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This has been the toughest October of my professional career. I officially name October 2010 as "My B-Flick Horror Movie of a Sports Life".
The good thing about slasher flicks is they may be scary, but at least they're not real.
The Reds make the playoff for the first time in 15 years and get swept away by H20 (Halliday, Hamels and Oswalt). Cowboys are 1-5 and Romo is out with a broken collarbone. My Cougars are... well... you get the point. Real.
So at this point of my October, I'm desperate for the Jazz. A silver lining to rescue me from the cavernous abyss that is my sports teams. I'm a baseball player at heart, which naturally lends me to be superstitious. If the Jazz go on a losing streak I may need to contact that witch doctor that put a hex on LeBron to help me out. Real.
My bad luck and these words from Carmelo Anthony doomed the Jazz from the beginning.
"I think the NBA was reading my mind. I think they granted my wish. I wanted Utah first game. I've got a lot of excitement. They got us out in the playoffs last year, we kept that in mind. It's been a long summer as a team and for me just thinking about that." Anthony said on Monday.
You don't want one of the NBA superstars paying any special attention to you at anytime during the season. Flying below the radar is just fine. Couple that with Nuggets head coach George Karl returning for the first time after cancer treatment and the Jazz were dead on arrival... and it showed. 'Melo led all scorers with 23 points. My goodness, Shelden Williams had 16 rebounds in 28 minutes.
Just as the speed from college to the pros is significant... so is the speed of preseason and regular season.
The Jazz committed an atrocious 15 turnovers and 19 fouls in the 1st half. the Jazz finished shooting 38% from the field and turning the ball over 22 times with 30 personal fouls.
The offense was lost and stagnant. Especially for the new players.
"(Jefferson) only had six points so we really didn't get it going," said Deron Williams referring Al Jefferson's point total and the offensive inability to get him shots. "It's gonna come with time. He's got to learn when that double team's comin' to kick it out and I'm gonna get it right back to him."
With surprising introspection for an NBA player Jefferson agreed, "I gotta look to pass. I gotta get out of that habit I had in Minnesota. In Minnesota I was a black hole when the ball came in, regardless, I tried to score. I gotta make guys pay for the double team."
The Jazz couldn't get any kind of offensive rhythm going as George Karl ran his favorite defense, double team Deron when he crosses half-court. Karl did the same thing to Stockton. It's not a new strategy, but it sure looked like it on Wednesday.
"Turnovers killed us," said Jerry Sloan, "(and) the way we tried to walk through things. I'm not sure why the energy level wasn't higher. I think we thought we were still in exhibition season."
They say you can't get too high after a win, or or too low after a loss... that's good because any lower and I meet a man with a pitchfork.
Eventually, Even Steven has to poke his head into my living room and all this horrible luck has to turn. We'll see if it's Thursday against Phoenix.
Wednesday Night was scary, let's just hope it's not real.
Does anyone have a number for a good witch doctor?
