If someone really had to prove their credibility in the matchup between the Utah Jazz and the Minnesota Timberwolves, it had to be the Utah Jazz. A lot of questions were being raised on the form of the Jazz players, and if they really had the big match temperament. Jerry Sloan, who surely would have been anticipating a champagne bath for his 20th anniversary with the team by the 3rd quarter, could be seen chewing his fingernails midway through the 4th quarter.
A team that was well on-course for a smooth victory all right by the time the 3rd whistle blew, seemed to have lost the plot all of a sudden. And Sloan could have been clutching his head midway into the fourth quarter when he could see the Jazz trailing by 9 points. Surely he would not have wanted a bitter mark to his 20th anniversary.
But then, Mehmet Okur had other plans, with his side in complete tatters. In the finishing moments of the game, Okur produced 21 points, two of them from a short fade-away, which really marked the start of the comeback of the Utah Jazz. Deron Williams, employed by the Jazz as a counter to the tall and towering Kevin Oille of Timberwolves, worked well with Okur, and the both pairing almost took the game away from the Timberwolves before they could say "Basket"!
Okur seemed to have taken the advice of Sloan a bit too seriously. Based on what his coach had told him, Okur deliberately took it to the extreme end for quite a while in the game. When he did realize that the strategy was not paying off, he decided to go for the broke. He decided to do it all by himself and found himself that he was on the leader board in terms of points. The question that supporters of Jazz ask, is - Why did Okur leave it until the last minute?
Obviously, Okur was doing what his coach had asked him to do - That is to play conservatively. For the starting periods of the game, this ploy seemed to have worked with the Jazz neck-neck with the Timberwolves. But as the game progressed, the Timberwolves found ways of breaking through this plan. By the end of the 3rd quarter, it was clear that Jazz was heading to doomsday with this game plan.
Surely, something would have transpired during the lemon break. Realizing the gravity of the situation, Okur and Deron Williams took up the cudgels and began shooting down points. At the end, the narrow difference in points may not mean a lot, but for the Jazz it could have been a case of digging a deep hole for themselves! Something they could have done well without.
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