The Dribble: Game Two Grades

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After winning game one, I told myself I’d be content if the Utah Jazz went back to Salt Lake with a split. I asked Twitter and Twitter disagreed.

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As many expected, the Clippers took over game two, controlled the tempo, dominated the paint, and played with a sense of urgency. The Jazz hung in there, made it close a few times, but could never quite get over the hump.  Without much needing to be said, here are the grades of the game.

My Performance F

Throughout the day, I told myself and others that I didn’t expect the Jazz to win. If I were to participate in my poll (side note: a rule for all social media is that you are not allowed to like your own stuff. That’s just weird, right?), I would’ve said “Yes, we got one!” We got home court, we did what we needed to do, and that’s all great and grand and good. Knowing Rudy would be out, I thought the Clippers would attack the paint (see my questions for game two) and play with more fire since their backs were against the wall. It was to be expected, so I braced for it.

And I’m now realizing that I’m the only reason they lost. It wasn’t because Gordon Hayward shot 5-15 with a -15 performance on the court. It wasn’t because outside of Hayward’s 20 points, no one else really felt like scoring. It wasn’t because Favors was flat footed and Diaw was slow. And it certainly wasn’t because the Clips had 60 points in the paint to our 38.

No, it’s because I wasn’t wearing my socks.

In my mind, I chalked this game as a loss. At the 8:30 tip, I wasn’t even in Jazz gear and at no point in the game did I even put on the lucky Stockton-Malone Jazz socks (sometimes washed and changed with the Pistol Pete toe-huggers I have). As I rushed to watch the game from a part-time job, slipping and sliding in the pouring rain as I ran to and fro, I didn’t listen to Locke’s pregame rambles or scroll Twitter for some game-day prep. As 11:00 PM inched closer, I even elected to watch the rest of the game in bed, which meant I eventually turned it off minutes early.

Just like George Hill on defense last night, I stunk.

Yup. Just how we all felt.

My Wife’s Performance C-

My wife, on the other hand, at least dressed up nice for the day as she expected company to watch the game with us. She did her hair multiple times throughout the day as it was flattened multiple times throughout the day due to her wanderings about in the rain. But she needed the Jazz to know she was doing her hair for them!

As tip-off approached, and I wasn’t home yet, my wife made a slam dunk decision to start recording the game, just in case. That act alone gives her a passing grade for the thought and preparation she put into the game, something the Jazz seemed to lack on the court on Tuesday (we all knew the Clips would play in the paint, why didn’t the Jazz game-plan to limit that? Hack-a-Jordan?)

However, having gone back to work after having a baby, my wife is busy with the demands her job entails so she decided to work on some assignments throughout the game. It seemed every time she peeked over her computer screen, she saw a DeAndre Jordan dunk. (18 points, 15 rebounds, a block and a steal). Our favorite was this one:

My wife gets some negative marks, however, for being distracted by work, bailing early to get ready for the next day, and still not knowing the final score (honey, it was 99-91).

My Baby Boy’s Performance B+

The one bright spot in the night was that my little two-month old decided to sleep through the game, letting us watch the Jazz stay in it by shooting 40%  from deep (10 makes on 25 attempts but don’t tell Joe Johnson he was 0/4). Little baby boy was also the lone family member to rep his team throughout the day as he was able to wear both of his Jazz onesies, as he had a nice blowout (foreshadowing?) in one of them. It was nice of him to wear the logo and sleep peacefully for us. You know what else is nice? Jamal Crawford and JJ Redick have made one three-pointer between them in the two games, combining for 1-14 long distance shooting.

I would love to give the baby a full on A (partly because he’s really cute), but he woke up soon after we went to bed. We go to bed early now but made an exception because the JAZZ ARE IN THE FREAKING PLAYOFFS FOR THE FIRST TIME IN FIVE YEARS (sorry, needed the reminder). So, having stayed up late, frustrated by the product on court  (14 turnovers gave them 10 points), and then having to take care of the little baby wasn’t our version of a “date night.” My wife’s final stats? 4 hours of sleep and a throbbing headache since 6 AM.

The Tortured Fan Experience  A

All told, that’s the Tortured Fan way. You tell yourself you’ll be OK with a loss, when the game starts you now expect them to win, they don’t play well which originally was OK but now it’s not, you want them to just be able to compete and be decent, and instead you get some bad shots, bad passes, and bad defense. On top of that, you are excited for the Jazz because you love them, you thought about them all day, read about them (when you could), and planned your already hectic and busy evening around them. And they fall short, which should be OK and fine, but you still feel a little bitter.

Tortured Fans, indeed. Like Chris Paul said, we’re homers.

Friday can’t come soon enough.

 

 

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