[D.C. Council: setting the scene, rating the starters, assessing the subs, providing the analysis, and catching anything that you may have missed. Unlike the real DC Council, everything here is on the table. Game No. 40, Washington Wizards at Utah Jazz; contributors: Rashad Mobley , Adam McGinnis and Adam Rubin from behind the television screen. The title of this post references a Band of Horses song, "The Great Salt Lake."]

Jamaal Tinsley Dribble Show Read more »

[D.C. Council: setting the scene, rating the starters, assessing the subs, providing the analysis, and catching anything that you may have missed. Unlike the real DC Council, everything here is on the table. Game No. 8, Washington Wizards vs. Utah Jazz; contributors: Sean Fagan and Kyle Weidie from the Verizon Center with John Converse Townsend from behind the T.V.]

No Wall, No Nene… Not an excuse. Read more »

Here to provide the DC Council Opening Statements for Washington’s eighth game of the season against the Jazz in Washington are TAI’s Rashad Mobley (@Rashad20) and guest Spencer Ryan Hall (@saltcityhoops), who writes about the Jazz for the TrueHoop blog Salt City Hoops.

Wizards Starters (0-7):

A.J. Price, Jordan Crawford, Trevor Ariza, Jan Vesely & Emeka Okafor

Jazz Starters (4-6):

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[The DC Council — After each Wizards game: setting the scene, rating the starters, assessing the bench, providing the analysis, and catching anything that you may have missed. Unlike the real DC Council, everything here is over the table. Click here for cumulative DC Council 3-star ratings over the course of the season. Game 31 contributors: Arish Narayen, John Converse Townsend (@JohnCTownsend), and Kyle Weidie (@Truth_About_It).

Score

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If part of the court was painted in Salt Lake City on Friday night, the Utah Jazz dominated it. Ted Leonsis’ plan is probably envious of the post toughness that populates Utah’s roster. Bigs Al Jefferson, Paul Millsap, starters, along with Derrick Favors and Enes Kanter off the bench combined for 65 points and 32 rebounds, Jefferson leading with way with 34 and 12. When it was over, the Jazz had 70 points in the paint in their 114-100 win over the Wizards. Washington countered with 44.

JaVale McGee, Trevor Booker, Kevin Seraphin and Jan Vesely combined for 35 points and 18 rebounds. McGee had 15 and six with three blocks, but only really proved that his sheer athleticism is easier to contain than Jefferson’s skill. Booker was relatively invisible in 26 minutes with four points, four rebounds and two steals. Seraphin was completely lost. He checked in for McGee with 6:28 left in the second quarter, 38 seconds later Utah called timeout to insert Jefferson back in the game. Big Al scored eight points in 104 seconds against a helpless Seraphin. Vesely was Washington’s most competent big with hustle, 10 points on 5-7 FGs, five rebounds a nice assist and a steal, but he also had a couple horrible turnovers, passing to spots without teammates.

From the start, the Wizards chose to be a jump-shooting team. Only six of their 20 attempts in the first quarter came in the paint. Utah packed it in and dared Washington to shoot, and they did, going 5-14 on attempts outside of the paint. The Wizards started the night 5-5 on field-goals but finished 4-15 over the rest of the period. John Wall and Co. couldn’t get out in transition either, scoring just one fastbreak point on one attempt in the opening quarter. Utah scored 24 points on 12-17 paint attempts in the first 12 minutes. Al Jefferson had 10 points in the quarter as his Jazz jumped to a 32-20 lead. They never looked back.

The Jazz punished the Wizards in the paint further in the second quarter, outscoring them 18-10, 12 courtesy of Jefferson, who scored 16 total in the period. Jefferson tallied 26 first half points, only eight in the second half as Utah was able to spread the ball around on offense  more. By my calculations, 18 of Jefferson’s points in the game were the fault of McGee, 10 came against Seraphin, four were on Booker, and one point each was the responsibility of Singleton and Vesely.

