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.

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.

Big time hit for the Rockets.  Rafer Alston won’t return to the game.  It sounds like he did something to his ankle.  You hate for them to lose a key player especially since you don’t want to hear from the Rockets fans if they lose.  But Houston actually went on their run to overcome a 19 point lead without Rafer.

• McGrady has 28.  How are they going to handle him in the second half?  I don’t think you can just count on him cooling down.
• Boozer came out with both guns blaring.  He was taking it to the rim and got Mutombo in foul trouble.  With Mt M. out, the Jazz went on their run.
• Okur took it to the rim and got a dunk.  And everyone has been driving.
• The first quarter and starting the second, the Jazz played great D and had quite a few steals.  They started relaxing on D and that’s when Houston got back into it.
• The Jazz had almost as many points in the first as they did in the first half of game five.
• McGrady dribbles the ball of his foot on a break and the ref calls a foul on Harp.  Out of position again.  The refs have been okay though other than that.
• I like KK posting up on Head.  Great adjustment from the coaches.

Well, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out what the Jazz have to do in the second half.  Play D, rebound, and keep taking it to the basket.  Now that Alston is out, they need to start throwing another man at McGrady.  The Jazz did what they needed to in the first, but couldn’t keep it up in the second.  Is it the rotation and the five on the floor that’s the problem?  Korver has been good, but we need some more Brewer.

Let’s get this done.

Boozer.  It’s all on you.  You’ve dropped 41 on the Rockets before and we need that again tonight.  The Jazz can’t afford to let the Rockets hang around late in this one.  We need to put it away early and crush any hope Houston has.

Does anyone remember the last game of the season against the Spurs?  We had just put the beat down on them in the previous meeting at the ESA.  The Jazz went into SA and got blown out.  The Spurs had it going from the beginning and the game was over before the Jazz knew what hit them.  That needs to happen tonight to the Rockets.  Go all out for the first 12 minutes.  Don’t let them breathe.  And then pour it on the rest of the game.

We really can’t play worse than the last game.  The Boozer, the bench, and the rest can only go up.

It’s going to rocking at the ESA.  Let’s finish this.

I’m on with Steve Mason again today at 4 pm MDT.  I’ll be going up against Lee from The Dream Shake as we discuss why our respective teams are a better matchup for the Lakers.  This has Jerry Springer written all over it.  Both Lee and I will be going back and forth while Mason and his audience are waiting for us to go at each other’s throats.  Then he’ll surprise us both with with an unannounced guest, John Hollinger.  John will then go on to rip us both apart with stats and analysis and tell us that neither deserve to move on.

Nah, should be good though.  We’re suppose to say why our teams match up better against the Lakers.  I might turn it around on Steve (if he or his producer don’t read this first).

Lee @ The Dream Shake

Listen Live

I’ll link to the podcast when it’s up.  And I’ll have a game thread up later as the game doesn’t start for another 25 hours.

Link to the podcast

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.

First of all, if you were at the game last night, throw away your white t-shirts.  away I did with mine and the Jazz immediately scored two threes at the end of the game, got a turnover and had a chance to win it.  The things are cursed.

With the exception of Deron Williams, the white jerseys of the Jazz gave them about as much basketball ability as the people wearing white tees in the stands.  The tees must have sucked out the power out of the player’s jerseys.  And if you don’t believe me about the power of the white jersey, just remember the game in Boston where the Cs chose to wear their green unis and got beat by the Jazz who were in white.  And one more note about the white tees.  We’re already stereotyped as being one of the whitest places in the nation.  Do we need to don white tees to remind everyone?  Bring back True Blue!

So my streak is over.  I can no longer say I’ve never seen the Jazz lose in person.  Losing a game is a lot tougher when you’re with a crowd of 20,000.  You have to be somewhat civil.  If you’re at home watching, you can let whatever expletives you want fly.  The worst part about watching a loss in person is that there are the few fans of the opposing team that are cheering afterwards and you have to do everything within your power from pushing them down the steep steps of the upper bowl.

And maybe it was me that jinxed things.  I had a moment in the men’s room with David James before the game started.  Not a Larry Craig moment.  We were the only ones in there and I at least waited until he was washing his hands before bugging him.  I was trying to think of something to say that would make me look look intelligent.  So while we were washing hands (not each others), I said, “What’s the line tonight?”  I was star struck by DJ for crying out loud.  What a lame question.  He did answer back quickly with “8 1/2.”  We exchanged a couple more small-talk phrases before I left the conversation awkwardly.  And by awkwardly I mean I just walked out of the men’s room.

