Williams + Boozer, unstoppable. Unbelievable game. Knock out punch after knock out punch by both teams and each time the other team got back up off the mat and answered.  The final blow came with Boozer’s 20th board and putback to give the Jazz the lead with 17 seconds left. It’s a real shame this series is getting overlooked as not being sexy enough for ESPN, the NBA, and the national media. I guarantee every game will be like tonight’s contest. A bunch of no-names really from GS, against the small market Jazz.

All I can say is whoever wins this series has to be the favorite to win the west. Both are playing out of their heads. The Suns and Spurs couldn’t match the intensity from tonight’s game. PHX would come closest. I still think the Jazz played into the Warrior’s hands. They couldn’t get Boozer the ball enough because of their zone. It did lead to an amazing amount of offensive rebounds for the Jazz though.

Why did AK and Harpring keep feeding it into Boozer when he was being double-teamed? I can’t count the number of turnovers that came from that. And what can you say about Dee Brown who had to fill in for the absent Fisher? Huge pressure and he hit a couple big-time shots.

The big stories for the Jazz of course were Williams’ 31 points and Boozer’s 20 rebounds. They can’t even hope to contain him. What’s been most impressive about Utah’s last three wins is that they were down 5-7 points with about six minutes left and foudn a way to come back and win. Great defense to create those fast-break points.

Here’s looking to a nice game 2 Wednesday. And hopefully Fisher’s personal issues aren’t too serious.

Technorati tags: utah Jazz, golden state warriors, playoffs, nba, deron williams, carlos boozer

Damn, that scared the hell out of me.

Slow the hell down. I don’t know how much longer the Jazz can hang with the Warriors with a tempo like this. The Warriors are doing exactly what they want to do and are getting the Jazz to play along. The game has been one of the most exciting, intense that I’ve seen in the playoffs and even this season. But it doesn’t bode well for the Jazz.

We need more Boozer and more paint play to get this done. AK is playing AK defense and has been effective cutting. Williams and Baron Davis are going at it. Okur started off hot but’s cooled a bit. Let’s hope he’s money at the end.

24 more minutes…

Technorati tags: utah Jazz, golden state warriors, nba

So here we are in one of the most unlikely matchups in the playoffs.  Obviously no one thought GS was getting by Dallas.  And no one gave the Jazz much chance against the Rockets after going down 0-2 and having to play game 7 on the road.  That’s why I don’t like predictions, because as K from Men in Black would tell the experts:

Cool, whatever you say, slick, but I need to tell you something about all your skills. As of right now, they mean precisely… dick.

Anything can happen.  And who remembers picks anyway?  I don’t think anyone goes back and tallies the votes.  And if you pick right, either you’re going with the odds or you’re a fan of the team, right?  So let the best team win.  That’s what happened in both previous series.

And Bill Simmon’s kiss of death prediction last time proved well, so I’m including his prediction about this series:

Jazz-Warriors: A worst-case scenario for GSW. The Warriors would have crushed Houston; now they have nobody to defend Carlos Boozer (an emerging superstar), the Williams-Davis matchup is a wash and their home-court advantage has been nullified because Utah can win anywhere (as it proved in Game 7 of the Houston series). As much as it kills me … Jazz in 5.

With that said, it’s interesting that either the Utah Jazz or the Warriors are going to be playing in the Western Conference finals.  And if they haven’t beaten the hell out of each other by then, you’d have to think that the winners of the Spurs/Suns series would have to be kind of worried.  They’re beating the hell out of each other already, so maybe the winner of the Utah/GS will get a break.

And here are my predictions, for what they’re worth.  I think it goes 7 with each team winning on their home courts.  They’re two of the roudiest places for visiting teams to play.  And of course I’m taking the Jazz, it’s a freaking Jazz blog, right?  The player that pushes the Jazz over the top is Carlos freakin’ Boozer.  He schooled Yao and anyone else the Rockets threw at him.  And GS has no one to stop him.  Every other matchup is pretty even.

T minus 60 minutes until game 1 tip off.  Check back for quarterly updates.