It’s Deron.  Mr. Williams if you’re nasty.

There are a lot of great players in the NBA.  A lot of players can put the ball in the basket and got make flashy passes.  But the playoffs seem to separate the elite players from the great.  They separate themselves by doing seemingly whatever it takes to win.  And they’re evaluating several scenarios in a split second and most of the time choose the right one.  And it’s in the playoffs where the stars and faces of the NBA are born.

Despite last year’s deep run in the playoffs,  Deron Williams took a back seat to Chris Paul this year.  That’s another thing about thing about the playoffs.  No one cares what you did last year.  It’s all about who’s making their name this year.

DWill is on his way again to putting his name back in the national light as he lit up the depleted Rockets to help the Jazz win the series from Houston.  Deron made a halftime adjustment that won the game for the Jazz.  In the first half he primarily a distributor setting up other Jazz men.  But after Alston went out with a severe sprain, Williams smelt blood and took over the game.

After the Jazz squandered a 19-point first half lead, Deron nailed a three pointer to end the second quarter to push the lead back to four.  And it was more of the same in the second half.  With Alston out, neither Bobby Jackson nor Aaron Brooks could stop #8.  Deron had four three point shots in the third quarter that led Utah’s 19-5 run that put the game away.  His now patented step-back three point shot was indefensible.  He finished with 25 points, 9 assists, and 6 rebounds to pace the Jazz offense which finally got back on track.

The offense had 7 players with double digits again.  Boozer was solid to start with and gave us 15.  Okur had a great game with 19 & 13.  Brewer chipped in 13 while Kirilenko scored 11.  And Korver and Harp came off the bench to add 10 apiece.  After going 2-29?  in the last two game from the arc, the Jazz nailed 10-22 this time around.  And each of them seemed to be huge.  I guess you could ask are there any threes that aren’t huge?  Yes.  McGrady had a couple of pad-statting threes at the end of the game that didn’t mean a thing.

In fact, most of his 40 points were meaningless.  That’s because he didn’t have anyone that could score outside of Scola.  And when Alston went down, that did them in.  I don’t think even having Alston play the second half would have made a difference.  The score would have been closer than 113-91, but we probably still would have had a Jazz victory.

So while McGrady won’t get blamed for not making it out of the first round again, it still hangs over his head.  By scoring 40 it will look like it wasn’t his fault.  And to a point it’s not.  But you would never hear any other superstar players not accept blame for a series defeat even if his team wasn’t at a 100%.  In fact, it’s quite the opposite with most players.  They state that they wish they would have done more.  And they certainly don’t throw their team mates and coach under the bus.  I sure hope we don’t play them again in the first round next year because I’m tired of hearing about this.

And the one more noticeable thing about this game was the stellar D from the Jazz.  Houston shot just 39% and 26% from the three-point line.  The only reason this game wasn’t even more embarrassing for the Rockets was their 36 trips to the line.  It seems to be that the Jazz get more confidence from great D than they do hitting a couple of threes.  When they built the 19-point lead in the first half, they were getting every loose ball, the majority of the boards, and steals that would lead to easy points.  When you know you can shut down a team, you take a little pressure off of yourselves on the offensive end.  When you see good D, you usually see the offense flowing as designed.

So now we can put the Rocket’s squarely in the rear and look forward to LA.  They’re going to be tougher than the Rockets but I like the Jazz as the underdogs.  And I’m glad they don’t have time off between series.  The Jazz had a five-day layoff after beating the Warriors last year.  They then proceeded to get walloped by the Spurs.  Everyone on the team is young and they should be used to playing 90+ games.  They take a lot of mo and confidence into the series.  There will be subplots galore.  From Fisher to Kobe and more, this will be a great series.

And what’s the percentage of playing the team in the playoffs that one of your former players went to?  Last year we play GS in the second round the year after Fisher was traded from GS to Utah.  And now we’re playing LA after Fisher was allowed to walk away from his contract.  I say we remember that in the off season when thinking about who to trade a player to.  That means if we ship someone off to Detroit, we’ll meet up with them in the finals.