Deron carried the team in the first half with 21 points.  No one else could find the bottom of the basket.  They managed to tie it at 44 going into the half when it felt like we were down 20.  They built a 6-point lead after four but then pulled a T-Mac in the fourth and disappeared.  End despite how poorly they played, they still had a chance to win in the closing second with Deron driving to the hoop only down 1.  I can’t think of anyone else I want taking that shot.  There were a couple of people open.  But hand it to Houston for playing tough D again to finish the game.

The Jazz did themselves in of course by missing 13 of their 33 free-throws.  They had 11 more attempts than the Rockets and blew the game.  There were no other factors.  Yes, the refs sucked again.  I’ll defer to Biased for commentary on the suckiest refs in the playoffs.  I’ve never seen though where one ref controlled the game so much.  He overrode two calls that would have been in Utah’s favor.  And he called two continuation fouls for the Rockets where one player was shooting and someone else was fouled.  So they got the and-1 with a different player shooting the free-throw.  Have there been two of those called all year?  In the entire league?  He was truly awful.  But the calls were bad both ways.

It’s no time to panic.  We have to go back to Houston now and this series is going to go longer than it should have.  Nobody outside of Houston expected Alston to have the game he had.  And if one other Jazz man had a decent game, we would have pulled it out.  I’m a big fan or Korver, but I would like to see more Brewer.  He played well but just broke 30 minutes. I would say cut back Harp’s minutes, but he was the only one that played decent while he was in there.

And if I’m Sloan, nobody leaves practice until they make 20 straight free-throws.  And you have to run 5 ladders for everyone you miss in a game.

Other notes,

• No videos as I wasn’t home in time to get any
• No male should be wearing a Korver jersey.
• Great chants of “Tracy’s tired!”  And he was.  He missed a couple of big free throws and a layup.  “Houston sucks!” chants resulted in a Alston three.  That worked just as well as the “Utah sucks” chants in Houston.

Other blogs,

• My Utah Jazz
• FLA, and again, and one more time
• Ross Siler
• The Dream Shake

I put my undefeated in-attendance record on the line tonight when the Rockets come to town for game 3.  I don’t think my streak of 7 games is in jeopardy though.  It would be one of the bigger playoff upsets if Houston were to pull this out.

They’ll have Alston back which should provide a boost.  But he’s still a little sore.  But apparently a 80% Alston is better than what they have.

We’ll get to see if McGrady has anything left in the tank to make this series interesting.  Biased has a great write-up on how McGrady’s gone sarcastic on the whole “It’s my fault” comments.  If you want superstart treatment and status, you better be able to take the criticism.  It’s easy to laugh when you’re up 2-0 like last year.

It’s kind of a theme out west that all the series are 2-0.  The only exception is that the Jazz are the only ones to win on the road.  The Suns will probably win at home and the Mavs have done well against the Hornets at home.

So should all play out as expected, the Lakers and Jazz will start round two while the other series will probably go seven.

So let’s put this one away early and shut the door on any hope the Rockets might have left.  Expect some big money shots from Memo early and a nice 15-3 run to start the first.  Deron and company will take care of business.  The ESA is going to be out of control.  So much that Locke said, “I am off to buy my earplugs.” Wuss.  Free white t-shirts tonight at the game.  Let’s hope they don’t forget the upper-bowl this time.

From KSL.com,

As if Jazz fans aren’t typecast enough.  Now a group of FLDS sympathizers are going to protest the game on Thursday v. Houston.  They’re protesting the treatment of the FLDS church and families in Texas that’s going on right now.  The Salt Lake City attorney, Bob Breeze (who looks like he’s trying to drum up name recognition for himself), is calling for a protest rally and even to go so far as this,

Breeze is asking local FLDS supporters to show up at the hotel rooms of the Rockets’ players. “We’re working on a plan to have a number of the polygamist women go and have a meeting with the team players,” he said.

Well that makes sense.  This can only end well. 

I’ll be at the game and will see if I can get pictures.  And come early to make your own protest sign.  Breeze stated that he will be providing the paint for your signs.  I wonder if he’ll let me use any to paint my face.