Preview - Utah Jazz @ New Orleans Hornets - 8 April 2008 - Super Tuesday
The US presidential race is long from decided. Heck, we’ll have an NBA champion before the Democrats ever decide what they’re going to do.
But the Western Conference playoff picture isn’t decided just quite yet either. We know most of the teams that are in the playoffs, but the seeding is about as stable as Memphis’ free-throw shooting.
There’s still only 3 1/2 games separating the top 6 teams in the West. New Orleans has the inside track at the #1 seed but after tonight play 4 of their last 5 on the road. So while they will probably hang on, anything can happen.
I wrote on my earlier post that never was that the Jazz might be content to stay where they’re at if they couldn’t move up to one of the top seeds. They don’t want to lose because they want home-court advantage, but they don’t to move up and have to play the Spurs or Lakers in the first and second rounds. The Jazz aren’t afraid of playing any team but they definitely match up better against the likes of NO, DEN, GS, and HOU. But if they’re to make the finals, they’ll probably have to go through LA or SA at some point.
Of course a Jazz win tonight would have to be one of the most satisfying of the year, and that includes the Spurs game a few days ago. The biggest reasons would be,
- We can win on the road. We’ve done a bit better of it recently, going 10-7 since the end of January. But we still have that brand of not being able to win on the road. I wouldn’t say we can’t win on the road but that we’re not very consistent. A win tonight would go to show that even if we can’t get home-court, we’re still a team to be reckoned with.
- We can secure the Northwest Division title. Believe it or not, it would be Utah’s only second back-to-back division titles, the first since 1997 and 1998. That’s another banner to hang in the rafters.
- Our chances of securing home-court in at least the first round would improve. Right now we’re a game back of Houston. If we end up seeing them in the first round, I’d much rather not have to go to another game seven on the road. A side note, are we going to even see any series in the WC go less than 6 games?
- And finally, a win would maybe, just maybe give us a little break from hearing about Chris Paul and the Hornets on every media outlet imaginable. No Jazz fan has ever said that Chris Paul isn’t a good player and that the Hornets aren’t having a good season. But criminey, John Madden talks less about Brett Favre when he’s announcing the Packers games. I would like to adapt a Seinfeld quote when he’s talking about McDonald’s and them telling us how many hamburgers they’ve sold,
“I would love to meet the president of ESPN…
Just to say to him: ‘Look, we all get it.
The Hornets have won a lot of games.
Whatever the hell the number is.
Just put up an image on all your broadcasts: New Orleans Hornets & Chris Paul, they’re doing very well!’
I don’t need to hear about them 24/7.
What is their ultimate goal? To have the rest of the NBA just surrendering voluntarily?
Showing up at the commissioner’s office: “We’d like to forfeit the season.
We see the sign… we realize we have very little chance out there.
We’d like to be a Bobble Head if that’s at all possible.”
If the Jazz do win, what are the odds that it’s the lead story on ESPN? Notta. If the Hornets win though, not only is it the lead story, but they have at least two “more-to-comes” during the broadcast and a special Top-Ten plays where we get to see all Hornets plays including a Paul alley-oop to Chandler for the 97th time this season and Chris Paul fighting off ninjas while serving soup to single-mother, homeless cats.
So let’s hope for the sake of Jazz fans’ mental health that they don’t start out slow and let’s have a repeat of the Spurs’ game.
Other blogs,
April 8th, 2008 at 4:21 pm
I’m so wearing my Jazz sweatshirt right now. And so far, everytime I’ve worn it they’ve won!! Let’s hope I don’t have to burn it after tonight.
April 8th, 2008 at 5:04 pm
[…] seed in the West, the Jazz on theirs to get home-court in the first round. You can find previews at Basketball John and at My Utah Jazz. See, I’d preview it too. But then I’d get off on some tangent on […]
April 8th, 2008 at 5:36 pm
Truer words were never written (or in this case, typed). After the 1st quarter, the Jazz aren’t looking too shabby.
April 8th, 2008 at 5:48 pm
Holy Cow!! They need to take a flipping chill pill. This game is out of hand.
April 8th, 2008 at 5:50 pm
too many turnovers…bad passes…
April 8th, 2008 at 6:02 pm
Halftime: CAUTIOUS OPTIMISM!!
April 8th, 2008 at 6:08 pm
OK, I’m gonna go ahead and plead with BBall John to post the in-game threads before the game starts. I need to talk to my Jazz people during the game!
April 8th, 2008 at 6:16 pm
I know!! We totally need to talk to each other about this crazy game! Did ya’ll see Deron’s dunk in the 1st after he got his in the eye?? Priceless.
Let’s hope they slow the 2nd half down a bit.
April 8th, 2008 at 6:31 pm
Welcome all. I told you, Memo is key.
April 8th, 2008 at 6:31 pm
Done.
April 8th, 2008 at 6:39 pm
Memo, AK, Harps, ALL CLUTCH.
April 8th, 2008 at 6:39 pm
Best D I’ve seen all year. 7 for their last 34? 18 point lead going into the fourth? Good golly.
April 8th, 2008 at 6:40 pm
end of 3. I have goosebumps
April 8th, 2008 at 6:44 pm
I hear boos at the Hive!
April 8th, 2008 at 6:57 pm
UM, WTF Matt Harpring?? They have a 20 point lead, and then Matt starts doing something, the momentum changes and now they’re going to have to fight to win. If the Jazz loose, I blame it solely on Matt.
April 8th, 2008 at 7:03 pm
S L O P P Y
April 8th, 2008 at 7:18 pm
A win is a win. We did the whole Western Conference a favor tonight. That’s 2 games in a row holding a really good opponent under 70 points. Defense = found
April 8th, 2008 at 7:31 pm
I can’t wait to see the re-caps on ESPN and Sports Center.
April 8th, 2008 at 7:48 pm
DON’T. LOSE. THAT. SWEATSHIRT.
April 8th, 2008 at 8:54 pm
this is interesting…
April 8th, 2008 at 9:15 pm
Very funny. I’ve heard it said before that “Offense wins games, but Defense wins Championships.” Poor Golden State is a perfect example of that. If the Jazz could have put 1/2 as much defensive effort into some of their lame losses back in December, they’d be way ahead of everyone else. But, they are definitely something to be feared right now. I’m gonna go out on a limb and say they go 5-1 during their last 6 games.
April 9th, 2008 at 1:36 am
I do find it amusing that the first highlight they showed for the game on Sportscenter was indeed a Paul-Chandler alley-oop. You totally called it. Granted, that game wasn’t exactly overloaded with highlights, but that is getting a bit old, especially since there’s rarely anything particularly interesting about those plays. Chandler is just standing there, Paul lobs it, Chandler hops slightly, and that’s it. He’s not exactly Jordan or Webb when it comes to dunking. They’re useful, I’ll admit, but not too pulse-pounding.