Lots to come on the upcoming series.

In the words of the great Jazz fans at the ESA last night, “Beat LA!  Beat LA!”

Other notes,

• Scola offensive forearms - 22435.  Number of fouls called, 5.  But they were all on Boozer.
• We’re just barely getting out of the first round?  Doesn’t it feel like we’ve played at least 3 already?  The NBA, where playoff scheduling happens.
• The Jazz are now 2-0 at home without the white shirts for the fans.  Let’s keep it that way.
• T-Mac stated that Deron fed off the crowd.  Weird, I thought he fed off the thin air.
• Some of the best signs of the year.
• YouTube videos didn’t work and I’m too late to embed these all.  Here are the Veoh videos.

If Deron ever decides to leave Utah, maybe we can blame it on the local reporters asking dumb questions.  No names are mentioned, but yesterday after being asked an amazingly confusing question by a reporter (neither of the two pictured here), Deron gives a short answer.  After the reporter walks away, Deron’s inner monologue takes over and wants to get out.  He let a comment about the reporter slip and tries to recover.  Listen to the link here,

http://1280thezone.com/images/uploads/audio/DWill5-1-08.mp3

It sounds like Ross Siler (not sure) from the Trib steps in to mediate between the two and to keep things going.  Not sure what’s happened in the past, but if this reporter asks Deron these types of questions all the time, I could see why his frustration might boil over.

You know, if this was any other team that was heading back home with a 3-2 lead and a good chance to wrap things up, their fans would be stating that they just wanted to win it at home.  But most fans this morning and last night seem to think that the series is over and that we should start a fire sale on Boozer, Memo, and AK.

But there’s probably at least a little reason to panic.  The Jazz are coming off their worst game of the year.  Most thought that this should have been a sweep after they won the first two on the road.  And they were a blocked lay-up shy of doing that.  But I don’t think that anyone expected them to sweep before this series began.  Most had the Jazz in 6, which is where we stand now.  So no need to freak out.  But then if the Jazz somehow drop game 6, then by all means, EVERYBODY PANIC!

That said, Tom Landry stated, “Act like you’ve been there before.”  Does this team look like they’ve been in the playoffs already? From their hesitant play to their post-game interviews.  It looks like they’re still trying to adjust.  Boozer seems to know he’s talking to national media and he’s trying to make an impression.  How many times do you adjust your tie in an interview?  Maybe it’s just a nervous tic, but you don’t see other big name guys fidgeting that much.  Deron’s as calm as can be.  They were in the WCF just last year!

As I stated in my half-time notes, the Jazz have had open looks all series and just can’t knock them down.  Missed jump shots, botched lay-ups, etc.  Boozer did respond to my call to step it up in the second half, but no one else could get things going.  Why is he so intimidated by Mutombo?  He can handle Yao, but not the finger wave?  He had a couple of nice moves by Mount M, but where have those been all series?  It doesn’t matter if he’s not hitting the 15-17 footers, he should be able to post up on him all night.

The Jazz teased us with a little run to start the third that looked like they had finally figured something out.  The Rockets then promptly when on a 7-0 run to push the lead back to 17 and that did it.

The Jazz also teased fans in the beginning by hitting their first 2 three pointers of the game after going 0-65535.  But then they proceeded to miss their next 7.  I’ve never seen so many shots go in the hoop and rattle out than in this series.  And that goes for all shots and both teams.  Did they over-inflate the ball?

So now it’s back to the ESA for a deciding game 6 (for both teams).  It’s simple.  If the Jazz out-rebound and get more assists than the Rockets, they win.  Man, that sounded like John Madden.  I completely overlooked Alston’s return.  He’s supposed to be injured though, right?  He’s absolutely been the Rockets’ biggest force since his return.   

