We think this is a fine enterprise. We really like the idea. Hard workers deserve as much credit as high fliers. But then we saw who Hoops Addict picked to represent Utah.

Matt Harpring.

This wouldn't be so bad if Paul Millsap weren't on the team, or if he were but he sucked as bad as Adam Keefe or someone. Like, it wouldn't be so bad if Millsap hadn't been integral to two playoff runs in two years. After all, as we all know, because we are reminded of it approximately every 3 seconds during every Jazz broadcast, and in the lead of every column in the Salt Lake Tribune and Deseret News, Matt Harpring is Utah's designated Tough Guy. He is from a Football Family, which is probably the most overused/abused angle in sports broadcasting history. Fuck it, most overused angle since people were linking Adam Jones to strip club shootings constantly. Every time Harpring's body thuds into the hardwood we get to hear about how "Harpring was raised in a Football Family." Or better yet, Harpring's "Linebacker Mentality." It is a constant barrage, and it wears you down. Actually, the local team of Craig Bolerjack and Ron Boone is pretty good about only bringing out the old Football Family saw once or twice a broadcast.

"That Harpring," Boler will say.

"Well, that's what Harpring brings to the table," Booner will chime in. "Toughness."

But the national broadcasting teams who only do a handful of Jazz games a year, those guys love Harpring. We swear we've heard them mutter an anticipatory "oh boy" when Harpring commits a flailing offensive foul. Time to talk about the scourge of the gridiron! We can eat up, oh, about five or six alternating possessions while we discuss Matt Harpring's hardscrabble Georgia upbringing! The merciless flogging of this stupid angle has really reached something of a pinnacle during the last two year's extended playoff runs, which put Utah on the heavy rotation with the national networks. It's been interesting to watch them rework and rework this miserable story. The photos of the Harpring family Thanksgiving touch football game in the backyard were an inspired touch. Where do we go from here? Perhaps Harpring family home videos of Matt in his Pop Warner days? A young Harpring, adorably missing half his front teeth, wearing comically oversized shoulder pads, lunges after a ball-carrier and comes up spitting out turf. He cries for a minute, then the buxom Mrs. Harpring, wearing a beehive hairdo and sixties-lady eyeglasses, hands him a bowl of orange slices and everything is fine.

The thing is, Paul Millsap is on the fucking team. Besides being more valuable to the Jazz by a factor of at least ten, Millsap is also a better candidate for a Floor Burn Tournament. The guy who pitches for Harpring on Hoops Addict mentions that Harpring averages 5.4 floorburns a game. He also, naturally, informs us that Harpring is from a fucking football family. And provides this video clip as evidence. We think this one does a better job selling Harpring, but that's just us.

We don't know who picked Harpring over Millsap to represent the Jazz here, but they need to get smacked with the reason stick. 5.4 floorburns a game is a made-up statistic. In real statistics, Millsap was a better rebounder, blocker and stealer (thief? nah, that sounds like something that motherfucker Grant Wahl would write) than Harpring last year. Millsap had fewer turnovers. He shot a higher percentage, though Harpring the fucking volume shooter had a higher scoring average in fewer minutes – thank that cocksucking curl play we run for him seven times a game. While Millsap has never had a play called for him in two years. Millsap, who is built like a Komatsu WA600, is also the more physical player by a COUNTRY FUCKING MILE. GOD.

Here, we have a dilemna. Do we write a paragraph about how Harpring dropped his shooting percentage from a lofty .500 in the regular season to .397 in the playoffs? We'd be willing to bet all those misses came when Harpring was wide open from 15 feet after the Jazz ran That One Play again. In the meantime, Millsap, who has a great touch around the rim and can dunk it - two things which have never been said of Harpring - was driving his already-above .500 shooting percentage up even higher. Should such a paragraph be written? We mean, at what point does this stop being driving home a point and become mean-spirited piling on? We will let you be the judge at home, then write your own paragraph extolling Millsap's postseason prowess while simultaneously cursing Harpring for shitting on us all, again.

