Deron Williams had the best first round out of pretty much any player in the playoffs, but in the second round the Los Angeles Lakers have been able to slow him down and that is why the Utah Jazz are down 2-0 so far.  Williams is shooting just 36% from the field and averaging 19.5 points and 8.5 assists in two games against the Lakers.  In the first round he was on fire, shooting 49% from the field and 48% from three, on his way to averaging 25.8 points and 11.3 assists.  Williams had a decent outing in game one, but they needed more than 24 points and 8 assists from him.  He only 15 points in game two, so Williams has to step it up and try and get back in the groove he was in during their first round series against the Nuggets.  The Lakers are much better defensive team than the Nuggets though, and the Lakers size has been making it much more difficult for Williams and the rest of the Jazz to finish in the paint.  The Jazz are going to need Williams to put up some monster numbers if they want a chance in this series, because if he keeps playing like this they will get swept.

With Mehmet Okur out for the season the Jazz will need either Kyrylo Fesenko or Kosta Koufos to step up and give them some quality minutes. Fesenko is the more likely of the two to get the starting job. He played in 49 games (5 starts) for the Jazz during the regular season in which he averaged 8.3 minutes, 2.6 points, 1.8 rebounds and 0.3 assists per game. He played in 5 minutes in game #1 against the Nuggets with 1 point and 1 assist. Kosta Koufos is a former first round pick of the Jazz so he might have a bigger upside. He played in 36 games (0 starts) for the Jazz during the regular season and he averaged 4.8 minutes, 1.5 points, 1.3 rebounds and 0.2 assists per game. Koufos played in 3 minutes in the opening game of this season and he got a rebound but didn’t score. I have a feeling that the Jazz will need 15 good minutes for them while Paul Millsap and Carlos Boozer handle most of the heavy lifting along the front line.

Deron Williams does just about everything for his team and he is the main reason why the Utah Jazz are 38-22 this season.  He is averaging 18.4 points, 10.1 assists, 4.1 rebounds, and 1.2 steals.  He is shooting 47% from the field on the season, but lately his shot has been pretty inconsistent from night to night.  It may be that his legs are wearing down towards the end of the season, but he hasn’t really put up two good shooting nights in consecutive games in the past month.  For example, last game they lost to the Clippers 108-104 and Williams went 5-15 from the field for 13 points.  The game before that the Jazz blew out the Rockets 133-110 and Williams went a red-hot 13-17 from the field for 35 points.  The game before that was a loss to the Kings, and Williams only went 4-16 from the field for 10 points.  He had 20 points on 8-17 shooting before that, and you get were I am going.  In the past month, if you look at Williams game log, there is almost a pattern of one good shooting night, followed by one bad shooting night, and then followed by one good shooting night, etc.  The Jazz have only lost three games since February 1st, and in those three losses Williams had very bad shooting nights.  So, Williams needs to focus on trying to end this pattern and try and get a few good shooting nights together.  If this type of thing happens in a playoff series, it would be very bad for the Jazz chances.

C.J. Miles was a starting player last season for the Jazz. But this year he is coming off the bench for the Jazz for the most part but the numbers are still the same. Miles has played in 32 games (10 starts) for the Jazz this season and he is averaging 19.9 minutes, 8.6 points, 2.2 rebounds and 1.3 assists per game. I think this is about the ceiling for Miles at least as long as the Jazz have other options on the offense.

Mehmet Okur’s numbers are down a little bit this season but I think it is because Carlos Boozer has been healthy most of the year and he’s getting the ball a lot more than last season. Okur has played in 45 games (all starts) for the Jazz this season and he is averaging 29.1 minutes, 12.6 points, 6.7 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game. Okur is still shooting well from long range hitting 39.4% on his three point attempts which is outstanding for a center.