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.

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

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

Game two videos starting with the last 1:50 of the game.  Great stuff

Online Videos by Veoh.com

Ronnie Price Breaks down his game

Online Videos by Veoh.com

TNT’s recap of the game.  I love Barkley.

Online Videos by Veoh.com

And More Tracy McGrady

Online Videos by Veoh.com

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.

Let’s get this out of the way, shall we?  Good news is that we won’t have to see the Spurs again unless we see them in the finals.  Other semi-good news is that we play the Rockets whom we match up well against.  Bad news is that we won’t have HCA in any series unless we see some upsets.

This game was never in doubt.  The two things that I posted in the preview were the undoing of the Jazz.  They let the game get away early and they didn’t play any D.  They were also taking shots outside of the offense and they were turning the ball over.  They had 4 TOs in their first 8 possessions.  It was game 5 of last year’s playoffs all over again.  You just felt from the first couple of possessions that this one was over.  I don’t even know what the final score is yet.  It’s one of the few games that I’ve had to turn off this year.

So let’s look forward to the playoffs and beating the Rockets again.  They won tonight and PHX is winning.  So we’ll be off to Houston for the first round again.  And in a way it’s good because I have a whole slew of images to use for the series posts. 

It won’t be an easy task but one that I think we can steal a game in games 1 or 2 and beat them at the ESA.

Playoff previews coming up.

That was a lot harder than it should have been.  He had more than a 20-point lead and let them claw their way back.  Granted they didn’t cut the lead to single-digits until the final score, but the Jazz seem to always let their guard down when they get leads like that.  So it’s almost better that they’re in a single-digit ball game so they focus a bit more.  But most important, they came away with the W to get the tiebreaker against the Rockets should they meet up in the playoffs.

Of course for the Jazz to have home-court and play the Rockets in the first round, the Jazz would have to lose at SA and the Rockets lose at home to the Clippers.  That’s not likely at this point.  So we’re either starting out on the road in Houston again or we’re hosting SA as the three seed.  Which one of those do you prefer?  I think we need the home-court.  Of course there is one other scenario where if NO loses out and we win out, we’re the two seed hosting the Mavs.  Anything is possible right now.

First of all, if you’re a Jazz fan and you’ve been waiting to get HD, you have no more excuses.  KJZZ is broadcasting Jazz games in HD and it’s glorious.  And you don’t need cable or DISH/DirecTV to get it.  They, along with FOX, NBC, ABC, CBS, and more all broadcast in HD OTA (over the air).  All you need is an antenna.  Any one will do really.  It doesn’t have to be for HD.  I was able to get mine to work with an FM antenna sticking out of the back.  It cut out a bit so I’ve gotten a real attenna that works great.  Of course this only applies to those living in the SLC area (sorry).  But Comcast will be broadcasting it soon and I’m sure the satellite companies will be joining them soon.  The only draw back of course is that you can get too much detail.  We really don’t need to see the pores on the back of Memo’s neck or the sweat dripping off someone’s eyebrows.  Just watch from a good distance.  But this has been two years in the making or more.  I email the program director for KJZZ back in Feb/2006 and was told “soon.”  So it’s a huge undertaking and it’s worth moving to the SLC if you’re a Jazz fan.

Back to the game, the Jazz won for the reason they’ve won all year, defense.  They held Houston to 40% shooting and out-rebounded them 50-38.  That included some late offensive rebounds that held off the Rockets’ late rally.  I think there was one sequence when they got 3-4 four offensive boards in one possession that took a lot of time off the clock.  Houston was almost able to get back in it with all of their threes in the fourth.  And as DJ pointed out in the post-game, the Jazz are 35-0 when holding opponents to 96 points or less.  In the Jazz wins, they outscore their opponents 109-94.  That’s 15 points for those without calculators.  LA’s margin is 112-98 and Boston’s is 101-87 for 14 and 13 points respectively for a comparison.  I don’t know what any of that means other than it’s impressive.

Boozer was back with 21 & 11.  He’s fine.  And it was good to hear B&B (Booner and Boler) back on the DD talk.  Memo was apparently apprised of the problem he was causing them before the game and pulled in only 13 rebounds so that some could go to Booze.  He added 12 points to those boards.

