Technology is great except when it doesn’t work.  Or if the user doesn’t work.  Just like when you have a poor golf game, it’s always the clubs, right?  That happened over the weekend as I was out of town and set the DVR to record the Jazz/Lakers game.  Turns out all I got was three hours of sitcom repeats of a Mr. Frasier Crane.  Anyway, I “watched” the game on the phone but could never listen/watch the game.  So anything that I could add outside of what you’ve already seen is null.  But I’ll give some ideas on where things are going, some links, and some other big news.

• New Orleans has just gone up 2-0 on the Spurs.  It’s far from over, but don’t the Jazz have to be using that as some incentive for beating the Lakers?  NO is playing crazy right now and you would think most teams would not want to play them.  Except that the NBA is all about match-ups and we all know how the Jazz play against the Hornets.  If I’m a Jazz player, I’m thinking, “Wow, we have a chance to play the Hornets in the WCF?  We could actually make the Finals if that’s the case.”  Suddenly I’m concentrating a little more, hustling a little more, sending Kobe to the floor.
• How many losses this year have been just because of one bad quarter?  And in particular the second quarter seems to have been the worst.  We’re either leading or within a point or two after 1.  Then it goes in the crapper.  It’s got to be the rotation, doesn’t it?  We usually have Price-Korver-Harpring-Millsap-Okur on the floor.  They’re not terrible on the floor, but when you have Price-Brewer-Harpring-Millsap-Boozer, they’re -10.  Look at this lineup, Williams-Korver-Harpring-Millsap-Boozer.  They’re -26 together.  The common player here?  Harp.  Even Hart has a better +/- than Harp.  Harp gets a lot of credit for toughness and he’s decent on the offensive end, but his lack of D is what kills us.  You know who doesn’t suck to have in there?  CJ Miles.  Harp’s got two years left.  So he’s not going anywhere at least for next year.
• With only one game tonight (5/6), how come the Jazz and Lakers aren’t playing?  This scheduling is confusing.  I know it’s all about what nights make the most profits for the league, but why do we have to wait three weeks for a series to be decided?
• Other than the Kobe factor, tell me how a Utah/NO WCF doesn’t make for one of the most intriguing series in the entire NBA.  The old NO team v. the new.  Williams/Paul.  Has there ever been a more compelling PG match-up in the playoffs of the last decade?  Tell me that wouldn’t be a knock-down, drag-out, seven-game series.
• Now that the Jazz have their bearings about them, we’ll see a better game against LA tomorrow.  I’m repeating my same plea to Boozer as I did in game 6 against Houston.  We need you Booze.  Come on.

Other links

• If you do not set this as your desktop wallpaper right now, you are not a Jazz fan.
• You’re getting your American Idol fix Friday whether you want it or not.
• Hornacek compares duos
• In case you haven’t heard David Locke’s outburst on a Lakers fan.  Classic stuff
• Biased has a game 1 recap and MUJ has a love affair with Kobe
• CB Jack from MUJ is going to be on ESPN 710 with Mason.  I emailed Lee from The Dream Shake and he stated that the ESPN guys filling in for Mason that day trash talked us afterwards for being too civil.  When I wrote that they were hoping for a Springer-type of conversation, I was joking.  He’s on at 3:15.
• This is how you take the blame as a leader, whether deserved or not
• Wouldn’t it be great if Fisher got cheers this time instead of boos?  That would take care of any bad Karma.

And finally, a big announcement coming tomorrow.  I’ve kind of been in limbo for while with things and now I’ll be able have a bit of direction.  So stay tuned.

Put your best guesses in the comments.

  T-Mac is rubbing off on me.  Just when I should be writing 2-3 times a day and stepping it up in the playoffs, I disappear.  Let’s just say real life was playing me too physical.    I don’t have any tapes I can send in to the league unfortunately.

So let’s get going again with a few playoff notes as the Jazz try to wrap things up tonight in Houston.  It’s hard to bring something new to the discussion when you haven’t written for a bit, but here it goes.

