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Jazz Beat Kings to Finish Preseason
October 24, 2009 –
The Utah Jazz closed out their preseason Friday night, beating the Sacramento Kings 95-85. The Jazz outscored the Kings 28-14 in the second quarter and never relinquished the lead.
Game ball goes to: Paul Millsap. Following a dreadful performance in Tuesday’s game against Portland, Sap scored 19 points on 9 of 16 shooting. He also had 7 rebounds, an assist, a steal, and a block in 33 minutes of play.
Stat of the game: Utah had 12 steals, with 7 Jazz players recording at least one.
Highlight: Eric Maynor had another solid outing and finally seemed to find his shooting stroke. He had 13 points on 5 of 8 shooting including 2 for 2 from behind the arc. Maynor also had 2 assists, 2 rebounds, and his usual 2 steals. (If you’ve been following my blog, you’ll know that Maynor recorded exactly 2 steals in all but 1 of Utah’s 8 preseason games.)
Lowlight: The Jazz were without their entire depth chart at shooting guard. Ronnie Brewer sat out with back spasms, while Kyle Korver (knee), Ronnie Price (hamstring), and CJ Miles (thumb surgery) were all still out with their respective injuries. While Brewer (and possibly Price) should be back for the regular season opener, Korver will apparently require surgery, leaving the Jazz extremely thin at the wing positions to start the season.
Other items of note:
- Deron Williams posted his first double-double of the preseason with 19 points and 11 assists.
- Kosta Koufos and Kyrylo Fesenko both continued to struggle with fouls. Koufos fouled out in 22 minutes, while Fess was whistled for 5 in only 14 minutes. Mehmet Okur also had 4 fouls in 17 minutes, giving the Jazz 15 for the center position alone. Looks like the replacement refs were a little whistle happy in the post.
- Sacramneto rookie, Tyreke Evans, scored 21 points for the Kings. He also had 7 turnovers.
- The Jazz finished the postseason with a 6-2 record. They open the regular season on Wednesday at Denver.
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