Carlos Arroyo is not the next John Stockton. No one expects Carlos Arroyo to be John Stockton. Besides after scoring 18 points and dishing out 13 assists while leading the Jazz to victory in the first game of the post Stockton and Malone era – what’s wrong with being Carlos Arroyo?

As Kirilenko threw down a jam to seal the seven point Jazz victory over the Portland Trailblazers, Wednesday night, the home crowd in the Delta Center celebrated as if the Jazz had just won the championship. All the talk of how exciting this young team would be seemed to be right on the money. But then again why shouldn’t the crowd be excited, after all the Jazz are in first place in the Midwest, Carlos Arroyo is the league leader in assists and the Jazz have five guys averaging in double figures while the team as a whole is shooting nearly 58%. Who cares that they have only played one game?

The excitement around the victory was well earned. Jazz fans could not have been thrilled for the entire game. In fact, most probably spent halftime wondering how the Trailblazers had 4 more offensive rebounds than the Jazz had total rebounds. For a stretch in the second quarter it looked like the Jazz forgot how to rebound, as they went over eight minutes without a board. The Jazz seemed to get the message about rebounding as they came out and attacked the boards in the second half – led by Greg Ostertag who had 8 of his game high nine rebounds in the second half.

The second half started with Portland looking like they were going to pull away as they opened up a 13 point lead that felt about twice that size. The lead didn't last too long as the Jazz, behind the effort of Matt Harpring, brought the game to within four points at the end of three. The Jazz connected on their first 10 shots of the fourth quarter, but weren’t able to take the lead on that run. Portland, however, was just prolonging the inevitable before the Carlos Arroyo led Jazz did everything right in the closing minutes of the game to steal the game from the favored Portland Trailblazers.

The Jazz and Jazz fans have to be excited with the play of the whole team, but especially the solid play from three of the team's four rookies. Most notably, from 19-year-old “Swish-ah” Pavlovic and his 6 for 8 from the field, 14 point performance.

The Jazz looked good from behind the 3-point stripe, hitting 5 of 9 attempts; however, the fact that the team scored 48 of its 99 points in the paint will undoubtedly be the stat that keeps coach Jerry Sloan happy.

There will most undoubtedly be some losing streaks and some nights where nothing clicks for the young team. But if game 1 showed anything, its that you should never give up on this team – not when they are down and certainly not before the season or game has begun. This year's Jazz team is fun, they are disciplined and exciting, and most importantly, they are winners.