• First of all, thanks to everyone that wrote me on the blogging awards.  I wasn’t able to pull off the upset, but it was good to see My Utah Jazz get second in the NW division.
• And thanks to those that signed the Save [Y]our Sonics petition.  We were able to get over 200 sigs in just a day.  So for the time given and the niche that I have, I think that was pretty good.  I forward it to LHM’s assistant but never got a response.  Unfortunately he voted for the move.  But it looks like the Sonics owners are digging themselves pretty deep with the recent emails that have come out.  So there’s still a little hope.
• Is anyone surprised about T-Mac’s crying about physical play?  He was crying about it last year too.  And Adelman’s joined in this year.  I guess it doesn’t matter which coach they have.  He’s got to put the blame on something (someone) other than himself.  Is his complaining coming from the fact that he can’t hit a free throw?
• Is this series uglier than last year’s?  The Jazz broke 100 once last year and that was the game 7 win.  It’s not just the low scoring.  No one can make free throws.  There seems to be a ton more turnovers.  They’re just ugly, ugly games to watch.  They hearken back to the Knicks/Heat series back in the ’90s when the final scores were 58-54.
• Is it McCryBaby?  T-Mock?  He really doesn’t know how to pronounce Deron’s name?  I have to admit, it was hard for me to pronounce it “darrin” at first.  Even the Trib’s search has problems with Deron’s name.  But the guy’s been in the league three years.  You played them last year in the playoffs!  And has his coach never said in practice, “Watch out for Deron Williams?”  Maybe that’s the problem.  He’s not listening in practice.  He’s had to have spoken his name some other time.  Anyone find a clip?  A nice anagram for Tracy McGrady is “drag my cry act” as in, “I’m going to drag my cry act to every news conference.”

  Thanks Tracy for pissing off Deron Williams.  He said it didn’t bother him.  Right.  Just like being snubbed for the All-Star team didn’t bother him.  Here’s hoping for 30 & 17 tonight.

• One of Malone’s sons was just drafted into the NFL.  I don’t doubt the kid’s story about being shunned by Malone, but I would like to hear a comment from Karl on this.
• The Jazz finally get a “There’s only one” NBA split-screen video.  We need one now with David Stern and Clay Bennett.
• Always a bridesmaid.  He should have won in 97 and 98.  And if they’re going based on turnaround this year, then he should have won in 04 when the Jazz finished 42-40 when they were expected to compete for the worst record of all time.  Seriously, have you seen their roster?  Tell me how that team wins that many games.  Like most others have stated, it appears that you have to have had a crappy team and then turn them around.  That’s why the COY award will be renamed the Jerry Sloan COY award and he will never have had actually won it.

I’ve been so busy writing playoffs previews for other sites that I haven’t made time to get one done for BBJ.  A full preview should be coming tonight.  In the meantime, here are a links to a couple of the things I’ve done for other sites and other Jazz playoff items.

• Your WhatifSports.com champions, the Utah Jazz.  They predicted the every result of the NCAA tournament from the sweet-16 on.  Here are their brackets.  I still don’t know how to deal with being a favorite.
• Hollinger is on board with the Jazz.  His number showing the Jazz going to the finals and losing to the Celtics.  He did predict that Denver would sneak into the playoffs ahead of GS when Denver was a couple games out.
• Balls Don’t Lie features Korver front and center
• Kenny Smith loves the Jazz in the first round
• Here’s my head-to-head preview with The Dream Shake on Balls Don’t Lie
• Bucher is an idiot.  It’s kind of blown out of proportion.  But it was still a moronic comment.
• I have another article for HoopsVibe coming up.  I’ll post the link once I get it.

You likely won’t see this in any of Paul-loving MSM sports outlets so I’ll post this here. One of the local radio guys, Locke I think, stated that Deron Williams is one of the only three players, not just PGs, to score 1500+ points, hand out more than 800 assists, and shoot 50%+ from the field in a season. The other two? Magic Johnson and Kevin Johnson. Paul comes up short shooting just 48%.

