Raptors Coverage: March 9, Utah

Game 64 – Utah (L 96-94 / 17-47 / streak L3) Wednesday March 9, 2011

Watched the fourth quarter

The Jazz rallied from down 14 in the fourth quarter to win it at the buzzer on an Al Jefferson tip-in. A heartbreaking loss for the Raps at home, after an exciting start to the game including Slamanight by DeMar DeRozan through traffic. The Raps come up short and ironically it is Reggie Evans who couldn’t get the final rebound in his return to the Raps, even though he finished with 11 rebounds in 33 minutes of action. The return of Reggie Evans comes at a great timing for the Raps who lose Amir Johnson in this game and his status is unknown. Hopefully he will not be out long he has been a Raptors mainstay this season and has missed only one game so far. Bargnani missed this game with the “flu.” Four Raptors finished in double-figures but they could not close down the defense on the likes of Devin Harris (23 points), CJ Miles (23 points) and Al Jefferson (34 points, 8 rebounds, game winning tip-in). After reading Both SLAM's "Country Grammar" article and HOOP's The Other Guys" article about Al Jefferson and Paul Millsap I came to appreciate the Jazz frontcourt. As much as the Jazz have fucked up this year, "The Shake and Bake of Salt Lake" or "Country Grammar" tandem of Al Jeff and The Paperboy have proved that they will waether the storm. The roster and staff have dramatically shifted from the Boozer-Williams-Coach Sloan threesome and the focus now is on just trying to make the playoffs. The Jazz are a team on the playoff bubble in the West and need this win, while the playoffs are safe to say ‘out of reach’ (although not statistically eliminated yet) for the Raptors this season. I want them to finish strong, show some resolve, develop, and excite some people (your fans). Indiana next.

Yeah, Devin