• Boozer.  We need you man.
• An ugly series just turned hideous.
• Good, Jazz hold Rockets to 38% shooting.  Bad, the Jazz shoot 37%.  And Utah is only 4-9 from the line.
• Maybe the T on Booze will get his going.
• Brewer is shooting 57% in the series.  And despite Ronnie shooting 3-8 for the game, sorry Kyle, you need to sit for now unless we’re up two with 3 seconds to play.
• Will we see Deron go 24 in the second half?  Do you play him the rest of the game so that you have a chance to win and time to rest him?  Or do you rest him a bit and hope you hang in there but with a more likely chance of losing?
• How many overturned calls this series have gone against the Jazz?  This game had a call on Mutumbo out of bounds.  Next thing you know, it’s Rockets’ ball.
• Did they make a rule change this year that you can go over the back?

Despite the amazingly crappy play, the Jazz start the second half down just 11.  If they can start making some shots (they’ve had open looks all series), they can still pull this one out.  Otherwise, hello game 6.

• If the Rockets lose, McGrady will have no one else to blame.  He’s a one-man show tonight.
• Both teams are playing great defense.  T-Mac has three blocks.  Jazz getting a lot of help in the paint with deflections and boards
• Deron has just two assists and Boozer just two points.  Deron made his first three threes.
• The Jazz failed to pull away while McGrady was on the bench from about 6:00-3:00.  They basically had their first string out against the Rockets bench.
• Memo gave the Jazz some cushion with a couple of big threes to close out the quarter.
• The Rockets finally out-score the Jazz in a quarter, 24-21 in the second.

The shooting percentage for the Jazz is down.  They’re shooting just 40%.  That’s got to improve in the second half.  Boozer needs to come back.  And if Mehmet will take it to the hole a couple times, we’ll be in good shape.  That’ll open up the three again.  It will be a shame if the Jazz drop this one.  They’ve taken the brunt of what the Rockets have dished out.  The Jazz are a second half team and I think will get stronger as the game goes on.

Jazz by 15.

Okay, I’m taking that back.  I totally forgot to take into account the crappy refs again.

The US presidential race is long from decided.  Heck, we’ll have an NBA champion before the Democrats ever decide what they’re going to do.

But the Western Conference playoff picture isn’t decided just quite yet either.  We know most of the teams that are in the playoffs, but the seeding is about as stable as Memphis’ free-throw shooting.

There’s still only 3 1/2 games separating the top 6 teams in the West.  New Orleans has the inside track at the #1 seed but after tonight play 4 of their last 5 on the road.  So while they will probably hang on, anything can happen.

I wrote on my earlier post that never was that the Jazz might be content to stay where they’re at if they couldn’t move up to one of the top seeds.  They don’t want to lose because they want home-court advantage, but they don’t to move up and have to play the Spurs or Lakers in the first and second rounds.  The Jazz aren’t afraid of playing any team but they definitely match up better against the likes of NO, DEN, GS, and HOU.  But if they’re to make the finals, they’ll probably have to go through LA or SA at some point.

Of course a Jazz win tonight would have to be one of the most satisfying of the year, and that includes the Spurs game a few days ago.  The biggest reasons would be,

• We can win on the road.  We’ve done a bit better of it recently, going 10-7 since the end of January.  But we still have that brand of not being able to win on the road.  I wouldn’t say we can’t win on the road but that we’re not very consistent.  A win tonight would go to show that even if we can’t get home-court, we’re still a team to be reckoned with.
• We can secure the Northwest Division title.  Believe it or not, it would be Utah’s only second back-to-back division titles, the first since 1997 and 1998.  That’s another banner to hang in the rafters.
• Our chances of securing home-court in at least the first round would improve.  Right now we’re a game back of Houston.  If we end up seeing them in the first round, I’d much rather not have to go to another game seven on the road.  A side note, are we going to even see any series in the WC go less than 6 games?
• And finally, a win would maybe, just maybe give us a little break from hearing about Chris Paul and the Hornets on every media outlet imaginable.  No Jazz fan has ever said that Chris Paul isn’t a good player and that the Hornets aren’t having a good season.  But criminey, John Madden talks less about Brett Favre when he’s announcing the Packers games.  I would like to adapt a Seinfeld quote when he’s talking about McDonald’s and them telling us how many hamburgers they’ve sold,

“I would love to meet the president of ESPN…
Just to say to him: ‘Look, we all get it.
The Hornets have won a lot of games.
Whatever the hell the number is.
Just put up an image on all your broadcasts: New Orleans Hornets & Chris Paul, they’re doing very well!’
I don’t need to hear about them 24/7.
What is their ultimate goal? To have the rest of the NBA just surrendering voluntarily?
Showing up at the commissioner’s office: “We’d like to forfeit the season.
We see the sign… we realize we have very little chance out there.
We’d like to be a Bobble Head if that’s at all possible.”

