On the Jazz:
SLC Dunk / Salt City Hoops / Salt Lake Tribune / Deseret News
Best for last. The Jazz are the best fourth quarter team in the NBA this season, with a +4.6 scoring margin per game in the final period. Milwaukee is 20th, at -0.9 per game in the fourth.
Pass. Utah is second in the NBA in assists per game, with 24.3. The Bucks, not surprisingly, are last, with 17.8 assists per game.
Top point guard in NBA? Brandon Jennings, after Saturday's win, confirmed again who he considers the game's best point guard:
But now we've got two tough ones. Utah, who is playing excellent right now. They've got the best point guard in the NBA, Deron Williams.
Jennings also called Williams the best point guard in the NBA after Utah's one visit to Milwaukee last season. And that followed a game in which Jennings outplayed Williams en route to a 95-87 Bucks win. Jennings went for 24/4/6 as the Bucks won for the fifth time in a row to start March.
However, while Brandon's first NBA trip to Utah marked one of the three times that Jennings reached double digits in assists (11 dimes) last season, he also shot just 1-8 for five points in the 112-95 loss in January.
Swingin' Jazz. The Jazz beat the Clippers 109-97 last night. Deron Williams led the way with 26/5/9 on 8-14 shooting. That game marked the team's fifth win in a row.
Utah is 12-3 in November, including wins in Miami, Orlando, Atlanta, Portland, and against the Hornets and Lakers. Unreal.
Homes away from home. Recent history shows the Jazz are a dominant home team. Last season, the went 32-9 at home compared to 21-20 on the road. The year before they went 33-8 at home, but just 15-26 away. But this season they actually have an even better record on the road (7-2) than at home (6-3).
Centers out. Andrew Bogut (back) is out again for the Bucks. This will be the fifth game Bogut has missed this year. The Bucks are 2-2 without Bogut. Meanwhile, Mehmet Okur (right achilles) has yet to play this season and remains sidelined for the Jazz.
And1. These stats from HoopData are only through Nov. 22 according to the site, but are interesting nonetheless: The Jazz have an NBA-best 4.03 And 1 % (And 1 / Field Goals Attempted). Andrei Kirilenko tops the team at 9.2 %. Corey Maggette leads the Bucks at 8.5 %, and Luc Mbah a Moute is ins't far behind at 7.1 %, which puts him ahead of Blake Griffin (6.8 %). Milwaukee as a team is at 2.85 %.