Mo Williams Shoots Down The Jazz

Of course, the Utah Jazz wouldn't go down without a fight, but they would end up losing the game due to amazing performances from Mo Williams and LeBron James. Let's take a look at the game and how this team had this amazing win over the Cavaliers.

Mo Williams Shot The Lights Out!
If you didn't notice it, Mo Williams missed only 1 free-throw and a shot. He shot 8-9 from the field, 4-4 from 3-point range, and 9-10 from the FT line. Not only that, but Mo was moving the ball. He had 6 assists and passed the ball a total of 71 times, more than anybody else on either team. Now, while Mo's shooting was phenomenal, it wasn't like he was taking tough shots. In fact, 7 of Mo's 9 shots were uncontested, meaning that he only took 2 contested shot and he missed one of them. Why didn't the defense get on him then? 2 reasons, the Jazz didn't play that great of defense and Mo is a very smart player. He constantly used pump-fakes, and moved really well with and without the ball. You can't forget the Mo used to be an all-star.

LeBron James
Now, LeBron is a player who can score, and he did that in the 4th quarter. While he scored a total of 33 points, he had 17 in the 4th. Some of that came from Mo finding LeBron, some of it came from poor defense from the Jazz, and some of it was just LeBron making smart plays. As you may know, LeBron isn't a great shooter at all, but he stayed within his range in this game, shooting 6 of his 8 shot attempts within the paint, and you know that those are very high percentage shots for him.

Credit: NBA.com/stats

Burke and Burks Bench Boys
What really kept this Jazz team in the game, were Alec Burks and Trey Burke who came off the bench. Alec had 24 points and shot 4-5 from the 3-point line and Trey Burke had 16 points on 2-3 shooting from deep. Without these guys, the Jazz wouldn't have been able to make the run that they made.

The Jazz Defense
The Cavs great offense was really a result of the Jazz's bad defense. They had 0 blocks as a team. The team had a defensive rating of 119.3 and Rudy Gobert wasn't doing much on the defensive side. He seemed really soft and the whole team wasn't playing that great. Instead, most of the players were fouling and not playing great defense. Even though he only played a little over 13 minutes, Joe Ingles somehow managed to have 5 fouls on the game. Both Gordon Hayward and Alec Burks were in foul trouble as they also had 5 and Rodney Hood fouled out of the game. The whole team had a total of 35 fouls. This isn't something you would want to see from a defensive team.

Other Points

• Kevin Love had 22 points and he shot just 37.5% from the field. He had a scare when he came down on his knee wrong on a fast break, but he appeared to be fine as he continued to play in the game.
• The Jazz had very equal scoring all around. 6 players scored in double figures.
• Gordon Hayward has really struggled this season, as he hasn't shot well and has only had one 20 point game. You could see his struggles again as he 6-16 in the game. Hopefully he starts to play a little better as the season continues.
• Both Mo Williams and LeBron James had 5 turnovers and the Jazz had 11 steals. The Cavs do need to limit their turnovers as it could cost them dearly in some games later in the season.

Well, this was a great game to watch and a great game to breakdown. Hope you guys liked it. I got to give a big thanks to www.nba.com/stats for providing such great stats and charts to help not just NBA Inside The Play but many other websites and blogs with their articles. Also, checkout AP Highlights and their youtube page. They make really great highlights over their, and you will especially like them if you are a Lakers fan so check it out and here is the link: AP Highlights. Again thanks for reading and hope you people loved it.

Chicago Takes Down The Cavs On Opening Night

Chicago looked great in last nights game. Their offense hasn't looked that great in a long time. On the other hand, the Cleveland Cavaliers did not look like the championship team from last year and they look very concerning. However, this could just have been from LeBron sitting out most of the game and Kyrie Irving being out from injury. There were bright spots and some bad spot that we saw from both teams, so let's check them out

Nikola Mirotic Looks Great!
Listen, this guy is on my fantasy team, and he just gave me a big boost for opening night. So thank you Mirotic for that 19 points. One thing I noticed is that Mirotic looks better on his shot and he was showing off his handles. He was definitely not afraid to show Kevin Love that he can shoot the 3 ball. He did great attacking the rim, something that Mirotic wasn't known for last year. He gave us stuff we weren't expecting from him and it makes me a proud fantasy owner with this man on my team.