And although defense wins championships, it’s a little hard to win when you can’t put the ball in the hole.  Nobody expects them to put up their regular season average of 106, but give us something fellas.  Deron can’t go 1-on-1 all night.

Other blogs,

• My Utah Jazz
• Biased
• The Dream Shake 
• Ross Siler

  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.

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

The Rockets are done.  This isn’t just an arrogant prediction after the Jazz took game from Houston, 93-82.  It’s based on Tracy McGrady’s actions at the end of the game.  With 1:05 left in the game and the Rockets down 10, McGrady checked himself out of the game, and possible his team out of the playoffs, by fouling Kirilenko.  Immediately after he fouled AK, he walked straight to the bench and sat down, covering himself with a towel.  The Rockets were in a fouling situation as they were trying to get make a last-ditch attempt to get back into the game.  But I think Tracy had given up long before that.  And I don’t buy that the game was out of reach.  Not when the Rockets have pulled off comebacks such as this.  He has no trust in any of his teammates and seems willing to throw them under the bus,

They’ve kind of taken away our first option [I guess he’s talking about himself here] and we’re a little stagnated on the offensive end and don’t know what else to do.  We’re all out of sync and we don’t have too many guys out there who can create their own shot.

This is a far cry from the McGrady interview last year when he stated “I tried” after losing game seven to the Jazz.  So Rocket fans, you can still hate the Jazz and Jazz fans.  But you should be furious with the man that wears #1 for your team.  Because if Boozer, Deron Williams, or anyone on the Jazz quit like McGrady has, I would be pissed.

Enough bandwidth wasted writing about McGrady.  Maybe that should have been a separate post.

The Jazz went into Houston and did exactly what they needed to do.  Nobody has given Houston a chance to win this series, but you really expected a lot more out of them.  But a win on the road for the Jazz, and especially one that delivers a pretty crushing blow to Houston’s series chances, is huge.

After Houston came back to tie the game at 57, the Jazz put on the defensive screws and held them to just 3 points over the last five minutes of the third quarter.  The Jazz pushed their lead to 8 with the help of two Kyle Korver threes and buckets by Williams and AK.  The Rockets never challenged Utah in the fourth.

Kirilenko led the way with 21 points.  He really kept the Jazz in the game early while the Jazz struggled at times to get things going.  Boozer added 20 points and won the rebound battle with Okur tonight grabbing 16 to Memo’s 8.  Memo was off tonight going just 2-8 for 4 points.  I still think that  Memo is the biggest factor for the Jazz going deep in the playoffs.  And the fact that he can have a bad night and the Jazz still win comfortably speaks volumes about the win.  And Deron turned in another “standard” performance with 20 & 10.  Price came in and played well despite only four minutes in relief of Deron.  And Korver had his 11 on 4-7 from the field.

I really thought that this series would go 6 or 7 games.  But from the body language from the Rockets players and McGrady giving up, this could be over in four.  Anything can still happen and there’s still a lot of ball left, but I don’t see this going on much longer.

Other notes,

• Having listened to most of the game on radio, I realized how much I missed Hot Rod’s calls of “belt-high dribble” and “the cow hide globe hits home.”  I really don’t think he has a face for HD though.
• Until Deron attempted two free throws late in the third, the Jazz had only taken three free throws the entire game.  The Rockets had 21 straight attempts of their own at one point.
• When it’s NBA playoffs, the local stations aren’t getting interviews with Boozer, Williams, or whoever the hero of the night was.  ESPN or TNT or the press at large get them.  That’s gotta suck.  That’s like your typical cop movie where the FBI comes in and claims jurisdiction and takes over your case.
• Here’s my HoopsVibe article with predictions for the playoffs.
• Boozer dressed the part tonight,
  
• Videos coming soon

Other blogs,

• FLA
• My Utah Jazz
• Biased
• The Dream Shake & again here.