Would Paul Millsap have stood a chance of beating Shane Floppier in the opening round of the Floor Burn Tournament? Not really, even though he would deserve to. Too many Dook fans, too many cock-rocket fans. When you consider that Harpring has an army of hacks flogging away, constantly reminding basketball fans that he used to play another sport 15 years ago, and he still lost to Floppier, and that Millsap has no such PR arm working for him, it's highly probably that Millsap may have actually polled lower than the square-jawed white guy my friends and I refer to as "The Anti-Clutch." That's not the point. The point is, if the Floor Burn Tournament doesn't recognize the true Floor Burn Kings of the NBA then it is really nothing more than another All-Star vote where the most famous players always win.

We've already seen successful surgeries for Paul Millsap & Kyle Korver. So, with the off-season in full swing, why not add another name to that list?





Anyone wanna guess who? Okay, that wasn't hard... you just have to look at the picture. Anyone wanna guess where? If you guessed the knees... you're stupid. He's nicknames No Knees for a reason. Anyhow, Matt Harpring underwent successful surgery (the arthroscopic kind) to remove bone spurs from his ankle. His right ankle, if you're curious. The surgery was performed in Atlanta.

Um yeah... nothing else to say really. If you want more draft info, here's the next 6 guys that will work out for the Jazz (on Sunday). And here's the Jazz mock draft watch, which I'll update right after this comes up.

... be like Greg Popovich?


I mean... just look at the title of the article. "Popovich has had starring role in Spurs' successes."
As for J-Slo... what Jazz successes? They've been close, but a push here and games in San Antonio there have kept the Jazz title-less. Popovich has titles. Plenty of them.

Somewhere in New York David Stern is likely cursing to himself. A few years ago, the NBA’s commissioner was asked for his dream championship matchup, and he answered without pause: “Lakers versus Lakers.” With the Lakers and Boston Celtics both enjoying a renaissance this season, Stern is two series victories away from seeing his two most famed franchises return to the league’s biggest stage, and yet Popovich and the Spurs are again standing in the way.

No one would think that about the Jazz. J-Slo's defensive ideas don't mesh with his defense-less bigs, resulting in the "hack everyone" defense that does the Jazz in year after year. That, or he tries to get by with No Knees defending Kobe, which is about as effective as only having 4 players on defense. Yet there is no change... not in the (overpaid?) superstars, not in the type of players coming in, and definitely not in the coach.

Popovich has long valued his team over his standing in the league. If Tim Duncan doesn’t like the dress code, then Popovich has a problem with it. If the NBA’s czar of discipline, Stu Jackson, warns Bruce Bowen about his feet without first notifying Spurs officials, then Popovich will criticize the league. If the Spurs have too short of a turnaround between playoff series then Popovich won’t hesitate to blow off the mandated media session and eat the fine so his players don’t have to come to the gym on their day off.

None of this seems like J-Slo... does it? I don't catch anything in this that reminds me even partially of J-Slo.


With Malice has a great piece up on J-Slo, starting with a conclusion I've often reached... the Jazz won't win a championship under J-Slo. I really hope I'm wrong, but I've seen nothing to make me think differently. As he puts it (emphasis mine)...

It’s time. Not that Jerry Sloan’s a bad coach, nor that he’s ‘failed’ at Utah.
Pointedly, he hasn’t.
But the Utah Jazz have taken all they can from him, and still not even competed for a title. The West’s only getting stronger. And the notion of ‘tough defense’ is something that does win championships, but it must be coupled with discipline.

That's hitting the nail on the head. I'm not saying he's a bad coach. He's not. Nowhere close. And I'm really grateful for everything he's done with/for the Jazz. But at some point, you have to realize that it's not working. I mean, you can keep saying "next year," but eventually you have to realize that next year is just like this year... in the end, a disappointment. No matter how well you do, the goal is to win a NBA championship. No matter how far above expectations you go, the goal all the way through the season should be to win it all. And yet again, the Jazz have fallen short.