If the Jazz do win, what are the odds that it’s the lead story on ESPN?  Notta.  If the Hornets win though, not only is it the lead story, but they have at least two “more-to-comes” during the broadcast and a special Top-Ten plays where we get to see all Hornets plays including a Paul alley-oop to Chandler for the 97th time this season and Chris Paul fighting off ninjas while serving soup to single-mother, homeless cats.

So let’s hope for the sake of Jazz fans’ mental health that they don’t start out slow and let’s have a repeat of the Spurs’ game.

Other blogs,

• Hornets 24/7
• @ The Hive
• My Utah Jazz
• Biased Fan
• FLA

MR. STEINBRENNER: Nice to meet you.

GEORGE: Well, I wish I could say the same, but I must say, with all due respect, I find it very hard to see the logic behind some of the moves you have made with this fine organization. In the past twenty years you have caused myself, and the city of New York, a good deal of distress, as we have watched you take our beloved Yankees and reduced them to a laughing stock, all for the glorification of your massive ego!

MR. STEINBRENNER: Hire this man!

It’s not likely in “real life” that anyone would be able to get a job with the Yankees if this were a real conversation.

And I’m no more to getting a writing gig with ESPN any more than Isiah Thomas will stay with the Kni…  Well, maybe that’s not a good example.

Anyway, if you don’t know by now, today’s earlier post about joining ESPN.com and NBA.com is nothing more than delusions of granduer.

I really didn’t think too many people would buy it.  Especially since PCA’s first comment gives it away.  But props to him for letting me know that an earlier gag post about one of the Wiz players getting busted for prositution might tip too many people off.

So April Fool’s to everyone.  Looks like I got a majority of you.  And that includes Henry Abbott of TrueHoop.  He might have had a small heart attack.  More on that some other time.

But thanks for thinking that I could have written for the WWL.

Talk to you all tomorrow.

One of my favorite Seinfeld episodes of all time is “The Opposite.” George decides that every instinct that he’s ever had was wrong and that’s the reason for his sorry little life. Instead of tuna on toast, he has chicken on rye, untoasted. He picks up a lady telling her that he’s unemployed and living with his parents. The climax of the episode is when he’s hired by the New York Yankees as the assistant to traveling secretary by telling off George Steinbrenner instead of kissing up to him.

When he’s telling Jerry about his new job, he states, “I’m busting Jerry, I’m busting.” Jerry says, “Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, Mantle … Costanza?”

Well I have to echo George’s sentiment, I’m busting. That’s because I’ve been writing this blog for a little over a year now and never really expected much to come of it. But that’s about to change.

ESPN and the NBA are starting up a new basketball blogging network which I’ve been chosen to be a part of. Many will remember when Henry Abbott, of TrueHoop.com, was hired by ESPN to be their full-time NBA blogger. It turns out that that was just the beginning.

Under Henry’s direction, 30 other NBA bloggers will be team-specific bloggers for ESPN and the NBA. All of our stuff now will be on ESPN.com and NBA.com. This really gives new media (blogging) some much-needed credibility. The NBA now sees that more and more fans are moving to blogs for their information on their favorite teams.

So starting with the playoffs, I’ll be working the Jazz home games. I’ll have deadlines, article requirements, etc. But it will still be the same Basketball John that you’ve always read. It will just be on a different site.

Which leads me to my next topic. It’s crazy that you get attached to something as silly as a domain name. But as a result of this new opportunity, I won’t be able to maintain basketballjohn.com. It kind of takes on a life of its own. I haven’t decided if I’ll keep it and just let it expire, or if I’ll hand the reins over to someone else. If you’re at all interested in taking over BBJ, please email me and let me know. I can’t say that’s what I’ll be doing for sure, but I think I’m leaning that way.

More details to follow. Once I get a URL for the new site, I’ll get it up.

Ross Siler just reported that Gordan Giricek has been reinstated with the Jazz.  I thought he wasn’t suspended though?

So how this will play out in anyone’s guess.  With Brewer and CJ playing well, Giri will be hard-pressed for minutes.

But the Jazz may want to showcase him to build up his trade value.  I’m sure KOC had some offers but I’m sure there wasn’t much out there now.