UPDATE:  Videos up

It’s almost refreshing that this game wasn’t about Williams/Paul.  Let’s get that out of the way.  Neither had anything offensively.  The only advantage was Deron’s 16 assists to Paul’s 9.  We didn’t even see Paul the entire fourth quarter until 3:40 left in the game.  And that 8 1/2 minutes while he was out is when the Hornets made their run after being down 20.  MVP?

This game was all about the Jazz as a team and the team defense.  They’ve held the Spurs and now the Hornets to 64 & 66 points respectively.  Can we get Elias Stats to get on that to see if that’s a record?  It’s a Jazz record for sure.  It’s the best D from the Jazz I’ve ever seen.  Ever.  They must have set Sloan’s heart aflutter with all the diving for loose balls, strips, blocks, and overall hustle.  It was infectious.  It seemed like everyone was on the floor at some point.  Now that it’s spring time, maybe the Jazz are getting their super-human defensive power from the yellow sun of the earth, let’s hope there’s no kryptonite.

The only thing you have to worry about was Utah’s offense these past two games.  The Jazz seem to get out of their normal flow when it’s a big game.  That’s what happened in the last game in NO when they got blown out.  Once they were down so much, they relaxed and almost pulled that one out.  Both teams seemed to be out of sync the whole game.  It’s like they both knew the importance of the game and forgot their offenses.

The only one that was reliable this game was #13, Memo.  After Neo rescues Morpheus from the agents and Trinity from the helicopter, Morpheus says to Trinity, “Do you believe me now?”  Memo showed why he’s the one that needs to be clicking for the Jazz to make a run in the playoffs.  He was 9-20 for 22 points and 17 boards.  Millsap, Boozer, and AK all had 10.  Memo and Peja were the only ones that had decent offensive outputs for this game.  Okur was the only player to break 20 points.  Let’s hope Memo can keep this up for the next couple of months.

The team offensive stats are so were so ugly that I won’t even go over them.  Take a look if you dare.

Okay, so a little more on Williams/Paul.  The match-up everyone was hoping for never materialized.  Both only had 4 points on 2-11 shooting.  Deron had some great assists, but he was unbelievably wild.  He had 6 turnovers and on consecutive possessions through the ball way over the head of Memo.  That’s pretty hard to do when you’re 6′ 11″.  He still wound up with 16 assists on some great plays but the Jazz actually seemed to be playing better when he was out.  The same was true for Paul.  The Hornets played better with CP out as evidenced by Scott leaving in the bench to start the fourth.  They cut the Jazz lead from 20 down to 12.  We didn’t see Chris until the game was pretty much decided. You’ll have to wonder now how much that will hurt his MVP chances.  They have another game against the Lakers coming up.  If they fall in that game, that could be the death knell.

Speaking of the Lakers, they went down to the Trail Blazers last night.  That means  that the Jazz are only 1 game behind them and just 2 1/2 behind the Hornets.  The top 6 teams are now just separated by those same 2 1/2 games.  I don’t know if it’s technically possible, but it would be great for everyone to end up with the same records and they have to use tiebreakers  such as who had the better free-throw percentage in road games decided by two point or less.

And finally, almost overlooked in all of this is the fact that the Jazz are back-to-back champs, of the Northwest Division.  Like I stated in the preview, this is only the second one in Jazz history.  Karl and John only had the 97-98 seasons as repeat champs.  I think they pretty much went back and forth with the Spurs on that under the old alignment.

So we’re hitting all the goals so far.  Playoffs, check.  Division champs, check.  Winning big games late in the season, check.  Up next, home-court advantage.  The Jazz are now 2-0 on this six-game “series.”  Up next are the Mavs who have been playing very well since the return of Jirk.  It’s a road game as well but is still very winnable.  Did you ever think that would be said about the Jazz playing on the road?

