A very well played game from the Wolves standpoint. Darko even looked good, and I am sure that he enjoyed his physical mismatch with 6'9" Al Jefferson in the post. Darko has seen enough of Al that he didn't bite on all the little dipsy doodle stuff that Al tries to fool you with before he lays it in.
Pek made Fesenko look like a useless statue out there in a matchup of bangers. The big difference is that Fesenko is a slow clod, while Pek can move his feet, and has some touch inside 15 feet, while Fesenko is a slow clod (did I mention that before?).
The Wolves came out shooting, put Utah on their heels, and then coasted. Not the greatest defensive effort by either team, but the "O" was really clicking. A very good game in terms of moving the ball around as well, as the Wolves turned down several relatively easy shots in order to make the pass that led to even easier ones.
For the Jazz (that name still just sounds so wrong for a team based in Utah) bright spots were the terrific shooting of Gordon Hayward, who at least on this night looked like a future All-Star and 20 ppg scorer, and the solid play of rookie low post players Marcus Cousin and Jeremy Evans. Evans soared way over everyone else on the floor for a couple of monster put-back dunks, while D-leaguer Cousin looked like he should have got the minutes that the Jazz gave to Fesenko.........ALL of them.
Has the proverbial corner been turned, and is the ineptitude behind us? We have seen a couple of these stretches earlier in the season where the Wolves played well for two or three games, then fell back into playing sloppy offense, no defense, basketball. The difference between then, and now, is that during previous winning "streaks" (is 2 games a streak?) the Wolves looked surprised, and a little nervous, about winning, while during this recent stretch the Wolves looked confident, to the point that it looked as if they EXPECTED to win. Even when Utah whittled a big lead down to nothing midway through the 3rd quarter I did not see any panic, or anxiety, on anyone's face.
Fun game to watch. I hope you had a chance to see it..