I really want to see the Jazz win it all. Soon, and often. I just don't think (based on what I've seen) that J-Slo is the guy to coach the team there. I really hope I'm wrong. I just don't know how long you want to wait to see whether he's the guy before you look elsewhere. I mean, the Stockton, Malone & Hornacek era came and went. I really hope the Deron, Booze & Okur era doesn't go to waste as well.

This post is a lengthy discussion of the theory and methodology behind the Winshares player value metric. If you are already familiar enough with Winshares, or are impatient, read the "In brief" section just below, and then you might want to skip ahead to the payoff graphics at the very end of this post. As always, comments and criticisms are encouraged!

In brief

Winshares are a statistic developed to estimate a player's value in terms of wins. Combining individual statistics with team performance, Winshares allocate credit for team wins according to each team member's contributions to team total production. As of the end of the 2007-08 regular season, Winshares are calculated as follows:

winshr = (val / team val) * team wins

val = pts - fgx*0.5603802 - ftx*0.9345311 + as*0.7697530 + or*0.8709732 + dr*0.7111727 + st*0.9190908 + bk*0.9495596 - to*0.8473544 - pf*0.7729732

Motivation

Why create yet another statistic that attempts to reduce all of player value to one number? Especially when there are so many other good and widely accepted measures already in use? Because the theory is sound, the operationalization is elegant, and the results appear valid.

Why use boxscore stats, ignoring plus/minus and everything that modern science now knows about possessions and efficiency, especially since defense is so poorly captured and other statistics, like assists, are arbitrary? Because boxscore stats go back to the beginning of professional basketball. Plus/minus is extremely data-intensive to calculate, and we have no way of getting that kind of data for most historical games. I'm ignoring possessions, and not emphasizing defense, because it is my belief that comparing one player's boxscore stats to those of his team gives a reasonable estimate of player contributions--sometimes overestimating, other times underestimating, but on average, getting it approximately right. Mostly, though, calculating Winshares is possible as long as the same stats are tracked for all players on a team, and we know how many times the team won--meaning it can be applied very generally.

Why even try to use statistics to measure player value? You can't capture that with a number! There is much to be said on both sides of this issue. I am of the opinion that statistics ought to be considered within a larger context of other data, qualitative and quantitative. However, I do feel strongly that numbers have a lot to tell us--they allow us the hope of greater objectivity, and therefore possibly less subjective, more accurate assessments. When applied identically to all players, Winshares will adjudicate "fairly," paying no attention to max contracts, shoe endorsements, nicknames, or "intangibles." Intangibles are tricky--they may indeed be part of player value, but they are also, by definition immeasurable, and may therefore expand to fill the role required of them? Was your favorite player not voted league MVP? Certainly they failed to consider his intangibles, which would have easily put him over the top...

Why are Winshares measured in that specific way? Don't you know that linear weights are no good, or that assists are worth much more than you give them credit for? Read on...

Theory

Imagine a cooperative grocery store, owned by those who work there. At the end of one year, the store's revenues exceed its expenditures by a large margin, and the workers are to be paid out of this surplus. One concept of fairness might dictate that a worker who worked p% of the total man-hours for that year ought to receive p% of the surplus. Arguably, he contributed p% of whatever effort determined whether or not the store would succeed, and should be rewarded accordingly. A worker working a large number of hours could be said to have contributed more to the store's success or failure than another who only worked one shift a month--if the store profits by a large margin, that employee should receive a larger share of the windfall, just as if the store loses money, that employee should be held culpable for a larger share of the deficit.

Now imagine another similar store competing in the same market. Its surplus at the end of the year is twice that of the first store. Is it possible to compare the value, in terms of surplus, of employees from the two different stores? I would argue that it is possible: if pay is allocated in the same manner in both stores, with worker i in store j receiving payment in proportion to his labor contribution, the worker who receives the highest paycheck is the most valuable. That is, if pay is equal to worker man-hours over store total man-hours times store surplus, we can compare employees across any two firms in the same market.

