Could it happen again? Could the Jazz reach the Western Conference finals two years in a row? Well, if they can avoid San Antonio in the first round, it could happen.

Despite their fall from first with Wednesday’s loss to the Bobcats, the Lakers have essentially 9 of their last 10 games at home. I say essentially because one of the "away" games is against the Clippers. So I would wager that they’ll get the #1 seed.

And despite what Hollinger’s playoff odds show, I think Golden State hangs on to the number 8 seed. They still have two games left against Denver and could finish off the Nuggets’ playoff chances.

This possibility should make every Jazz fan giddy. Why? Because if these scenarios play out, which has a good chance of happening, we would be in the same position as last year.

Barring a 10-0 finish to the season (the last six games of the season make this not likely); the Jazz will end up as the fourth seed. That means a first round matchup against New Orleans (please, pretty please?), San Antonio, or Houston. But they might not have home-court advantage. Sound familiar? That’s the same setup as last year.

We could also see a repeat of last year’s eight seed beating the first seed in the playoffs. And the spoilers in the series would be none other than the Golden State Warriors. They’ve split the season series with the Lakers with each team having gone 1-1 on their home courts. And only one of those wins (LA) had a double-digit margin of victory. The Warriors could pull off another stunning upset.

And should the Jazz make it out of the first round, they could be punching their ticket to another WCF. The Jazz have won 7 of 8 from the Warriors going back to last year’s playoffs. Facing Golden State in the second round is their dream matchup. The Jazz would want to play the Warriors as much as they don’t want to play the Spurs.

And with the bad karma from the Fisher booing earlier this year being evened out with the Lakers ending the 19-game home winning streak, maybe the Jazz can get a little help from the basketball gods again this year.

If you’re an NBA fan, why aren’t you doing anything? One of the biggest travesties in the history of the NBA is going on right underneath our noses and no one seems to care. The Seattle Supersonics are being stolen from their city and fans and everyone seems resigned to the fact that they’re moving to the OKC. How can this happen to a team that has been in Seattle for 41 years, that has won an NBA championship, and that has produced stars such as Lenny Wilkens, Gary Payton, Shawn Kemp, and Ray Allen? We’re holding congressional hearings for steroid use and nothing is being done about this?

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A preview of tonight King’s game coming in a bit. Here’s my latest on HoopsVibe:

In this week’s weekly conversation with Larry H Miller, local sports jockey David Locke was talking to the Jazz owner about the trade that landed Shaq in Phoenix. As you may know, there was a lot of talk before the beginning of the season to swap Andrei Kirilenko for Shawn Marion.

Miller revealed that Steve Kerr offered the same players, Marcus Banks and Marion for Kirilenko. Miller’s reason for the Jazz declining the trade surprised me a bit. Obviously, having to take on Banks and his twenty million didn’t make sense for a team that already had three point guards.

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Here’s my latest on HoopsVibe:

What a difference a New Year’s makes. After beating the Trailblazers on December 31^st, the Jazz decided to loosen up a bit and start winning again.

There are a lot of things that have changed since then. First, it seems as though Memo is finally healthy. Second, we were able to steal Korver from the Sixers. The Jazz have gone 10-2 since that trade. But today I’d like to sing the praises of Andrei Kirilenko.

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My latest column is up on HoopsVibe.  I’ll try to get an rss feed for my articles to put up here.  But in the meantime, I’ll put up a post about it.  It’s only my second one there as I couldn’t get much done over the holidays.  But there will probably be a weekly column there. 

And if you’re familiar with Jazzfanz, sirkickyass also write there now.  Although now he takes on the name “Captain Jack’s Headband.”  Whatever that is.