Deron was solid with 17 & 9 but shot only 5-13.  He was crossing up Jackson all night.  He also crossed up the refs when he got a technical after a collision with Jackson going for a loose ball.  He held onto the ball after he got called for the foul until he said what he wanted to say to the ref.  The call could have gone either way really but the refs have no respect from the players any more I don’t think.  The only thing that keeps players from going off is the fines and suspensions.  I guess that’s what they’re suppose to do.  I mentioned this in my comments on the game but I think the biggest reason is that the refs are very inconsistent.  The calls for similar plays or fouls aren’t called the same.  And rules aren’t enforced.  We don’t want a whistle on every posession, but when offensive players are allowed to push off and take 5 steps, you’re going to get frustrated plyers.  And the final problem is refs making calls that they are totally out of position on (yes, that’s a preposition).  Case in point from last night; Korver made a great strip under the basket getting all ball.  The ref behind almost everyone who couldn’t see it blew his whistle.  He had no business calling a foul on a play he couldn’t see.  If the refs are out of position, then that’s their fault.  Postion is one of the first things all refs are taught.  Wasn’t Stern suppose to be more transparent with the refs this year?  I haven’t seen anything related to NBA refs all year.  I guess he’s done pretty well at sweeping that under the rug.They’re terrible on both sides though so maybe it evens out.

Rant done.  The Jazz also got great contributions from Millsap, Harp, Brewer, and KK.  Millsap was doing his best Deron impression when he did a little cross-over for a layup.  Scola reminds me of last-year’s Millsap.  Hustles everywhere and gets a lot of put-backs and boards.  Brewer needs a nickname that reflects how he hangs out and scores so much on the baseline.  He had 38 dunks last night.  And Korver had 10 & 5 but was 0-2 from downtown.  He’s shooting 5 points higher on the road from 3 than at home.  Crazy.

So up next are the Spurs.  Of course we haven’t won there since Slick Willy was in office.  But there’s hope.  The Hawks just made the playoffs for the first time since 1999.  So we’re bound to get a W sometime.  And if Manu is still out, it will be a little bit easier.  If the Spurs are playing possum, they’re doing a very good job.  They’re 3-3 in their last 6 and all of those losses have been pretty embarassing.  Now’s a good time to kick them when they’re down.  And let’s hope that if they are playing possum, they’re not able to get back on track in time for the first round.

Other notes,

• Booner’s comment when Jackson airballed a three, “He’s gotta get a little closer.”  Is there an equivalent to “warning-track power” in baseball for basketball?  College-three strength?
• We had an HD outage at 2:53 left in the first.  They went back to standard TV for a bit.  But it was allo good starting the second.  And then we lost video for a bit in the second.  Still working out the glitches.  And it’s still worth it.
• Harp’s shooting almost 50%.  He’d be up around 60% if half of his missed lay-ups went in.
• Another “where ________ happens” featuring Dwight Howard.  The last one was interesting where it stated, “And I’m only 22 happens.”  They’re promoting his youth but now want to raise the minimum age to 20?  The ironic thing is that Howard was only 18 in his first NBA game.
• Jazz wrap up the second-best home record af any Jazz team with a 37-4 mark.
• Videos coming

Other blogs,

• FLA
• Siler goes over the crazy scenarios for the playoffs.  I would have to echo the word of Basil Exposition when he’s trying to explain time travel to Austin Powers, “I suggest you don’t worry about those things and just enjoy yourself.”
• The Dream Shake

That’s just what the doctor ordered; well, maybe not this doctor.  After the Mavs put a three-inch dagger into the Jazz, a meeting with the Nuggets helped heal that wound a bit.

The Nuggets are fighting with GS for the last lottery pick.  And so last night’s win over Denver was that more satisfying.  The Jazz started off with a 40-point first quarter, and after a second-quarter lapse, put away the Nuggs in the third.  The Jazz were never really threatened in the fourth as Melo and Iverson were pulled with about six and a half minutes to go in the game.

Memo, Boozer, and Brewer all had 20 points.  Deron was one off that with 19 points to go along with his 11 assists.  Memo was hogging the boards again with 15.  That left just 6 for Boozer.  Ever since the Seattle game last month, Memo has been a beast.  He says that he’s finally healthy and it shows.  In his last eight games, Okur is is averaging 20 & 12 and 20 & 16 in his last four games.  And he’s shooting a remarkable 51% from the arc over those same 8 games.  In fact, because of his recent rebounding streak, Memo has kept Boozer from a double-double in his last six games.  You can tell Booner and Boler are going with DD withdrawals.  I haven’t heard any “Thunder and Lightening” calls from Boler lately and frankly it’s scaring me.