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The Washington Wizards are in Salt Lake City tonight. The Jazz, having lost games to New Orleans and Oklahoma City on consecutive nights, will try to avoid a third straight loss at the hands of the Wizards. Washington is looking to bounce back after a loss to the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday to stay above .500 on a five-game road West Coast road swing. For tonight’s 3-on-3, Hardwood Paroxysm’s Clint Peterson (@Clintonite33) joins TAI’s Kyle Weidie (@Truth_About_It) and, yours truly, John Converse Townsend (@JohnCTownsend). Three questions, three answers starts now … Get it on!

#1) In the last 25 games in Utah, Washington is 6-19 but has won 3 out of last 7, which includes last season’s 100-95 OT victory. The Jazz are 11-5 at home while Wizards are 3-11 on the road. The Wizards had a non travel day off in Salt Lake City on Thursday and Jazz have not played since Tuesday so both teams should be well rested. Vegas has Utah favored by 10 points. Can the Wizards cover the spread or win straight up and why?

CLINT PETERSON: They sure could cover, maybe even win. The Jazz may be rested, but this is when they tend to come out rusty. On two days rest Utah is scoring only 96.3 points per game (PPG), their second-worst stat split in the category, while the Wiz are dropping nearly 101 PPG on the road this season. Throw in various matchup problems from the athletic JaVale McGee to the stretch of Rashard Lewis to the prolific Nick Young to the fact that opposing point guards have been laying waste to the Jazz’s backcourt and Washington matching their road winning record to their home one, at four, would be little surprise to the realist.

JOHN CONVERSE TOWNSEND: February hasn’t been kind to the Utah Jazz, who have dropped to .500 after losing seven of their last nine games this month, after beginning the season 12-7. It’s been the opposite story for the resurgent Wizards—too generous?—who have won three of their last six, one win short of their total for the rest of the season (four), and are looking more like a professional basketball team with each passing day. I expect the Wizards to cover the spread, but I’d have to hedge my bets before picking the road team to win in Utah.

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I did NOT want the Wizards to defeat the Jazz last night.  Not at all.

I didn’t realize my thought pattern would veer in such a direction as John Wall ran roughshod over the Jazz to the tune of 24 points in the first half.  It was refreshing to see Wall put the shorthanded Wizards squad on his back and decide he was not going to let them lose.  Jordan Crawford had been assuming that role of late, which is fine and much appreciated, but it’s better to have the No. 1 draft pick (aka the “Game Changer”) assume that role too — and for the first two quarters he did just that.

Even in the third quarter, as Crawford and JaVale McGee combined for 13 points, helping the Wizards maintain a 73-63 point lead, I continued to hope Washington would be victorious.  Wall had fallen off his torrid pace, but Crawford was finding ways to score, McGee was ruling the paint as he had against the Warriors, and even Cartier Martin came back from the dead to hit a timely three-pointer. The little-used, but desperately needed (on this night, at least) Martin made his first shot, a three-pointer, in the second quarter, but missed his next five shots, four of them from deep, before making his next shot, a three late in the third.

Not only had the Wizards put together three quarters of decent basketball, but they were playing strong on the road as they had done against the Los Angeles Clippers last week and against the Golden State Warriors the night before. I was encouraged that the dismal team I had been writing about all year was showing late-season improvement, and I couldn’t wait to write about it.

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Mustafa Shakur, Othyus Jeffers, Hamady N’diaye, Kevin Seraphin and Cartier Martin.

Those were all of the players available for the Wizards off the bench last night in Utah. Shakur didn’t play (coach’s decision being the given reason), and N’diaye tallied just three minutes in the box score, nothing else. Jeffers, Seraphin and Martin combined for 18 points on 6-14 from the field and 17 rebounds, five offensive thanks to the bruising workmanship of Jeffers. The numbers of the bench squad with the most unique set of names ever weren’t astounding, but the Wizards made it work in their somewhat shocking 100-95 overtime win over the Utah Jazz on Monday night.

