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SALT LAKE CITY — There was a lot of hoopla surrounding the Bulls visit to Utah. It was two years since the Bulls last visited, which was Jerry Sloan's last game, and the return of Carlos Boozer.
In the end the the talk was about the Bulls, and Boozer, closing out the Jazz late game after Al Jefferson, who set a season-high of 32 points, was shutdown late game and the Jazz couldn't muster any offense. The Jazz ultimately fell 93-89 after fighting back with a great third quarter.
The Jazz were down by 8 after the first half. Both teams were shooting really well and the Jazz were playing very well. The biggest downfall was Nate Robinson who was on fire and really the difference in the first half.
This changed in the third quarter when the Jazz found a renewed sense of defense and got back to their bread and butter on offense: Big Al Jefferson. It allowed the Jazz to even up the score heading into the final quarter.
I'd like it not to be. We got a lot more guys than just Al on this team. We got options to go to. But he was going good, so you want to milk it as much as you can. He was the guy who carried us there so we tried to go to him often. When they took that away and we didn't make shots
–Tyrone Corbin on whether stopping Big Al will stop the Jazz
Jefferson scored 8 points in the third, while the Bulls team had 11. Jefferson was heading towards a career-night, he was knocking on the door of his season-high, of 31, and in range of his career mark.
The start of the fourth saw Jefferson take over, he pushed the Jazz to a 77-73 lead with 8 point in less than 3 minutes. Everything he put up was going in, then it just stopped.
"They gave him different looks," Corbin said. "They wanted to make sure that when he did get the ball they had different guys that made him work hard to get the ball. And once he got it they sent another body at him, and as a result got it a few steps off of where he wanted to get it. And we didn't get anything on the weak side."
The Bulls realized they had to stop Jefferson and adjusted. They put Joakim Noah in front of Jefferson to force tough passes and without arguably the team's two best facilitators, Mo Williams and Gordon Hayward, the passes didn't come.
Jefferson had a chance to hit his famous push shot, but missed with 5:30 left and then only touched the ball one more time. Two offensive touches in the last 9 minutes of play was all that the team's best scorer got.
Stop Big Al and you stop the Jazz.
Is it actually that simple?
"I'd like it not to be," Corbin said. "We got a lot more guys than just Al on this team. We got options to go to. But he was going good, so you want to milk it as much as you can. He was the guy who carried us there so we tried to go to him often. When they took that away and we didn't make shots"
Jefferson scored 8 in the first three minutes of the fourth. After that he scored none and the rest of the Jazz scored 12 in the final 9 minutes. The Bulls changed their defense and the Jazz weren't able to adjust. They let Randy Foye, Alec Burks and Jamaal Tinsley play the point and the offense just wasn't clicking.
The Jazz still shot the ball decently when they had a good look, but had troubles finding an open shot.
The offense runs through Jefferson on the left block and then kicks around, so if a team can simply stop him from getting the ball can they shut down the Jazz?
"Take the ball out of my hands and we still got guys that can beat you," Jefferson said. "I looked at Paul in fourth quarter and I told him to take the game over. Because they were keying on me so much. To me we got guys that can make them pay when they do that. Guys on the other side. I think we had our shots tonight we just missed them. It's okay we're not perfect. Can't make every shot. We just got to find a way to bounce back tomorrow night."
This tweet from Spencer Hall of Salt City Hoops might wrap up what the Bulls were able to do, it isn't true, but could be a summation of the troubles the Jazz were having, "The Bulls are playing an interesting version of the Box & 1, in which four players guard Jefferson and one covers the rest."
Last year the Jazz were plagued by no player being able to hit a shot. The team got new shooters, such as Foye and Williams, and current players improved their shooting, Hayward and DeMarre Carroll.
The problem is two are injured and the others actually shot well, Carroll and Foye combined for 4-6 in the fourth, but they didn't get as many open looks as they wanted.
Jefferson showed how could he is and could be, he was fantastic going 15-22, but the Bulls were able to keep the ball out of his hands and then the game slowly slipped away.