Also, here are some snippets from Hollinger’s chat today (insider). I really don’t know how to respond being considered the favorite:

Dustin (Logan, UT): Talk around here is that the Jazz now control their own destiny to the 3 seed if they beat Houston and San Antonio. That would likely cause a 4 way tie between Utah, Houston, San Antonio and Phoenix. How would all the tiebreakers work? It is assumed Utah would be 3 because they win in any tiebreaker scenerio…

John Hollinger: (4:08 PM ET ) Utah would be the 3 if they win out. If all four teams tie with 55 wins, Phoenix is 4, Houston is 5, and San Antonio is 6.

The third seed and home-court against the Spurs? I still don’t know if I like that. It would move us from the Lakers bracket though.

Tim (Toledo): Utah on the road against the Lakers in round 2 is death, right?

John Hollinger: (4:13 PM ET ) No, it’s just the conference finals a round too early. I’m really hoping Utah moves up to No.3 — that way we get Deron vs. Paul in round 2, and then (if power rankings hold) Jazz-Lakers in the conference finals.

Man, that would be some good playoffs (intentional bad grammar).

From an unbelieving LA fan,

James (LA): Hey Mr. Hollinger, your playoff predictor has the Jazz the team in the Western Conference with the best chance to go to the finals and become champs? Can you explain that?

John Hollinger: (4:16 PM ET ) Cliffs Notes version: The playoff odds are built off the power rankings, and Utah has the West’s top power ranking, so they’re seen as the team with the best chance of making it out.

Another LA fan,

JOSH, LA: can you explain your reasoning how you think the #1 seed is tougher than the #2 seed to the WCF? houston or utah is way easier than phoenix, san antonio in the 2nd round. right? what am i missing?

John Hollinger: (4:52 PM ET ) You really, really want to avoid Utah. So if they’re at No. 4, you’d rather be in the other bracket.

All this positive Jazz talk from Hollinger is making me woozy. So let’s get on to some links,

• CP3’s MVP chances done?
• Is Chris a poor defender?
• Paul’s afraid of Nash?
• The new Deron Williams PE – Pick up a pair for me if you’re in Harlem.
• Kind of a lame list, but AK is there. – No Big Ticket?
• The Carmello mugshot from his DUI arrest
• Will Sloan get COY with the sentimental pick? There’s really no clear-cut winner this year. You might have argued for Scott, but NO’s recent slide might affect that a bit.
• Classic Malone Hardees commercial (just the first one)
• Memo’s site has a new look

I have another post ready to go but it’s going up on HoopsVibe.  So I’m just waiting for them to post it so I can link to it.  If it’s not up this morning, I’ll just post it here and fix it later.  And I’ll get a game thread up today.  I usually have recaps, but for those that want to post during the game, I’ll have something.  On to the links…

• This worries me. While the Jazz should win their next four, we all know how they play against lesser teams.  And with a slow week…
• I know home losses hurt, but they’re going to happen.  I don’t think we have to worry about it.
• The Jazz feel real good.
• Boozer, the best of Duke ‘01. I would think he’s probably pretty happy with his decision.
• The Jazz have some hidden talents. - Finally, someone went through all the “get to know them” bios on the Jazz website.
• Boozer gets called out.  Now if he only read these things.
• Deron is now #5?
• How’s Dee doing?
• Can we send this statement to Deron? I need him to get pissed again.  You’ll know it when you see it.  UPDATE:  I’m now praying for a Utah/NO first round series.
• A fans insight from the Lakers game
• “Look, if you want to make a ton of money,”
• Simmons’ take on how the west will be won.
• First time I’ve linked to Jazzbots in a while.  Here’s some good stuff on the Jazz trainer though.
• Crazy statement on why the Jazz haven’t played overseas in the pre-season, “The NBA did head to Moscow in 2006, but opted to send the Los Angeles Clippers, with the Jazz believing they were slighted in favor of a higher-profile team.”
  They know that AK is a national hero there and that almost every Russian is a Jazz fan, right?   Same thing for Memo in Turkey.
• Something no parent should have to go through.
• Amen
• A lucky fam gets free tickets to Leapin’ Leaners

I’ve been eagerly looking online for some kind of police reports as a result of Saturday’s party, but no luck.  Haven’t even been able to find some pics yet.  So if anyone knows of any or would like to have some published, let me know.

