Jazzhoops   Holidays Are Coming, and It Is Time to Look Back by Stef Siepel  Maybe it isn't a tradition, like placing the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center, and maybe this isn't a logical time to look back, but after more than 25 games, I think it is time to look at what the Jazz have done. "Life is just a roller coaster, you just got to ride it" is an often used phrase, and it is also a line in a famous song by Ronan Keating. There are more things that look like a roller coaster ride however, and one of them is this Jazz season. After a horrendous start, the Jazz seemed to get back on track, only to go on a four game losing streak after that. And just when you are ready to write the Jazz off again, they suddenly beat the Dallas Mavericks, in Dallas. This is a season filled with ups and downs, and I'm not only talking about the outcome of the games. Another roller coaster in the Jazz theme park seems to be Karl Malone. "The Mailman" still delivers, but his delivery percentage is going down. Let's say the roller coaster starts at 45%, which would be a nice field goal percentage for a player like Malone. The roller coaster goes up slowly, as Malone is shooting 47%, and sometimes well over the 50%. But just when Malone reaches a very high level of play, the roller coaster goes down, fast. Malone is struggling to shoot at a high percentage consistently, and he sometimes converts less than 33% of his shots. You might fasten your seatbelt, because this roller coaster isn't going to stabilize anytime soon. Someone who has played consistently this season, to everyone's surprise, is center Greg Ostertag. Ostertag has started to play with intensity and emotion, something he was lacking in other years. I personally think, although I could be way off base here, that it has something to do with Ostertag donating a kidney to his sister. I've always thought Ostertag was pretty fragile mentally. I don't think he can take a lot of criticism, and it is needless to say that Ostertag has received a lot of that. After his big contract, everyone wanted to get a piece of Ostertag. It must be very hard to constantly hear that you don't deserve the money, and that you aren't playing good enough to get playing time. If you aren't very strong mentally, then you will get into a downward spiral. You play bad, people start to criticize you, and you are going to play even worse. Last season the spiral seems to have hit the bottom, as he had a very bad season. But then he donated a kidney to his sister, which is a very nice thing to do. Everyone started to praise Ostertag, sending him e-mails, postcards, and other things, in which they wished him and his sister the best. In articles of major sports organizations, like ESPN, they told the NBA fans what Ostertag did, and how good it was that he did it. Ostertag must have thought: "Hey, they don't hate me after all." I think that all the positive reactions of Jazz fans, and others, triggered a desire to play, and win, again, in part for the fans who supported him during his revalidation. He started to play hard, with intensity and emotion, and he was rewarded with all kinds of positive reactions, which reached its peak after a 16-point game against the Dallas Mavericks, in Dallas. The man with the Fred Flintstone tattoo finally isn't a piñata anymore. Another positive thing this season is the play of all the newcomers. Calbert Cheaney needed some time to adjust, but he has found his groove out there, something that Matt Harpring already found in the very beginning of the season. Harpring and Cheaney both work hard, and they play good defense. And Harpring also contributes a lot offensively, as only Malone scores more points. Cheaney always finds a way to score several points in the game, usually at the very beginning, to help the Jazz get going. The other two off-season additions are doing a nice job as well, both at the point guard position. Jackson and Stockton are running the offense very well, despite their age, and Carlos Arroyo always gives the Jazz some solid minutes. Stockton and Jackson may have some problems against quick point guards, but every point guard they face has problems with their passing. And then we have Andrei Kirilenko, who surprised everyone again this year. Everyone knew that he could play defense, and that he was a good shot blocker, but everyone was surprised with his shot, which is falling pretty consistently. He is shooting over the 40% from beyond the arc, and he converts more than 55% of his shots into points. Kirilenko has also developed into an 80% free throw shooter, which, according to Kirilenko, is because of Jeff Hornacek, whose jersey was retired this season against the Phoenix Suns (the team that drafted him). Since Hornacek began working with Kirilenko, he has learned a lot. That makes people wonder why Kirilenko improves a lot, but DeShawn Stevenson doesn't. Both are getting help from former All-Star Jeff Hornacek, but it seems that Kirilenko picks Hornacek's lessons up a bit quicker than Stevenson. Stevenson got the starting shooting guard spot in the beginning of the season, but he faded away to the end of the bench, which he keeps warm with John Ameachi. Both have had their chances; both failed to take them. John Ameachi seemed to grab his chance eagerly with an encouraging performance against the Kings, a game in which he scored 12 points and grabbed 4 rebounds, excluding a possible game winning rebound. The referees thought Ameachi fouled Webber on that play, which clearly wasn't the case. But Amaechi hasn't shown anything since that game, or before that game for that matter. He got the chance to play against the Kings because Jarron Collins is injured. Collins will probably be out for more than 8 months, and he joined Curtis Borchardt and Raul Lopez on the injured list. Lopez probably won't play this season, while Borchardt could return somewhere after the all-star game, although he could miss the entire season as well. A large part of the team that needs to carry the Jazz after the Stockton and Malone era is on the injured list, while veterans Jackson, Malone, Stockton, and the recently acquired Massenburg, continue to play. If the veterans, and the rest of the team, stay healthy, then there is no reason to believe the roller coaster ride will stop. They look brilliant at some times, while they look pretty bad at others. Some nights they only turn the ball over 12 times, just to turn it over more than 20 times the next game. But something the fans have seen consistently in the first part of the season, is defense, intensity, and hustle. The Jazz are playing hard, and that's what the fans want to see the rest of the season, as well. I want to wish everyone a merry Christmas and a happy New Year. And lets all hope it will be a good year for the Jazz as well.