Zone D turns out to be Jazz answer for Iverson

Philadelphia's Allen Iverson is the best man-on-man player in the NBA. So quick. A great driver and an even better finisher. If he doesn't make his layups, he gets fouled.

The Utah Jazz fouled out two point guards trying to stay with him on New Year's Eve in the Delta Center.

"They were scoring man-to-man, and then we had to change something," said Jazz two-guard Gordan Giricek, who had an energetic 23 points and did a decent job guarding 76ers' 3-point marksman Kyle Korver (11 points).

A 2-3 zone was that something.

The Jazz put it on, took it off, put it on and took it off again, and it was a big factor in the way they climbed back into the game after Philadelphia had grabbed a six-point lead in the third quarter and didn't seem like it would slow back down.

"We changed the rhythm by doing that," said Giricek of what turned out to be the Jazz's third straight win, 108-102.

"It was (a factor) because a team like that, they've got a lot of good one-on-one players, and you go in that zone, it slowed them down," said Milt Palacio, the only Jazz point guard who didn't foul out trying to stay with Iverson. "I thought it really slowed Iverson down a lot."

"I think the zone kinda had them a little staggered," agreed point Keith McLeod, who started and stayed in the game two minutes before drawing his second foul against Iverson, who shot 18 free throws and made 13 and had 12 baskets on the way to 37 points, three above his NBA-leading average. "With Iverson going one-on-one a lot, I think the zone kind of slowed them down."

Utah closed up the seams in the zone quickly enough to nab a couple of steals on entry passes. A steal by Giricek, who nabbed the ball on an Iverson pass and made a fast-break dunk, changed the tempo with less than five minutes left in the third quarter. Jarron Collins got a steal the next time the Sixers got into their offense, and Utah was soon back in a 70-70 tie.

Phil Johnson, who took over when coach Jerry Sloan was ejected with his second technical foul at 7:08 of the third period, indicated to the players when to put on the zone and when to use man defense, and the switching defenses did affect the Sixers.

"We made some turnovers that really hurt us," Iverson said. "(A turnover problem) is not in our makeup. We're a team that usually takes good care of the ball. We know we're going to struggle if we turn it over that much."

"They were really hurting us by executing," explained Johnson. "We got caught standing. I thought the zone took them out of it. They did make some shots, but we switched back and forth with it, and I think that that helped."

It's an old tactic, but the Jazz gave it life Saturday.

"We try to switch back and forth, and not let them really zero in on you offensively so that they know exactly what you're going to do," Johnson said. "They hurt us with it a couple of times, but overall I thought it helped us in the game."

"Coach went with his gut feeling, with what he felt was going to slow them down, throw them off a little bit," said Palacio. "It helped a lot because it slowed (Iverson) down going one-on-one."

Zoning a team with great outside shooters like Korver and Andre Iguodala (18 points, two threes) can be risky.

"Yeah," said Johnson. "We tried to do it when he wasn't out there, but sometimes you can cover a 3-point shot as good from a zone as from man, so you just have to make sure you cover."

E-mail: lham@desnews.com

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