What would Sloan’s reaction have been had the Jazz not pulled out the win against the Sonics knowing that the majority of the team was heading to Deron’s party with Lil’ Jon?  Would there have been reports of a John Deere on a rampage in downtown SLC?  Would CJ even be alive today?  We’ll never know.

Here are the standings from today,

So as it stands now, we’re likely to play Houston or SA in the first round.  And of course, we won’t have home-court again unless we move up soon.  Nightmares.  Of course a lot could change over the next week when we should win the next five games.  But you have to go 10-0 it seems like just to pick up a game on everyone.

Anyway, on to some links on this off day.

• 8>3>13
• Playoffs?  We’re talking about playoffs?
• No link, but did anyone watch the Drake game in the NCAA tourney?  The announcers kept calling Klayton Korver the entire game.
• I’m usually not a big fan of Monson, but his article on Lance Allred is good.
• Memo didn’t make it to the Lil’ Jon party.
• Would Sloan be able to turn the Knicks around? There have rumors that Jerry West is interested in reprising his GM role there.
• 8>3 - Thanks to Scrum for the link
• Sloan needs to win it one of these years, but Scott is likely to win it.
• More drunken Jazz fan fun.  Can I have his season tickets?
• Cue Luhmy article in 3…2…1…

First off, I haven’t had a TBLIATWIATNBAIATU in a while because of the aforementioned real life, I didn’t want to try to play catch-up on old stuff, and because there hasn’t been too many interesting things.

So maybe this one will make up for it. Ladies (Danielle is the only lady I know of though that reads BBJ) and gentlemen, put your hands together for Lil’ Jon. That’s right, Lil’ Jon is coming to the SLC. First, shouldn’t it be Litl’ Jon?

What does this have to do with the Jazz? Well, Deron’s hosting a birthday party for CJ and Brewer. Lil’ Ron is already 21 but it looks like Lil’ Mil is turning 21 on the 18th. So he’ll legally be able to drink. So get your tickets now for Saturday, March 22. I’d love to go and get some pics. Danielle, I’d sponsor a trip for you if we got a full report. But who knows what might happen? If you go, make sure you’re up on your fort building skills and have your aliases ready. And we all know about Jazz parties. I hope they’re flying Dee in for the weekend.

So on to tonight’s game against the Cs. Boston is riding a 10 game winning wave. And percentage-wise, the Garden is just as tough for visitors to win at as it is for them to win at the ESA. And as everyone knows, the last loss at the ESA for the Jazz came at the hands of these same Celts.

So now it’s time for a little payback. Forget revenge though. That would be the icing on CJ’s cake next week. The Jazz need this win in the worst way. We need home-court in at least the first round and it doesn’t matter if the win comes against the Cs or the Riverton Jr. Jazz (if it counted). Any more losses would do some pretty sever damage to our hopes of overtaking one of the teams ahead of us.

Problem is that we’ve come off two poor games against the BucknBulls. Sure, we won at Milwaukee, but unless they play like they did in the first quarter for four quarters tonight, we might not have a chance.

Deron should dominate against Rondo and Sam I Am. But will Booze, Millsap, and Okur be able to contain KG, Big Baby, and others? That’s the key.

My prediction is that we’re blown out or win by ten. It’s all or nothing for this game.

Other Blogs:

• My Utah Jazz - And their talk with Green Bandwagon
• Ross Siler
• Green Bandwagon
• Celtic’s Pride

UPDATE: Welcome TrueHoopers. Sorry for the downtime. Please resume your regulary scheduled reading.

