Jazz's Williams: A World of Hurt

It’s not a phase. It’s not a dip. It’s 10 losses in 14 games.

For a franchise like the Jazz, that’s awful. In 1993, the Jazz and lost five straight and fans brought signs to the Delta Center urging that Jerry Sloan be fired. Recently the Jazz lost six straight.

But before jumping on the fire-Sloan bandwagon, consider another reason the Jazz aren’t winning. It’s not Sloan’s substitution patterns. He’s done a nice job with players like Earl Watson and Gordon Hayward. It’s probably not the system, either. That has worked well for a quarter century.

Chemistry? Paying attention? Those could be part of it.

But the biggest problem is the players — specifically those that are missing. Mehmet Okur is out again. Andrei Kirilenko has had his injuries. Francisco Elson was out on Wednesday. But the injury that matters is Deron Williams.

Did you see him again on Wednesday? He’d bump into a screen or crash to the ground and get up holding his wrist, or just let it limply hang at his side. Same hand he injured last year; it took him a month and a half to heal. Plan on the same thing this year. All of which means the Jazz aren’t likely to be good down the stretch. If this injury lingers as it did last year, that would put the Jazz right around the first part of April — a couple of weeks before the end of the season. By then they could be out of the playoff picture.

The Jazz have only one All-Star. If Williams isn’t healthy, neither is the team. Wednesday against Chicago he went 5-13 from the field. He has made fewer than half his shots in six of the last nine games, including a 9-23 night against Denver. That kind of shooting won’t get many wins.

While the Jazz’s interior defense has been awful, most of their troubles are related to their best player being at half speed. Nothing but time will change that. Unfortunately for Jazz fans, there’s not much more they can do other than watch and wait.