Other notes,

• Now we know how Paul and Chandler get some many alley-oops.  Chandler just takes out the guard on the pick and roll.  He whacked Deron in the eye on his way their 145th oop this season.
• I appreciate letting them play, but the Jazz only went to the line 5 times?  Wow.  NO only had 13 trips.
• Millsap was a beast.  He had tip ins and boards galore.  His best play came when he stole the lazy in-bounds pass at then end of the first half to put the Jazz up 18.
• I don’t have the +-, but I would have liked to have seen more of Price.  The team seemed to be playing well while he was in.
• The Jazz game didn’t get shown on Sports Center until about 45 minutes into the broadcast.  Amazing.  We saw almost every baseball game and NBA game before that.  I was trying to give ESPN the benefit of the doubt as the NCAAW championship was the same night and the Jazz game had ended just 30 minutes earlier.  But it was a pretty significant game that got pushed way back.  We even had a Rewind of NBA games before we saw the Utah/NO game.

Other blogs,

• Hornets 24/7
• At the Hive
• My Utah Jazz & Some more
• Biased Fan
• FLA

I didn’t get this in to Jim in time for the Hornets website.  But I spent too much time on it not to put it up somewhere.  Interestingly enough, he had Jed from My Utah Jazz answer the questions and the answers were nearly identical.  Crazy.  So read what Jed had to say and then read these below.  Game thread and thoughts coming later today.

PS, I heard Smash or Smush or someone on 1280 the other day from My Utah Jazz talking about the biggest Jazz rivalries and they let him give out his URL.  Pretty good stuff.

Here were mine,

Hornets.com: With only a week remaining in the regular season, what will be the biggest keys to success for the Jazz in the 2008 playoffs?

Basketball John:  Just win baby.  Maybe.  See, here’s the crazy thing.  If the Jazz stay at the number four seed, their playoff bracket includes Phoenix (possibly), Houston, Denver/Golden State, and your Hornets.  And the Jazz have played very well against all of these teams.  If they move up to the three seed, now they’re playing in the same bracket as the Lakers, Spurs, Mavs.  These are the teams that the Jazz (at least the fans) fear the most.  So the goal is to get home-court for the first round, but not move up in the standings.  You don’t want them to lose, but if they don’t move up, it might not be the worst thing. And also, they need to show they can win on the road.  And a win against your Hornets tonight would make a great statement.

Hornets.com: What are the most prominent areas where the Jazz have shown improvement or regression since the 2007 playoffs, when they were a surprise participant in the Western Conference finals?

Basketball John:  I didn’t get time to get to this one.

Hornets.com: Who would you choose as the biggest “X-factor” for Utah in the postseason, a possibly under-the-radar player who will be key for the Jazz?

Basketball John:  He’s not really under the radar, but I really think that as Mehmet Okur goes, so do the Jazz.  When he’s on and hitting threes and taking it to the basket, the Jazz really have as good of a “Big Three” as anyone in the league.  He spreads the defense and opens up lanes for Deron Williams.  And we saw a couple nights ago against the Spurs that he can actually play D and score at the same time.  He’s averaging about four more points, three more rebounds, and 60 points higher on his field goal and three point percentage since the All-Star break.  If he’s on, watch out.

Hornets.com: Utah has one of the largest discrepancy between home and road success in the NBA. Nearly every team is better at home than on the road, but how do you explain the Jazz’s drastic differential?

Basketball John:  If I knew, I’d probably have a job sitting next to Sloan on the bench.  It’s really inexplicable.  A lot of it had to do with their horrid month of December when they went 5-11.  They lost game to Atlanta, Charlotte, and the Heat in which they had leads in the fourth quarter.  But they are actually 10-7 on the road since their January 17th loss at Denver.  So there is improvement.  They may actually be coming around.  And a win tonight would go a long ways to complete the turnaround.

The biggest reason for the discrepancie though I think is that they don’t seem to play defense on the road.  They don’t get as many blocks, steals, turnovers, or defensive rebounds.  A lot of people will say that the Jazz get the calls at home, but they average 23 fouls a game at home, the same as the visiting team gets.   This team can score.  If they play even above average D, they’ll win.

