That’s why I shouldn’t, and don’t usually, predict point spreads or margins of victory.  I stated in my preview that either the Jazz were going to lose or we were going to blow them out.  I then stated at the half that we would win by 15.  I was a quarter right.  We won, but that was as good as my predictions go.

It was bound to be a closer game (I now have put on my hindsight glasses).  Bobby Jackson wasn’t going to be as bad as he was in game 1.  We were still playing a team that had won 22 in a row (10 without Yao).  And were still going up against one of the best defensive teams in the league.

I was right about another thing.  The Jazz do get better as the game goes on.  They made incredibly clutch shots (on the road mind you) down the stretch.  None bigger than the shot of the year from KK.  His turnaround jumper, with about 4 seconds left on the shot clock, went off the side of the backboard.  AK got the board and passed back out to KK who caught it and shot it with 1 hand with about .5 on the shot clock.  The swish with about :20 left finished off the Rockets and gave the Jazz a 2-0 series lead.

The defensive of the Jazz was hands down the biggest reason for the W.  Bobby Jackson did score 18, but it took 7-17 to do it.  The Jazz held the Rockets to another 41% shooting game.  Houston did themselves in again making only 16 of 26 free throws and only 4-19 from the arc.

And the best defense of the game came from AK in the second half.  He was assigned to guard McGrady for most of the 3rd and 4th quarters.  It paid off as T-Mac had only 1 point in the fourth quarter and was just 9-22 overall from the field.  He filled up the stat sheet with 9 assists and 13 rebounds.  But he disappeared when the Rockets needed him the most.  I won’t go over his shortcomings, I’ll let The Dream Shake express how Rockets fans feel (PG-13).

Okur was back last night getting 16 & 16.  It really didn’t seem like he was getting that many rebounds.  A very quiet 16.  Boozer, in foul trouble again, scored only two points in the first.  He came back in the second to score 11 and had some huge baskets to keep Houston at bay.  He had some great post moves and I don’t know why he hasn’t eaten Mutumbo up yet.  If he can light up Yao, Mutumbo should be a walk.

One of the most underrated players in this series has been Ronnie Price.  He filled in for Deron by hitting 2 threes in his eight minutes of relief.  One of those threes came at the end of the third when the Rockets had just gone up by one.  It sent the Jazz into the fourth on a positive note and gave them the lead.  He also had another steal with a great dunk on the other end by outracing Brooks for the flush.

Deron Williams had big shot after big shot.  And that was despite all the abuse he was taking without getting a call.  The biggest no call of course came when he was running out to challenge a three and Aaron Brooks absolutely leveled him with his shoulder.  It was a great screen except that Brooks moved at the last second to instigate contact with Deron.  That hit sent Deron onto his side and he had to go to the locker room for a bit.  It seems like Deron is the little Shaq of the league.  Shaq wouldn’t get a lot of calls when he would get hammered because he was bigger and stronger than everyone else.  Deron finished with 22 points and just 5 assists.  The Jazz as a team only had 19 assists total.  There was great D on Houston’s part as the Jazz weren’t really able to get into their offense.  They didn’t get many lay-ups or cuts to the basket.

And I’ll echo the sentiment by RRR.  The refs are plain awful.  I really can’t remember a year when the they’ve been this bad.  They missed calls, they made wrong calls, and this particular set seemed to think that the game was about them and that they’re in control.  Do you want to know how you’ve got bad refs?  When their antics resemble Enrico Pollazzo and not officials.  They’re out of position on calls and in Deron’s leveling, the ref was more worried about whether the shooter’s feet were behind the three-point line than what was going on in front of him.  And of course Rockets fans have a legitimate gripe when AK did some great acting to draw an offensive foul from Scola when Bobby Jackson had just made a game-tying three.  But there were other missed calls.  Scola and McGrady got to extend their arms all night to make room.  Price was called for a block when Jackson was spinning out of control.  Deron was called for a travel after receiving the ball in the air and coming down.  And Boozer was whacked on the head on one of his lay-ups.  Like RRR stated, can we can find competent refs amongst the population?  And whatever happened to Stern’s promise of more transparency for the refs?  There needs to be some accountability for these things.

