I first want to mention Christmas. I hope that everyone had a nice holiday. I love Christmas and this year was especially nice. I want to thank Kera (my wife) and Owen (my son) for making it great. I love you both.

After the Charlotte loss, I was pretty upset. I wrote in my post that day that the Jazz were better at every position. How can you lose that game? Especially after losing to the Knicks several days before and almost laying and egg against the Hawks? I was upset.

I have had some time to let the road trip sit for a few days now and I feel much better about how things went down, thanks in no small part to Memot Okur whose clutch 3-point shooting against Atlanta and Memphis practically won the games. The Jazz finished the trip 3-2, which is exactly on their season average for road success.

Just looking at the competition before the trip started, the Jazz were the clear favorites in every game. I hoped for five, but expected four wins on the trip. But that expectation did not take into any outside influences into account.

The Jazz played five games in seven days. Even if all were at home you would expect them to lose at least one game due to exhaustion. Then when you realize that they played in five different cities in five days, that is good for one more loss. In reality, the Jazz did as well as anyone can reasonably expect for such a grueling road trip, even if the competition was less than impressive.

The Jazz now stand at 9-6 on the road. If they maintain this pace that would be good for 24 road wins on the season.

I still think the biggest concern for the Jazz right now is that they need to start playing four quarters every game. They can’t continue to expect to come back at the end of games to win, though it has been a formula for success so far. Looking forward this week, the Jazz play at home against the Clippers, then travel to San Antonio before closing the week out at home against Portland.

The Clippers have been terrible this season. They look much more like the Clippers we are used to seeing, not the team that made it into the second round of the playoffs last year. Playing at the ESA for the first time in six games, the Jazz should win this game going away and get back on track.