Sure, Utah was missing Devin Harris and Andrei Kirilenko from their starting lineup, instead putting out a unit of Earl Watson, C.J. Miles, Raja Bell, Paul Millsap and Al Jefferson. But a Wizards starting five of John Wall, Jordan Crawford, Mo Evans, Yi Jianlian and JaVale McGee didn’t have a chance of feeling sorry for the Jazz, or themselves.

Jazz fans, however, may be feeling sorry for themselves … enough to boo their team at intermittent times throughout the game as Washington fought to gain control early, and then tried their best to relinquish it late, despite Utah’s best effort to not take advantage. It was odd to hear the Wizards television team of Steve Buckhantz and Phil Chenier recount just how far the Utah franchise has fallen in the year 2011. The Jazz were 27-13 when they made an east coast trip in mid-January, beginning with a game in Washington on the 17th.

Jerry Sloan’s team proceeded to lose to the Wizards on Martin Luther King Day, and then they lost five more in a row. Barely a month later, Sloan resigned after a 23-year run with the team and star point guard Deron Williams was traded to New Jersey. Now the Jazz are left in a vastly uncertain rebuilding mode with Tyrone Corbin as their coach, a six game losing streak (including last night’s take down by the Wizards), and a 36-39 record that looks to keep them out of the playoffs for just the fifth time in the last 28 years (also the fifth time in the last eight years, to be fair).

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The end of the Slam Dunk contest on Saturday night signified the end of any Washington Wizards involvement here at NBA All-Star weekend in Los Angeles.  My plan was to attend the game, tweet a little during, and then hang around the media scrum afterward to see if I could snag something interesting.  Luckily for me, something interesting fell right into my lap involving Deron Williams of the Utah Jazz.

First, a little background.  A week and a half ago when Jerry Sloan resigned, there were rumors and reports that Williams was the reason.  At halftime of a game against the Bulls, Williams and Sloan had argued (as they had several times during the year, and as Sloan has done with other players, such as Karl Malone, many times before), and when Sloan retired the next morning, Williams was essentially blamed. He was not happy about it at all. Williams lashed out at the media and named names over the radio airwaves on KFAM 1320AM:

All those guys, Ric Bucher, Chris Broussard, they’re all in our locker room everyday.  I’ll let them report what they want to report, that’s what they are paid to do. That’s why I’m always short and rude with the media, because they’re your friend. Ric comes in and sits by me every time I see him, acts like he’s my friend, but the day they find something they want to spin, they jump on it. That’s why I am the way I am and will continue to be the way I am.

I had just talked to Williams about a month earlier in Washington, and he was nothing but forthcoming to both myself and David Aldridge.  Even when I talked to Williams after the All-Star practice this past Saturday, he didn’t appear short or rude. Rather, his answers were expansive and thoughtful, and I appreciated his time.

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Flip Saunders watches his Washington Wizards go through a basic shell drill before facing the San Antonio Spurs.

[photo: K. Weidie, TAI - Feb. 12, 2011]

Flip Saunders is currently tied with Doug Moe for 20th on the all-time NBA head coaching wins list with 628, 11 victories away from passing Chuck Daly. Upon resigning from his position with the Utah Jazz, Jerry Sloan falls third on the list behind Don Nelson and Lenny Wilkens with 1,221 wins; and it doesn’t appear he will be caught by Phil Jackson, fifth all-time with 1,136 wins, as the coach who has led his teams to a record 11 NBA titles is set to retire after this season.

Saunders is now fifth in wins among active coaches, trailing Jackson, George Karl (1,017), Rick Adelman (927) and Gregg Popovich (781). Flip clearly ranks highly in the NBA coaching fraternity. So on Saturday before his team faced the San Antonio Spurs, and the new Dean of NBA head coaches (Popovich is in his 15th season coaching the Spurs), Saunders’ opinion of the sudden resignation of Sloan was a good one to solicit. Read more »