The Jazz withstood the Rockets’ best (and the refs’ best) and now head home to the SLC to wrap things up.  Stranger things have happened but the Jazz should take care of business at home and move on.  The Lakers could as easily sweep the Nuggets so the Jazz probably won’t have time to rest.  And that’s probably a good thing.  They don’t seem to play well coming out of a long break.  So fans, relax a bit and get ready to rock the ESA on Thursday.

Other notes,

• Was anyone else waiting for Harp to miss the lay-up on his break-away?  Instead he shows that his knees have a little more mileage in them by throwing it down.
• McGrady quote, “Offense is really not an issue.”  Really?  41% from the field and 62% from the FT line isn’t an issue?  4-19 from three?
• Videos coming soon

Other blogs,

• Biased Fan
• FLA & Again
• My Utah Jazz
• Deadspin
• Ross Siler
• True Hoop
• Daily Dime

This time last year the Jazz dropped game 2 to Houston on the road and were heading back to the SLC to try to salvage the series.  This year things are a bit different.  The Jazz already have stolen home court and can effectively end Houston’s season tonight with a win.  I always hate saying that type of thing because it always comes back to haunt you should it not turn out.

As I said in game 1’s recap, I think Houston is done.  I think McGrady is already looking to next season when Yao and Alston are back.  He’s tired of the “can’t get out of the first round” player and wants to be able to say it wasn’t his fault.  And to a point it’s not really.  Nobody expected them to win this series with the injuries they’ve had.  But he still owes his fans a competitive series.

Look for the Jazz to do the same defensive scheme tonight.  As Ken, Scrum, and FLA stated, they’re going to keep playing T-Mac straight up and send help.  Someone else is going to have to beat the Jazz.  We’re going to have to see Scola or Bobby Jackson have a career night.  Battier was great in the first game, but unless McGrady has 50+, just having two scorers won’t be enough.

Have you ever seen Memo and AK both have good games on the same night?  I can’t remember the last time both of them had close to 20 in the same game.  They must share one pair of lucky socks.  Boozer and Williams will get their’s tonight.  We’ll need a good game from one of the sock mates and KK and Millsap to do their thing.

Either the Jazz blow them out in this one or the Rockets pick up a win.

Other blogs,

• My Utah Jazz
• The Dream Shake (gets straight to the point)
• David Thorpe

While I was watching the game today (the reason for the late recap), I realized that these last six games are pretty much a six-game playoff series for the Jazz. They’re going to be playing SA, DAL, HOU, DEN, and NO. I don’t think any other potential playoff teams in the West have the schedule against playoff teams that Utah does.

They’re well on their way to a series sweep (six games in this case) as they came out the victor of a pretty ugly game. Pretty if you’re the Jazz, ugly if you’re the Spurs. Have you ever checked the box score of a game you’ve missed, in any sport, found your team’s score first and cringed? If you were to come upon the 90 the Jazz scored, you would have almost immediately thought that they got blown out. Instead, they held the Spurs to a middle-school girl’s basketball-like score of 64.

What was really bizarre was that the Spurs were only down 9 to start the fourth. In the NBA, that’s nothing. But after a oop to AK from Deron, and a lay-up from Harpring (more on Harps lay-ups), the Spurs called timeout and we never saw the starting team again. That’s only 13 points with 11 1/2 minutes to go. In fact, we didn’t see Duncan the last 15 minutes of the game. Parker didn’t play the entire fourth either. And once the Spurs were down 20 with about 9 minutes to go, we didn’t see Ginobili. If they took that timeout when they went down 13 to slow momentum, shouldn’t we have seen a quick return of Parker and Duncan to see if they couldn’t get back into it? Instead, the Jazz scored 7 straight more points and the game was over.

I’m not complaining though. After an ugly, ugly first quarter, the Jazz turned it on and turned a 8-point deficit into a two point lead at the half. And from there they never looked back. The Jazz scored 68 points (we’ve scored more in a half) in the final three quarters to the Spurs’ measly 40. And they might not have have broken 60 for the game had Stoudemire not scored all of their 9, yes 9 points in the fourth quarter.

