Well, we got what you would want out of the final, meaningless game of the season:  a win and no injuries.  We saw the reserves for most of the game with AK logging the most minutes for a starter.  Now the question will be, will the layoff hurt McGrady & Yao, or will the rest energize them?

The first game on the road is probably going to be one of the toughest the Jazz face, assuming they advance past the first round.  The Rockets have all the confidence, momentum, crazy home crowd mojo that you could want.  And despite how horrible the Jazz have played, I still think they can go in there an steal a win.  I like Okur out on the perimeter and making either Yao come out to guard him or making Houston put a smaller player on him.  Yao definitely affected Boozer the last game and Carlos would benefit from having Yao out of the paint.  If the Jazz can take game one, I think the series is over.  It would kill the Rockets psychologically and have the exact opposite affect for the Jazz.

Preview coming on the series.

p.s.  Doesn’t Araujo look like he should have a football in his hand?

Great blog post comparing the Jazz of old to the new Jazz by “Shooter”:

http://community.foxsports.com/blogs/ShooterB/2007/04/17/Sloans_Last_Stand 

While I can see where Jerry is coming from in this interview, I see no reason why the main Jazz players are playing, especially with McGrady and Yao out.  As of now with 7:15 in the 2nd, we have Giricek, Brown, Millsap, Araujo, and Brewer.  We might see the starters back at the beginning of the third, but if they play much more  than five minutes, Sloan is mad.

There’s nothing to gain.  If the Jazz win with their starters, big deal.  If they lose, ouch.  And that’s not to mention the obvious injury possibility.  If something happend to AK or any of the big 3, Sloan has no excuse.  Here’s the YouTube link:

Jerry Sloan on playing the last game of the season v. the Houston Rockets

So all of the rookies must be required to show up to film the local Jazz sponsor commercials.  But how did they rope Deron Williams into it?  I can see Fisher being there because he’s a nice guy, but the rest had no choice.

Over at the My Utah Jazz portal at utahjazz.com, they have a couple outtakes of the commercials.  These must be pretty old as Roger Powell is in it.  I haven’t seen it yet though.  I’ve put it up on YouTube:

Utah Jazz commercial outtakes pt1
Utah Jazz commercial outtakes pt2