A.K.'s Still a Mixed Bag

Wednesday night’s season-opener for the Jazz provided some insights into what this year’s team will be like.
Again it appears the Jazz don’t play much defense. The Nuggets got to the rim more often than coach Jerry Sloan prefers (then again, once is too much for Sloan). Carlos Boozer is still a 20/10 producer. And Andrei Kirilenko is a freakishly offbeat player who can make an important difference ? both good and bad.
Case in point was early in the game as Kirilenko slipped in from the backside and swatted away a Denver shot that appeared headed for an easy layup. Chalk one up for A.K. But moments later, when switched to point guard, he over-dribbled and gave the ball up to Allen Iverson, who went in for a layup.
Shortly after, in a classic A.K. play, he flashed low to take a pass from Ronnie Price for a dunk.
So you take him the way he is: a rare combination gifts that make for strange-looking box scores. But he’s still a fright night when it comes to driving the lane and losing the ball on the way up.

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Aside from turning out the lights for player intros, two other things apparently will change in this year’s Jazz production.
First, Bear the mascot’s delivery. Traditionally, he rides his mountain bike or a sled down the aisle that ends next to owner Larry H. Miller’s seats. But with Miller’s health problems, he now attends the games in a wheelchair, which takes up more space on the aisle. So it appears Bear the daredevil will have to move over an aisle to do his tricks.
Also on Wednesday, there was no promotion in which cars race around the arena on the message screen. Which means there was no Allen Handy shouting out the results at ear-splitting levels over the sound system. Which generally gave Jazz fans a break from at least some of the noise during timeouts.

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There was a brief disruption, Wednesday, above the tunnel area where the Denver Nuggets came out of the locker room.
It took several minutes for medical staff to attend to a man who collapsed. EMT workers ended up carrying the man out by his arms and legs.
Though many thought he had a heart attack, one Jazz spokesperson said the man apparently had had a “seizure,” but appeared to be OK.