I wrote back in TWolves recap that we need the Memo we all know to be able to have any chance in the playoffs. He was on again tonight putting up 17 & 16 with 3-5 from downtown. And now he has no excuse about disappearing in the playoffs. Last year he stated it was hard to focus on his offense when he was trying to play good D. Well last night he held Duncan to 15 and frustrated him most of the night. Boozer also played well on Timmy, giving him all kinds of fits. And is there anything more pathetic than seeing Duncan flail with every shot attempt to try to draw a foul? Is that what his game is now? We saw a lot of pushing and even some words being exchanged. Boozer hardly speaks crap to anyone unless he’s he trying to coax a ball to go in the hoop after a foul so he can scream “And-1!” I like seeing him with a little attitude. You know, we really don’t have that bad-boy type on our team.

What kept the Jazz close in the first part of the game was three ball. That’s also one of the biggest reasons they were able to put the game away. They shot 10-19 for 53% (better than their overall percentage of just 41%). They all came from the usual suspects; Deron & Price had 2, Memo scored 3, with KK, Miles, and AK nailing one each. And recent games aside, the Jazz place a crazy 26th in the league in the number of attempted threes. They’ve hoisted only 1013 attempts while the Warriors have attempted almost twice that amount. But they are fifth in the league in 3-point shooting percentage. And yet they are still the league’s highest-rated offense.

Deron, despite the blowout, played 42 minutes and had 16 & 11. He should have had 14 assists if Harpring hadn’t blown three lay-ups and a put-back off one of those missed lay-ups. We should start calling him Mrs. Harpring because he misses (did you get that?) all those lay-ups. Booze was solid with 16 & 7. KK gave us 11 with his brothers in attendance. AK had 10 and played great D on Manu. The Manuflop only had 8 points.

So we got what we needed out of this six-game “series” with a win over the Spurs. That kind of confidence and mo is needed as we go into Tuesday’s game against the New Orleans Pauls. I have to say this game is probably amongst my most anticipated for the year; even more so than the Feb 4th game against the same team. I don’t think anything could bring me more joy this regular season than to have the Jazz walk into the Hive and shut the media up with a win. And while having Deron embarrass Paul again would be great, it would be the icing on the cake of a W. A loss at home against the Jazz and Williams would put a serious cramp in the CP3 MVP bandwagon. I don’t know when the voting ends, but I would think some might be holding their vote to see how this game plays out. But perhaps even more importantly, the Jazz would go to 2-0 on the trip and would have a good chance to to move up while other teams in the West cancel each other out.

We’re also just a win or GS loss from clinching a playoff spot. And the magic number for clinching the division is three.

It’s a great time to be a Jazz fan.

Other notes,

• No videos. I didn’t get home in time to record any.
• I still don’t want to see the Spurs in the playoffs.  That’s usually when they work their magic.  And by magic, I mean the little elves with whistles that make sure the Spurs get  the calls.
• Bolerism of the night: After Parker got the loose ball and had a breakaway basket, Boler states, “A little showtime from Parker” as he lays it up.
• Boonerism of the night: I think he was talking about Memo, I’m not sure. But he said basically that he was a better shooter from the three-point line than the two-point line? Where exactly is that two-point line?
• AK getting the bunny ears from his wife. That’s translates to all languages.
• Refs made some terrible calls once again, but it was a relatively foul-free night. I couldn’t imagine what the game would have been like with a ton of fouls.
• Spurs only had 5 offensive boards. Huge reason for the Jazz win.
• Manu doesn’t know how to play D unless he can flop (same as Collins). Here he puts his shoulder into Deron’s face but no call,
• They also only had 8 assists as a team. Parker had 17 but only four assists. No one else had more than 1.
• He’s cooled off a bit lately, but after the All-Star break, Duncan has been shooting close to 80% from the free-throw line. Crazy.
• Dumbest call of the night. After a loose ball, AK jumped on it and was on his hands and knees. Finley jumped on him, didn’t even touch the ball really, and they called a jump. And Sloan had been trying to call a timeout the entire time.
• Duncan’s turned into a hot-head. I think it would be really easy to get to him. And surprisingly we saw very little of Collins. And that wasn’t until Tim was out of the game.
• Can the Jazz be the most chameleon-like team in the league? They play to whatever level or style the other team is playing. Whether it’s running and gunning with the Warriors or playing in 90-64 defensive games, the Jazz just seem to blend in with the other team’s style.
• And I think Danielle might be on to something. I haven’ heard MVP chants at all for Deron before last night’s game. Maybe my stats don’t indicate just how many people are reading BBJ.
• And finally, for your latest Deron Dis, I give you ESPN’s the Daily Dime again. Marc Stein gives us his All-NBA teams, 1st through 3rd. And Deron is barely a footnote. We’re not going to debate Williams/Paul. But there’s no way Deron shouldn’t be second team. He should be above Nash and Manu. And third should be the lowest. And if you read the comments, the fans are ticked again. I’m sure most are Jazz/Illinois fans, but there are some from Spurs & Lakers fans as well. We’ll see if anything changes when he schools all of them in the playoffs.

