John Stockton News

In eight games as a starter this season, Jazz small forward Andrei Kirilenko averaged 13.5 points and 4.6 rebounds.

Few things put a hop in my step like seeing Jerry Sloan playing two rookies in crunch time of must-win games.

They still aren't whole, and they certainly didn't put together a complete game Wednesday night.

Even with the Jazz down to a scant nine available healthy players for their last two games, young bigs Kosta Koufos and Kyrylo Fesenko played sparingly in Friday night's win at Philadelphia and Saturday night's loss at Cleveland.

Eric Maynor tormented the University of Delaware men's basketball team throughout his college career at Virginia Commonwealth.

Eric Maynor and Jrue Holiday had been here before. Virginia Commonwealth vs. UCLA. "Ended my college career," said Maynor, the Utah Jazz rookie from VCU who made his first start last night, filling in against the 76ers for Deron Williams, who left the team to attend to a personal family matter.

Neither starting point guard Deron Williams nor backup point Ronnie Price practiced when the Jazz worked out this afternoon at Suffolk University here.

If he keeps it up, Wesley Matthews might need to bump up his cell-phone minutes and text-messaging plan.

Because doing predictions before the season tips off is just so, well, cliche' I held mine for this week.

With 3:38 to go in last night's game and the Celtics starters enjoying another fourth-quarter siesta, the announcement was made at the end of a timeout.

What are we waiting for? As Max said in "Where the Wild Things Are": "Let the wild rumpus start!" The Jazz 's 82-game rumpus begins tonight in Denver, and if there's one thing you can say about them, it's that they're as familiar as a beloved kids' book.

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The bangs and biceps are new. The guy who's sporting them this year certainly isn't. Even with an altered appearance, Andrei Kirilenko - loaded guns, non-spiky hair and all - is the player Utah Jazz fans are most used to seeing on the team after all these years.

It is expensive, it is partly accidental and it is only temporary. In an unusual convergence of factors, the Jazz have kept their team together for another year.

Los Angeles Lakers forward Pau Gasol , of Spain, makes contact with Utah Jazz forward Carlos Boozer in the Jazz Lakers playoff game four in Salt Lake City, Saturday, April 25, 2009.

The Rip City rebuild was about more than a talent upgrade. There was a character cleansing, too.

The love I have for food is so strong that I'm sure if food were one of the three options on Mystery Date, we'd end up together every time.

Gentry: 'There's a method to the madness' Wednesday, October 14, 2009 Suns coach Alvin Gentry has brought back an uptempo style of basketball to the desert, which had been the team's hallmark before the arrival of Shaquille O'Neal - who was traded to Cleveland in the offseason.

Rookie James Johnson sank a fade-away jump shot from the baseline at the buzzer Tuesday to give the Chicago Bulls a 102-101 win over the Utah Jazz in an NBA preseason game.

It's mid-October, the leaves are not quite crumbling yet, but the mildA chill that prompts hotA chocolate making and scarf wearing in these parts also signifies two things for me: the NBA preseason is in full swing and NBA action is just around the corner.