Kevin Love Looked Really Confident
Love really had a lot of confidence in this game and maybe it was a little too much. Anyways, it is good to see Kevin Love getting off a lot of shots, because he really wasn't shooting shots like this last year. I really think Love should have gotten the last shot of the game but didn't as LeBron got stuffed and then with a second chance Jimmy Butler stole the ball. However, Love shot 17 shots last night but only made 6 of them. I'm okay with him shooting like that because you know that he will be getting them to fall soon.

Mo Williams!
This man had 17 points and 7 assists. He was very good. I think many people forget that he scored 52 points with the Timberwolves and won an eastern conference and western conference player of the week awards last year. I think most people forget that he was an all-star back in 2009. Anyways, Mo looks like he will be great for this team and should be having games like this til Kyrie comes back.

Derrick Rose and Jimmy Butler Struggled
Jimmy Butler couldn't seem to get a shot to fall and Derrick Rose couldn't finish at the rim. Rose shot just 36% on 8-22 shooting. Butler just really didn't look that well on his jumper. Hopefully, both of these guys pick up on the shooting and do much better in games to come. Another guy that didn't look the best was Pau Gasol. While he shot 1-7 from the field, he did have 6 blocks though and 1 of them saved the Bulls the game.

Other Points

• Tony Snell started in the game and he was anything but disappointing. He showed us his range as he had 11 points on 4-9 shooting and 2-5 from the 3 point line. He will be an interesting player to keep on eye on this season.
• Richard Jefferson looked great as he constantly drove and kicked to open players. He also had a great offensive game last night. He gave us 10 points in just 17 minutes. 
• E'Twaun Moore had a great game. I forgot this man was even on the team. He scored 11 points in just 14 minutes. He looked very impressive and the Bulls look like they have great bench depth. 

I'm concerned for the Cavs, they looked like they thought it was a preseason game and they could just not be ready yet. I just hope that they turn things around. However, the Bulls look really good, and they have a great roster. If they keep this up, they could be looking at the Finals down the road. I know it's just one game, but Fred Hoiberg and the Bulls look very promising.

The Hornets Are Slowly Fading

Kemba Walker comes up from behind, Blocks Him! Kemba, last second shot! Wins It!

That's what the beginning of the season was like for the Hornets. However, newly acquired, Lance Stephenson, was not fitting well with this group. Coach Clifford started to bench Lance. Then the most devastating thing that could happen to a Hornets fan, happens. Kemba Walker goes down. He is injured. Small Forward, Gary Neal, was having a great season with this Hornets team. It was impossible for him or Lance to come off the bench and play Point Guard though.

Point Guard, Zach LaVine for the Minnesota Timberwolves was about to participate in the Dunk competition as well as the Rising Stars challenge. He was seeing a lack of minutes, and with Ricky Rubio coming back from injury, he would be placed behind not only Rubio, but Mo Williams too. The Timberwolves made the decision to trade off Mo Williams to get some playing time for a rising Zach LaVine. Of course, the Hornets needed a great veteran Point Guard. Mo Williams had 52 points with the Timberwolves. Obviously this guy could help the Hornets, right?

The Hornets traded off Gary Neal for the Timberwolves, Mo Williams. Mo already was familiar with the Hornets center, Al Jefferson, who had played with Mo on the Jazz. Mo was an immediate impact when he came to the team. They ended up going on a winning streak, Mo won the Eastern Conference player of the week award, and Kemba Walker was close to returning.

Kemba Walker's return didn't help them. It made them worse. Kemba couldn't find rhythem, and Mo couldn't produce that well off the bench. They ended up a couple games out of the playoffs. Now to make matters worse, team center, Al Jefferson has a knee injury. Poor Al could be benched for the rest of the season. As the Celtics and the Nets are on the rise, the Hornets are slowly fading.