Other blogs,

• FLA
• Ross Siler
• Biased Fan
• And I’ll get Danielle’s recap up in a bit.

Well now we all know that Deron Williams reads BBJ.  We saw the same angry Williams last night that we saw in late January and early February.

Deron was nearly perfect going 13-15 from the field for 32 points and causing problems for the Clippers all night.  Whether he was taking it to the basket, pulling up for the J, or dishing one of his ten assists, the Clips had no one to stop him.  He had one of the beset dunks of the year when after a steal, at half court, he drove the lane and threw down over Kaman.  I think only his dunk over Tyson Chandler was better.  And that was because it came after he made Paul look silly.  And with this double-double, Deron and Paul both have 46 DDs.  You won’t hear that comparison anywhere else.  But you have started to see Sloan not holding back praise for Williams,

Deron sees so much out there on the floor and knows the game so well as a young player. It’s very unusual,

This coming from the same Sloan that complains about defense and lack of effort when the Jazz blow out teams.

Deron didn’t do it all by himself though.  The other half of the LA-abusing duo was Carlos Boozer.  He had his way with the Clippers big men, shooting 16-22 for 36 points and picked up the rebound slack with Memo out, grabbing 17.  It was the same for Booze as it was for Deron.  He would either knock down the 16-19 foot jumper or drive right by his defender.

Maybe it was best that Memo (stomach virus), Brewer (ditto), and AK (left in second, calf spasms) were out for this one.  The rest of the team seemed a lot more focused and played within the offense.  They were getting lay-ups, dunks, and open shots. And Jaron Collins didn’t suck.  We also saw Hart play for 16.  And he didn’t suck either. And because they were playing in the offense, they were able to get back on D.  The Clips still shot 51%, but the Jazz forced 17 turnovers and out-rebounded LA, 41-29.

The Jazz did what they needed to do and took care of things at home.  There wasn’t going to be lapse with this one.  The lead got to 25 at one point and the closest the Clippers could get was 15.  Korver helped seal the deal with a couple of threes down the stretch and finished with 17.

And the night got even better after learning that NO got blown out by Boston.  The Celts really are becoming my second team to root for.  It’s too bad they don’t play any more WC teams.  And even bigger news is that Memphis went into LA last night and beat the Lakers, 114-111.  That was despite Kobe’s 53.

So as it stands now, the Jazz are two out of first, 1 1/2 behind Houston (our latest first-round matchup),  and a half game behind PHX.  We’ll get the chance to overtake Houston on April 14.  It will be the third and final game in the series this year.  The series is split 1-1, so whoever wins will have the tiebreaker advantage.  But you know how they show lead changes in a game?  I’d like to see the seed position changes for the last month of the season for the WC.

So tomorrow it’s a rare Sunday game; at Minnesota of course.  Then it’s return home for game against WSH, Minny (again), and the biggie next Friday against SA.  There’s a good chance to move up in seeding this week.

Great time  to be a Jazz fan.

Other blogs

• Clips Nation
• Biased Fan
• Ross Siler (more insight into President Monson talking to Sloan & Deron with a classic quote about it)

Other notes

• Sloan turned 66
• President Monson (LDS Church leader) was in attendance.  And according to ESPN, he stopped by the Jazz bench on his wait out from halftime and said a couple words to the team and Sloan.  Probably a Happy Birthday, go get ‘em kind of talk.