This whole thing has reminded me of the Amaechi scenario from several years back.  “The Man in the Middle” claimed that he was benched and shipped out of Utah because Sloan found out that he was gay.  I’m not saying that Giri is gay (the man-bag doesn’t help though), but could there be some kind of personal lifestyle that Giri lives that Sloan doesn’t like?

But if he keeps looking for his own shots to build up his numbers in a contract year, then I’m all for shipping him out sooner than later.

In the last game before TurkeyFest© 2007, the Jazz dispatched the Nets by the first quarter, winning 102-75. Apparently while the Nets were watching game film from the Jazz/Pacers game, they modeled their game after Utah instead of Indiana.

And the supposed teacher/student matchup between Kidd and Williams didn’t really give us anything. Kidd was more like a late school season substitute teacher that sits in the corner and puts a movie on for the class. He shot a paltry 1-9 for 2 points. Deron on the other hand rebounded from his slump to post 20, 6, and 4. And even in limited minutes, Boozer still put up 17. It was also nice to have Okur back, going 6-10. Brewer earned his money from the line and AK has been his pre 2006-07 self.

Full Box Score

We even got to see Ronnie Price get major minutes with Hart out attending his grandmother’s funeral. And what can I say about Price? He actually played pretty well. Well, more precisely I thought, “He doesn’t suck.” I sure liked his speed and handle. But it was AK that seemed to handle the distribution while Price was playing.

I read on a jazzfanz.com message board that maybe Deron’s numbers are down because of AK. I couldn’t find the post, but know that it wasn’t my idea originally. But he made a great point. It sure seems that because of Sloan’s & Deron’s statements to get AK more involved might be hampering Williams a bit. Instead of going with the flow and letting him get the ball to the person he thinks is best, he’s having to consciously give up the ball more to AK. I even saw a couple times where AK had the ball bringing it up court and seemed to wave off Deron. I know they have set plays like this for AK, but I didn’t think they ran them that often. It seemed sometimes as though he was calling the play.

A couple other notes… Brewer has quick hands and gets a lot of steals. But it doesn’t seem like he can keep his player in front of him very well. Whether it’s from screens, or going for head-fakes, going for steals, or rushing to challenge a shot, his player often goes right around him. They’re not quicker than he is, he’s just in a bad position. Once they get by him, it’s …

Home free. Because Okur and Boozer aren’t stopping them. I was amazed at how many times both either watched them go by or even get out of the way. And the few times they would challenge, the only contact would be Okur trying to hold hands with the player as they went up for the shot. But one thing’s for sure, Okur and Boozer don’t like contact on the defensive end. Really, when’s the last time you saw either give a hard foul or take a charge?

Up next on Friday is Chris Paul and the Hornets. Shocker, but Paul has been out the past couple days with a sprained ankle. Up next is also the three days of Williams/Paul comparisons. The local media have never found a dead horse they didn’t like.

Let me preface this by stating that I read Simmons religously. I even try to put in today’s date in the URL to see if he’s got a column up before it’s posted on the front page. I’ve even read through the last year of almost exclusive Red Sox/Pats/Celts and not complained. And I’ll still read him because for the most part he’s entertaining in what he writes about.

So I don’t know why this Simmons’ article riled me up. The Jazz never get any respect anyway. But just a few days after stating in his interview with Charles Barkley (link to mp3) that the Jazz are one of four teams that could win the championship, he gives us his predictions for the west:

WEST PLAYOFF TEAMS
1. Phoenix, 64-18
2. Dallas, 57-25
3. Denver, 56-26
4. San Antonio, 56-26
5. Houston, 48-34
6. New Orleans, 43-39
7. Memphis, 42-40
8. Utah, 41-41

What. The. Hell? Is he stating that the Jazz will do worse than the 2003-04 season in which they went 42-20 with a bunch of no-names? Denver is going to be 15 games better than the Jazz? And the Jazz are going to have a 14 game drop from last year? I feel like SNL’s Weekly Update segment, Really? Really Bill? Derek Fisher is worth 14 games? That’s the only significant difference from last year.

I don’t know if this was written the morning he got back from one of his marathon Vegas trips or maybe he was in the delivery room with one hand being crushed by the Sports Gal and the other on the keyboard. Either way, his editors should have given him an extension.

UPDATE: More love: Northwest Division Preview Video .  This is ridiculous.

Glad to see the server is holding up.

Here’s a preview from KSL.com for an interview with Andrei Kirilenko’s return to Utah and the upcoming season after he requested to be traded.

Andrei Kirilenko Interview Preview