Man, the first quarter last night was a thing of beauty for the Utah Jazz — and basketball purists. The Jazz sliced and diced the Portland Trail Blazers, spread them out, isolated them and cut them up, laying them bare at both ends of the court in front of about 20,000 people.

Seriously, the new buzz words for the past several seasons in the NBA are cliches by now… all I’ve heard lately from teams is how they need to find players who can “create their own shot.” Yeah, well… I’m old-school. I admit that. But I remember when basketball was a beautiful team game –when it was systems that created shots. And that’s what I saw from the Jazz last night.

Jerry Sloan has never been coach of the year? What a joke. He’s one of the last holdouts who plays the game the right way, who has a system at both ends of the court and sticks to it — and makes sure his players do, too.

Did you see the Jazz just handing the ball to a player last night, asking him to go one-on-one to get a shot? And it’s not as if they couldn’t do that, either. Deron Williams could do it any time. But he works within a proven system that provides great shots for everyone — and Williams has no trouble getting his within that system.

Rick Adelman does this. So do Phil Jackson and Larry Brown. They understand that moving the ball, moving bodies and demanding that players be disciplined within a team framework is critical to winning basketball. For all you young people who think basketball is nothing but isolations and clear outs, who think you win by just handing the ball to your best guy and staying out of his way — well, get your hands on a video of last night’s game.

A lot of fans think that just because John Stockton and Karl Malone were in Utah so long running pick-and-rolls, that what Utah does is pretty predictable. But no way. Even in those days, the Jazz would come at that play in so many different ways, from so many different angles. You’d have to stop all sorts of back cuts, off-the-ball screens and player movement before they got to that play.

And you wonder why Malone and Stockton stuck around for almost two decades, playing in nearly every single game that whole time? Well, they were never asked to carry the same load that a Brandon Roy carries on a nightly basis — the task of taking the ball in the middle of the floor and constantly trying to beat multiple defenders on the way to the basket.

I get so frustrated with people who think that’s how you play winning basketball.

Look, last season the Houston Rockets ate the Blazers alive in the playoffs — and Portland came away saying it needed one more player, in addition to Brandon Roy, who could get his own shot. Meanwhile, the Blazers had been carved up by a team with NO players who could get their own shot but instead played a team game, stayed within a structured group of sets, ran plays, worked to get each other open.

Is nobody paying attention to this? Your system is supposed to get you shots, too — but it doesn’t happen here very much.

And at the other end of the court, well, it’s the same thing. For most of the first half, the Trail Blazers couldn’t get an open look. They had trouble getting to the basket and getting open threes. The Jazz got out to Portland’s guards while still being able to seal off the inside as well as anyone the Blazers have played.

Rudy Fernandez, Andre Miller, Martell Webster and Steve Blake combined to go 8 for 39 from the field. Jerryd Bayless was 5 for 12, but made that many only because he was relentless in his pursuit of cheap buckets late in the game when the issue was decided.

In the second half, things became a little more equal because Carlos Boozer left in the middle of the third quarter with a calf strain, right about the time Williams went to the bench with his fourth foul and Utah was pretty bad at the foul line. Besides, the trailing team, especially at home, always gets that run in the second half.

(By the way, it was a typical LaMarcus Aldridge game — great statistics at the end of the night but if you were watching the game, you wouldn’t like what you saw. For most of the night, Boozer just annihilated him. If he hadn’t gotten hurt, he’d have thrown Aldridge off the Broadway Bridge by the fourth quarter.)

But don’t let that obscure what happened in this game. The Jazz gave the Trail Blazers a very big lesson on how the game is supposed to be played. And it’s real important that everyone understand that.

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Tags: Brandon Roy, Carlos Boozer, Deron Williams, Dwight Jaynes, Houston Rockets, Jerry Sloan, Larry Brown, NBA, Phil Jackson, Portland Trail Blazers, Rick Adelman, Utah Jazz

I have not been able to find too many people who believe Utah won’t match Portland’s offer. The Jazz have a week to trade Carlos Boozer — which means someone has a chance to pick up a pretty good power forward on the cheap.

The Blazers must know this, too. At the worst, they force the division-rival Jazz to weaken their roster by divesting themselves of Boozer. At best, they also force Utah into some sort of three-way deal that results in Portland getting a player it wants.

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Tags: Carlos Boozer, Dwight Jaynes, Paul Millsap, Portland Trail Blazers, Utah Jazz

Unsettled times? Uncertainty? Hey, Brandon Roy is out a few games. The schedule, including tonight’s game, has been brutal for the last four games. Let’s relax just a little bit, OK? I mean, the trading deadline is still a full month away and I don’t know if it’s time to panic quite yet.

There seems to be a lot of hand-wringing right now about the Trail Blazers’ bench. Roy’s absence has pushed Rudy Fernandez into the starting lineup and made the second unit a little weaker. OK, so what did you expect?

I take a different approach than most. My feeling about the second unit is “so what?” I mean, the Blazers play only two games this week. And why is it that when Roy is out, it automatically means you have to use your 11th man? For me, with just two games this week, I’d extend the minutes of the starters and simply trim the bench down. There’s no rule that says you have to have a 10-man rotation. Cut it to eight or nine.

And I certainly wouldn’t remove Rudy from the starting lineup. I think with Roy out, I’d try to play Rudy 40 minutes if I could. He could be starting for half the teams in the NBA — let’s give him as many minutes as he can handle. Same with Aldridge, Oden (that may not be possible, obviously) and Blake — keep them on the floor a little longer. I’d extend Batum’s minutes, too.

I’m not sure Jerryd Bayless should automatically play just because Roy isn’t playing. So far, that experiment has been a disappointment and a three-guard rotation is just fine for a few games. For a guy who seems so cocky Bayless has looked very unconfident with the ball in his hands. But tonight the dilemma for the Blazers is that that perhaps the only Piston guard small enough for Bayless to guard is Allen Iverson and if you bring him off the bench he runs into all those guys too tall for him to defend.

So if you’re determined to play Bayless, you may have to start him. If you try to use him on one of those big guards, the Pistons are going to take him right down to the post and punish him, just the way New Orleans did last week.

Rodney Stuckey, who has taken over the point for Detroit, is 6-foot-5 and is going to be a handful for Blake, too. And there’s nobody out there for Oden to guard at all. The Pistons are one of the hottest teams in the league and Portland’s best hope is to try to stay with a big lineup and just pound them on the boards and feed the big men for post-up baskets. Then hope the Pistons are having an off-night with their jumpers.

But again, win or lose tonight, easier games are ahead and it’s no time to panic. Roy should be back soon and I think all teams go through rough stretches. And for all you doomsayers out there who suddenly don’t think the Blazers are a playoff team, sorry — I’m not buying that. Utah may play most of the season without Carlos Boozer and the Rockets are suddenly a mess, with Tracy McGrady a basket case. I’m not sure how long Dallas can continue to play well and can Shaq stay healthy all season for Phoenix?

Sorry to keep repeating this, but perspective is your best friend. Hold on tight to it.

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Tags: Allen Iverson, Brandon Roy, Carlos Boozer, Detroit Pistons, Dwight Jaynes, Greg Oden, Houston Rockets, Jerryd Bayless, Phoenix Suns, Portland Trail Blazers, Rodney Stuckey, Shaq, Tracy McGrady, Utah Jazz