  

• The Clips have had a lot on injuries to say the least.  But it looks like they could get Brand back soon.  He was working out before the game.  Also, if you haven’t seen Livingston’s injury, check out this link (not for the squeamish).  It’s amazing that he can walk again after that.

  

• NBA Top Ten

• Amazing stat of the night goes to Corey Maggette going to the line 19 times.  He scored 16 of his 28 points from the line.  And take a look at his shot chart,

He had one made jumper.  The rest were layups and foul shots.

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

How embarrassing of a loss would that have been?  The Jazz had the game put away at the end of the third going up 92-72.  But with 6:15 left, the Bobcats had cut the lead to only three, 101-98.  Yikes.  But as quickly as the lead evaporated the Jazz were able to build it back up again.  AK missed the free throw on a Boozer-announced and-1.  A quick kick-out to Korver led to a three.  KK went on to hit a couple more, Deron added one, and a couple of steals led to dunks on the other end.  And just like that, the Jazz had the win.  (Do you you think Jazz fans like Korver?)

You didn’t ever get that feeling that they were going to lose the game.  The Bobcats couldn’t stop the Jazz except for the 14-0 run that got them back in it.

And the same thing that got them the original 21-point lead won it for them, defense.  AK had a couple steals, Brewer had one, and KK drew on offensive foul.  The Jazz held the Bobs to only 2 field goals over the final 5:33 and a couple of free throws.

Memo carried the Jazz in the first half with 17 points.  He finished the game with just 20 after that first half.  He also added 10 boards for the teams’s third DD.  It was good to see him back all the way from the flu or whatever he had.

In the second half, it was Boozer’s turn.  He had a great block earlier in the game to go along with his 28 points and 13 rebounds.  His last field goal of the game came on a dunk that I didn’t think he was going to get to the rim for.  But he kept rising and rising until he flushed it home with the left hand.

Deron had an off shooting night but still finished with 14 & 15.  AK and Brewer both had good nights and had 16 apiece.  And Harpring and KK both ended in double digit points with 18 & 10 respectively.

Jason Richardson, Earl Boykins, and Gerald Wallace were the biggest reasons for the Bobcats’ comeback.  Richardson and Wallace had 26 & 21 points.  And Boykins, he of the 32% FG percentage, had 14.  I’ve coveted Wallace for a long time as I imagine most teams do.  But he’s got a long contract for about $10M per.

So now it’s a couple nights off before LAC comes back to town.  We didn’t get any help tonight as DAL, SA, and NO all won.

Houston has an easy one tomorrow against Minny before going to SA and SAC.

SA has a couple of cupcakes this week against LAC and Minny.

PHX heads east for three before a home and home against Denver.

NO has a tough stretch coming up; @CLE, @BOS, @TOR, and @ORL.

LA has an easy schedule like the Jazz with CHA, MEM, WAS, and POR all coming to the Staples center.

So we’re not likely to gain ground on LA, but we could get one or two against those teams above us.

Other notes:

• Click on the bobcat if you don’t know what lolcats are.
• Another quiet T from Sloan.  Are they putting sedatives in his pre-game coffee?
• Collins squared
• Deron had his 45th Points/Assists DD.
• Why couldn’t Jordan have been the GM of the Bulls while he was playing with Chicago?  The tenth anniversary of the push off is coming up this year.
• A lot of missed calls in this one.  Here’s Harp with the ball in his hands with the shot clock at 0 and it still counted,
  
• Korver had a little stare down of his defender after nailing a three,
  

Other recaps:

• Ross Siler
• No one else has anything up yet

Not that anyone was surprised that the Jazz dropped the last game of the roady to NJ, but didn’t you think that down the stretch they might pull it off? I couldn’t comment earlier as I was on the road and sans any net connection. And while I never really put the blame on any one player, doesn’t AK’s play in the final minutes have to account for the loss? Here’s the basic sequence of events,

