playing the fourth best team in the West under normal circumstances. It's about a million times worse when you have to play them in Utah where they have the best home record in the league and they're coming off a loss to the Timberwolves.
Don't look back: A loss tonight together with a Toronto win against Charlotte would bring the Raps into a tie for 5th place. I'm fairly certain that the Wizards have the tie-breaker against Toronto, but I'd rather not find out if I don't have to. It doesn't help that the Sixers are only a half game behind Toronto, so every game is vital. Of course, everyone already knew that, but now it's really, really, really true.
No making fun of Boozer tonight: Sure, he's got a thing for Ferraris, but it would probably be a good idea to not make fun of him considering what he's dealing with right now.
Key to the Game: Do what Minnesota did. Seriously, the Wiz just need to do what they did last time defensively, shut down Boozer and limit Deron's open shots and then they just need to get better execution offensively, and the Wizards might be able to pull it out tonight. It's not going to be easy, but the Wizards seem to do well in games with a high degree of difficulty, so maybe it holds out again tonight.
This is an open thread, so if you want to talk about how DeShawn hit more three pointers last night than he did in his first three years in Utah, talk about it here.
GO WIZARDS!