Hornets.com: Overall, what do you think would qualify as a successful postseason for the Jazz? Reaching the West finals again? Advancing past the first round?

Basketball John:  I think in the West, any team will be fortunate to advance past the first round.  I don’t know if there’s a favorite because I think anyone can beat anyone else in a seven game series.  But for the Jazz, having a taste of the Western Conference finals, I can’t imagine anything less being considered a success.  If the Jazz get home court in the first round, advance, and can play either NO, Denver/Golden State, I like their chances.

Hornets.com: Lastly, which player is BasketballJohn.com endorsing in the MVP campaign? Chris Paul, perhaps?

Basketball John: Well I know your readers are going to think it’s my bias that won’t let me endorse Paul for MVP.  He certainly has the numbers.  And I don’t know what’s lead to the recent rash of PGs as MVPs because it’s been very rare before.  Have you looked at John Stockton’s numbers (now we’re going to start that debate) from 1988-1991?  If Stockton had taken more shots, he would have had better stats than Paul has this year but he didn’t even get to within sniffing distance of an MVP.

My pick though is Kevin Garnett.  What he’s done with that Boston team is unbelievable.  After him, Pierce, and Allen, who is there?  He led them to the biggest turnaround in the history of the NBA.  They might get overlooked because they’re in the East, but their record against the West is impressive.  He’s literally changed a franchise.  They were praying for a lottery pick this same time last year.  And now they’re the favorites for the title.  You could argue that Paul has done something similar in New Orleans, but Garnett has been the league’s MVP.

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.

This is the game that sets the tone for the rest of the regular season.

Just 2 1/2 games back of the Spurs in the standings, the Jazz need this game to have a reasonable chance of moving up in the standings and gaining home court advantage.

As weird as it sounds, these are the games you want to see the Jazz playing at the end of the season.  If the Jazz have any business of winning in the playoffs, these are the teams you have to beat.  You can’t wuss your way through the West.  So if we do well on this stretch it’s a good pre-cursor for the playoffs.  If we limp through these games, well maybe it’s just not the year.

Of course, you could have said the very same thing last year.  They Jazz stumbled for the last two months heading to the post-season and ended up in the WCF.  So what do I know?

So we go up against Duncan, Longoria, and the original Flop (Manu).  This year the Jazz fans’ hatred had been primarily focused on Denver, and probably rightfully so.  But I think everyone’s forgotten that public enemy #1 has been Manu.  Does anyone remember back to last year’s playoffs?  If he gets booed any less than Fisher or Giri, then something’s wrong.

So expect to see a lot of Timmy’s bug eyes of unbelief tonight.  Expect to see a performance put on by Manu and Collins (who will be out in full force against Duncan).  And expect to see Eva signs when Parker is shooting FTs.

It will all come down to defense.  You can live with one, maybe two of the big three getting theirs, but if Fabio or Finley or some other scrub gets hot, it’s going to be ugly.  We all know that the Jazz can score with anyone.  They lead Hollinger’s offensive efficiency rating.  But can they get the defensive boards and stay out of foul trouble?

And the Jazz need to jump on them early and put this one away.  Look for Deron and Memo to have the big games with Brewer adding to the fray.  And if KK has his 15 points, it’s over.

The road to the playoffs start now.

Other blogs,

• Biased Fan
• My Utah Jazz
• FLA
• Pounding the Rock
• Spurs Dynasty

Other notes

• I felt kind bad for inadvertently giving Abbott at TrueHoop a heart attack with my April Fool’s column.  But not after reading this.  LeBron of course.  Howard, yes.  Paul, yes.  The ranking is debatable of course with Williams/Paul.  Just one problem.  He didn’t list Williams in his top 6.
• If we lose tonight, Danielle can’t go to any more Jazz games this year.
• A guy I work with, huge Spurs fan, got to go shag balls tonight for the Spurs and then hang out in the locker room.  Even though it’s for the Spurs, you have to be jealous.

ESPN Preview