• 1:10 - The Jazz are up 115-113. AK jacks up a three with about 10 seconds left on the shot clock. Miss.
• 1:05 - AK’s defense on Jefferson driving in the lane is to stand with both arms straight up, and then make a last second hack for the foul. When has AK ever played D like that?
• :48-:17 - KK misses two threes.
• :15 - It’s Jefferson and AK 1-on-1. AK is guarding Jefferson about 3 feet behind the three-point line. And inexplicably, AK lunges for the steal, almost 30 feet away! Then Jefferson drives and makes the running layup.
• :01 - Last chance for the Jazz. On the in-bound, you have three options, Okur running to his right along three-point line, Boozer down low, Deron popping out, or a timeout. And of course the choice is Okur while he’s running out of bounds and has to turn against his body to get the shot off.

If I didn’t know better, I could have sworn AK was trying to throw the game. Other reactions:

• Frank Layden admirers
• Biased Fan
• My Utah Jazz

So on to tonight where we have a gimme. This one is at home v. the Raptors. The Raptors are going to be without Chris Bosh (who does not look like a velociraptor at all!) most likely. Hopefully this one will be over by the fourth so that the boys can rest up for LA on Thursday. The Jazz then have another 3 games at home against cellar dwellers. So this could be the week where the Jazz move up a bit.

• My Utah Jazz’s interview with Hoops Addict
• And Hoops Addict’s interview with MUJ
• Biased Fan

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.

One thing’s for sure. Sloan doesn’t change for anyone or any thing. Little known fact, the 1 foot radius around Sloan is still on MST when everyone else switches to MDT. You could argue that he’s changed the offense because of the whole AK saga last year, but isn’t it really more Deron changing and getting AK involved? The offense hasn’t changed that I can see. It’s usually the C or double-C that gets called for the most part. This Jazz team is one of the most high-scoring in team history, but it’s still the same offense. We just have better finishers now than teams in the past.

So we’ll keep seeing Deron get pulled with 2-3 minutes left in the first. We’ll see Booze sit from about 10:00 in the second to about 5:00. It kills me because it doesn’t matter if they’re in a groove, they’ll get their breather regardless. Last night, Boozer was again killing the Warriors when he got sat. And Williams was carving them up. With the backups in, GS was able to keep it close instead of the Jazz being able to put it away earlier.

And yes, I complain even when we win. Isn’t that the mantra of Sloan and his coaches though? Sure we won 119-109, but we sucked tonight according to Jerry. And everyone asks why Sloan keeps his starters in with a huge lead late in the fourth. Most times it’s indefensible, but Sloan had a big “I told you so. My way is the right way” night when the bench let a double-digit lead dwindle to 8 with about 56 seconds in the game. It took just a little over a minute for the GS scrubs to almost caused Sloan to put back in his starters.

But the game was never really close after the half. They took a 13-point lead, 77-64 into the half. It was never single digits until the last minute of the fourth. Ellis, Davis, and Harrington came out hot and scored at will as both teams shot +60% in the first quarter. But unlike the Warriors, the Jazz actually play D and held GS to 45 points in the second half. The Jazz only scored 42 themselves, but their 41 point second quarter was enough.

Deron was in All-Star snub form with 29 points and 11 assists. AK had 18. Boozer had 16 & 12 and Memo 16 & 10. Korver was hot in the first half, but didn’t hit jack in the second. Hart, Miles, and Collins finished out the game and we saw what happened there.

The Jazz showed again that they own the Warriors. And we may not even see them in the playoffs as they currently would be out with Houston’s win. We could realistically see 2 games separate 1-9 in the west. How nuts would that be? And is the WCF champ going to have anything in the tank to take on the East champ? Do you want to play any of these teams? If the Jazz come out of the west, they’re going to have three series that will be brutal. And who is Boston or Detroit going to have to play?

This could be one of the best regular season finishes we’ve seen.

Other Blogs

• GSOM
• Biased Fan
• My Utah Jazz

I was spent after live-blogging the Bulls game.  I couldn’t come up with anything interesting to say about the game.  They let the Bulls hang around too long, but nothing the Bulls did made me think that they had something to pull it out.  Boozer was back to form, Deron was Deron, and we won.  Have there been any more uninteresting games?  We lost to the Kings, we played the Bulls without any of their big three, and we play the Sonics after a three-day break.  For some reason none of them have mattered to me because things don’t get serious it seems until after the All-star break now.  This Sonics game coming up to me is like my last period of high school before summer break.  You just want to get it out of the way.