UPDATE2: Dirk’s been suspended for 1 game for his “accidental” takedown of Kirilenko.

Aahhh, the NBA. One of the greatest PR machines of our time. Here’s the classic positive-spin description of their picture of the night,

Dirk Nowitzki accidental[l]y crashes into Andrei Kirilenko on Monday.

They must not have attended any driver safety courses lately because they’re now called collisions. There are no accidents. And why was it called a flagrant one if it was an accident? I should find the Malice in the Palace photo. It would read,

Ron Artest and a fan have a disagreement concerning Artest’s beverage preferences.

I thought maybe I was looking too much into this whole thing, but after reading about Dirk’s “accident” with Fisher the night before, and after watching the video 100 times, here’s my problem with it being an accident. A hard foul is one thing. Even grabbing around the neck and head might be an accident. But when Dirk continues his downward motion of his arm to throw AK to the ground, it’s not an accident.

But both Deron and the Jazz got some love on the NBA daily roundup. Maybe it’s because they were part of only three games that night and one of the other games was NOLA/NYK and the other involved the Clippers.

Deron’s 14 assists in the first half was one off the team record by Raul Lopez. Kidding. He finished with 20. If he has another couple games with 14+, he could get a player of the week award.

Speaking of great point guards, do you realize that Stockton is eligible for HOF enshrinement next year? We’ll find out in a month whether or not Adrian Dantley finally gets the call.

Other Dirk/AK fallout:

• Utah hates Dirk
• Another vantage point showing Dirk around AK’s neck

Other links:

• More Utah/Dallas recap
• Williams/Paul
• Don’t you wish your girl was flexible like me?
• Any move on the Jazz trade front this summer? (end of article)
• Giricek is back in the West.
• Kyle Korver hitting the mainstream on Digg

Well, it’s 1 p.m. MST and no trades announced for the Jazz. I’m more relieved than anything, not because the core is left in tact, but because we can finally stop hearing ridiculous trade suggestions and made up ones.

So you’ll get some links as we wait for possible Bulls/Cavs trade and see if Artest ends up anywhere.

• Here’s Simmons latest offering for the Jazz. Ugh.
• Please don’t click on any of these links unless you have tons of spare time. It will kill productivity. Most probably already know about this site, but there might be a few that don’t know. If you’re into stats or want to do player comparisons, check out basketball-reference.com. Here’s the main Jazz page and the 2008 page. They have player comparisons, head-to-head matchups, and other cool stuff. This link compares Boozer and Malone, Williams and Stockton in their respective years in the league. Williams and Paul in head-to-head matchups. Duncan usually played better than Malone while Karl had a slight edge over Robinson. Too much time wasted already.
• Jazz get some blog love
• One blog talks about ESPN’s roundtable. Here’s the original article. It scares me when Hollinger likes the Jazz.
• Someone stole my stability article. Not really. But he talks about the Jazz and stability. I’m the first one to ever write about that, right?
• Thanks Luhmy!
• Layden breaks down the matchups.

And finally, if you’ve read this far, it means you got past the basketball-reference link. Also, I’ve got an email interview coming up with Jonathan Rhinehart of the Jazz. He’s the Public Relations and Communications head man for the Jazz. You can see him sitting at the end of the court-level press table during games. He had a blog last year where he would give some insights into the Jazz life. He’s probably been a bit too busy because he hasn’t been able to keeps it up.

But if you have any questions you’d like to have him answer, leave it in the comments. I have a list already to go, but thought I’d send a few more his way.

And since I’ve started getting a few more comments, I’ve added a plugin that will allow you to reply to specific comments.  So try it out.

Some quickie links for the night:

• Thanks to Scrumtrulescent for this link.  Booner absolutely dominates in HORSE.  He could probably take most players.
• Booz will be flashing some gold kicks at the AS game
• Don’t expect any more Jazz trades
• Even NO’s assistant coach agrees, 8>3
• Jazz own the Hornets
• Simmons likes the Korver trade