Deron was great again even after another flagrant foul from Denver.  Melo sent Deron on his back with a hard foul.  And actually, despite it coming from Melo, I don’t think it was intentional.  They both went up and Deron was knocked off balance.  It was scarily reminiscent of AK’s & Brewer’s falls earlier this season.  And like AK and Brewer, Deron knocked down both free throws before retiring to the locker room to be examined.  It doesn’t look like it’s going to keep him from any games though.

And it’s a good thing.  Up next is Houston.  As Danielle and UtesFan89 have stated, San Antonio lost today to LA, bumping them to the five spot. Yikes.  We’re only 1 game behind SA in the race for home-court.  But the worst part is that now we’re in the bracket with SA and LA instead of NO, Houston, and PHX.

So that means we become Nuggets fans tonight as they take on Houston.  If they can beat them, we’d only be one game back before facing them tomorrow night.  And if we can win that game, we’d be tied but have the tiebreaker.

Looks like the season will go down just like everyone has expected.  Close  races and no seedings determined until the final buzzer.

Other notes,

• Booner got confused after Deron had shot his free-throws for the flagrant foul.  Price was a the the free-throw line immediately following those after being fouled himself.  Booner couldn’t understand why Price was at the line.  He thought he was shooting for Deron.  Must have missed that 5 minutes after Deron was on the ground.
• Iverson had 20 in the first half, only 8 in the  second.
• Millsap had the shot of the game when he was getting fouled driving the lane.  He got twisted around and through it up over his head for the and-1.

  

• Recently noticed Bolerjack saying, after Korver misses a three, “Oh, the crowd wanted that.”
• Hart had 12 points.  Wow.

  

• Korver was 0-6 from three (man, the crowd wanted those), but had three of the best blocks of the year.

  

   

• Tomorrow’s game in in HD for the first time on KJZZ.  But I watched the Dallas game on HD.  It was a pleasant surprise.  I thought at first that I just had the TV on stretch.  And the best part is that it’s OTA.
• Kenyon Martin took himself out of the game in the fourth when he fouled Memo by trying to start a 14-year-old-like slow dance with him.  And to think that we pursued him as a free agent.  He had given up with about 9 minutes to go in the game.

  

Other blogs,

• My Utah Jazz had a live blog (sorry I couldn’t be there)
• Biased Fan
• PickAxe and Roll

Sorry I didn’t get a recap up of the Mavs game.  I’ve been recovering from a dagger wound given to me by Jirk.

And I didn’t really feel like talking about the million reasons why the Jazz lost that game.  Whether it was the lack of Booze, the refs, or whatever, the game’s over.  And there’s not much that can be done about it now.  We’re pretty much locked into the fourth seed.  And now we need a lot of help to get home-court.  We’re two games back of Houston, our likely first-round opponent again.  We can take care of one of those games the next time we see them.  But we’re going to need some help.  But they could also move up to anywhere from 1-3 as they’re only 1 game back of NO.  I’d rather see Houston than SA or LA.  If NO somehow fell to 5, that would be great.

Anyway, don’t worry about Boozer.  He’s had a bad April, but he’ll pick it up.  It drives Jazz fans absolutely insane when he has a few poor games.  Trade him!  Boozer sucks!  He’ll be just fine.  And as long as he doesn’t disappear in the playoffs (he wont), we’re just fine.

And have you noticed the fireball that is Deron Williams the past few games?  Is there anyone on the court that wants to win more?  If you’re not on the D-Train, you’re going to get run over.  Let’s just hope he can inspire his teammates to play up at his level.

You might say that tonight’s game then doesn’t mean much.  But we still need it for home-court.  And it’s still Denver.  It’s always a pleasure to beat them.  And a win over them tonight and a GS win would knock them back into a tie for 8th with Denver still having the tiebreaker advantage.  But a nail in Denver’s playoff coffin would bring Jazz fans immense joy.

My Utah Jazz will be doing some live blogging tonight so I might chime in there.