The only thing that interested me in the Bulls game was the play of Ronnie Price.  He struggled early this season, but he never really got a chance to run the offense in a game.  According to Sloan, he hustles and plays well in practice.  But Jerry had gone with Hart a while ago.  So now that Price has had the opportunity to show what he can do, he’s grabbed the #2 job right out of Hart’s hands.  Even Hart said he hasn’t played well and at Price deserves it.  Let’s hope to see Price on the floor in Seattle.

Anyway, I had to get something up and not take my own mid-season vacation like the NBA does.  Did the rest of the Jazz players though ask Deron and Boozer if it was okay to make vacation plans this early?

Why do reporters make stuff up?  There’s no way in Hades that the Jazz trade AK for Wallace.  Big Ben and his contract are a millstone around the neck of the Bulls.  He’s seven years older than AK.  He is having a career-low in blocks.  He would be one of the worst players to play for Sloan.  How long before he would be in the doghouse?  Then we’d have all that money sitting on the bench.  Besides the fact that AK can actually, you know, play offense.  The list goes on and on.  The Jazz would only have one thing to gain and that’s one less year on his contract.  I don’t think even Isiah would do this one if he were Jazz GM.  I can’t believe people get paid for writing this type of thing.  And remember, I don’t get paid ;).  Luhmy has a pretty good response to this.  But would we even have a spot for Hinrich?  It drives me crazy to see stuff like this.  Was this guy paid by the Bulls to float this? 

And my last rambling of the day is about the traitors Pace Mannion and Thurl Bailey.  Before the Bulls game, the pre-game had an interview with Byron Russell on Jordan’s shot in the 1998 Finals.  First of all, great way to bring back pain to the Jazz fans 10 years later.  My wife told me to turn it off until they stopped showing Jordan’s shot.  The interviewer asked Russ if he thought it should have been called a push-off on Jordan.  He didn’t mix any words and basically said, “Hell yes!” 

So they kick it back to the KJZZ booth where DJ asks Pace and Thurl if a call should have been made.  And both of them said no.  “It’s not popular to say” said Thurl, but it was right.  But they make no other statements as to why there shouldn’t have been a call except that they should just let them play when the game is on the line.  BS.  He got the call because his name is MJ.  And former ref Mike Mathis agrees,

Remember when Jordan hit that winning shot? I’m going to give you exactly what the commentators said: ‘What a great move by Michael.’ Was that a great move or was that an offensive foul? There was no question it was a push-off. No buts about it. The only buts you can have is, ‘Well, it was Michael Jordan.’ That was a defining moment.

Here’s something else that I’ve never thought about the foul.  A lot of people will say that Russell’s momentum carried him and he would have been out of position anyway.  That may be true (it’s arguable).  But I think the biggest advantage for Jordan was that he was able to stop himself and his own momentum by pushing off on Russ.  It put him in a rhythm that he otherwise may not have had.  Either way you look at it, Russ and the Jazz got hosed.  And saying contrary (unless you’re a Bulls fan of course) is traitorous.

And finally, some links to tide you over until tomorrow’s game.

• Getting his hopes up
• The best PF of all-time? - Duncan gets the nod of course.  What were his numbers against the Mailman though?  It seems like when he went up against the best, he didn’t have his best games.  Of course, Malone usually played Robinson.
• The coccyx is still out - I don’t think we see Ronnie play in Seattle either.  No reason to irritate it when we’ve had CJ and Price playing well.
• The KK effect
• KK on your mind
• Carlos moving up a bit in the MVP blogger vote - I would have Deron above Carlos right now.
• Pistol gives is HORSE - Best shot for HORSE?  The left-handed layup.  Nobody can do it.
• Jazz players tradeability - I agree with most of these.  Pretty good write-up.
• I’m all in
• “I’ve loved my Salt Lake experience” - Music to Jazz fan’s ears.
• The media love-fest continues - Paul goes 1-10 from the floor and still gets a write-up in the Daily Dime.