The Utah Jazz | as seen by Basketball John

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MISSING!
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Mehmet Okur’s Shot

Last seen February 16th, 2007.  Used to go by “Money.”  May have left it at the All-star game.  Maybe what comes to Vegas stays in Vegas?  Hasn’t been seen since.  If you find his shot, please return it to the ESA immediately or contact any concerned Jazz fan.  No questions asked.
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REWARD
His first-born
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So that was painful to watch.  The Jazz played a very good game.  On paper it looks like they should have won.  But the one glaring stat that stabs you in the eye is the free-throw discrepancy.  The Jazz didn’t shoot poorly from the free-throw line, they just didn’t get there.  The Rockets went to the free-throw line 38 times compared to just 17 for the Jazz.  Both teams played well on defense.  They’re both known for their physical style of play on the defensive end.  So how did so many fouls get called against the Jazz and not the Rockets?  Houston was taking jump shots most of the night.  They had 24 three-point attempts.  Take a look at the shot chart:

You’re telling me that with all those outside shots they still should have gone to the line 38 times and the Jazz only 17?  And I don’t know how Yao can go over the back for rebounds and not get called but when Boozer does the whistle comes out.  I couldn’t watch the game because when the Jazz would make a run, it would get killed by a whistle and the Rockets could hack all night long.  And if you don’t think that the refs play to the home team, you haven’t read up on Joey “You wanna make something out of it” Crawford.  Here’s Yao’s reaction to every foul call on him (he couldn’t possibly have made contact):

Enough complaining.  The Jazz are in serious trouble.  I would say that the Jazz couldn’t win the series now if I believed that reverse-jinxes work. (Was that last sentence a double-reverse jinx?  Did that just jinx them?  Does this sentence keep reversing the jinx?)  Anyway, I won’t say that the Jazz are done, but they’ve never come back from a 0-2 hole.  But there have been weirder things happen.

Next game:
Thursday @ the ESA.