But wait--what if some employees are more efficient workers than others? What if Alice can generate three times the revenue that Bob can generate in the same number of hours? Doesn't our payment formula then overpay Bob and under-reward Alice, and doesn't this complicate yet again the comparison across firms? Yes it does, and so we might try to find better measures of worker contributions to the surplus. Perhaps we could keep statistics on the number of cans shelved, or the number of transactions tendered, or the number of smiles flashed--if we could figure out even just the relative value of each of these things (that is, not necessarily how they each translate into surplus, but whether one smile is worth two cans shelved, etc.), then we are back on track. It doesn't matter whether or not we can measure exactly how much revenue is brought in by each additional shelve stocked (although this would be interesting and useful), but if we know that it's worth more (by some scalar factor) to clean the bathroom than it is to check receipts at the door, we can still estimate each workers contribution to the total amount of valuable work being done at the store.

This analogy carries over very well to sports, and specifically here, to basketball. A player who plays fully 1/5th of total team minutes played (that is 48 minutes per game for 82 games) ought to be credited with approximately 1/5th of his team's success or failure--both of which can be measured in terms of wins. Using minutes to assess contributions runs into the same problem as in the stores above--they say nothing about efficiency--and as such, it is useful to find other statistics that more accurately estimate contributions to team success. The statistics employed in Winshares are boxscore stats, such as points, rebounds, assists, missed shots, etc. These are imperfect measures, but to the extent their relative value can be assessed, they may be useful in estimating each player's contribution.

Calculation

Unfortunately, this relative evaluation is very difficult. It is often claimed by more "sophisticated" observers of the game that most fans fail to look past point-per-game numbers, giving infinitely more weight to scoring than to any other contributions. Yet, it is exceedingly difficult to identify just what the appropriate weights might be. Multiple regression analysis yields somewhat unsatisfactory results when applied in a straightforward manner--typically finding, for example, that offensive rebounds are actually detrimental to team success. Other work, including that done by Berri and Hollinger, is much more thorough, but leaves something to be desired (a topic which has been covered better elsewhere than can be possibly done by this author in this exposition).

As for Winshares, it would be disingenuous to claim that the ideal and true set of values has been found, but it is my belief that the reasoning is sound, and the results pass the "laugh test," that is, given a subjective assessment of the sport, the relative importance of each boxscore statistic seems to be, at the very least, in the right order.

To identify the weights used, we may begin with a simple but strong assumption: the most valuable "good things" are those that opponents are most resistant to allowing, and thus are relatively rare, while the most detrimental "bad things" are those that a player is most trying to avoid, and thus are similarly relatively rare. With this in mind, I present counting sums for each of 8? boxscore counting stats from 1979-80 through 2007-08 (which I call the Modern era, characterized by the introduction of the three point shot to NBA play):

* field goals missed and free throws missed

Dividing each of these totals by the sum of the totals (17,008,507), we arrive at the following frequencies:

Normalizing these frequencies to that of points, we get:

Then, subtract each of the above from 1, so we are placing more weight on the rarer occurances, and set the points coefficient to 1, because the ultimate aim of all defense is to prevent scoring, and the ultimate aim of all offense is to score:

Assign positivity and negativity according to whether each is helpful or deleterious to team success, and we arrive at a set of scalars for estimating valuable contributions (often abbreviated val):

val = pts - fgx*0.5603802 - ftx*0.9345311 + as*0.7697530 + or*0.8709732 + dr*0.7111727 + st*0.9190908 + bk*0.9495596 - to*0.8473544 - pf*0.7729732

Any player's val less than zero is then set to zero, but val is rarely a large negative number. Compared to the difficulty of valuable contribution assessment, the final steps in Winshare calculation are extremely simple: merely find each player's percent contribution to his team's total sum of valuable contributions from all players, and multiply this by team wins:

winshr = (val / team val) * team wins

We are left with an estimate of individual player value that combines individual contributions and team success, and allocates the most credit to those players who did the most to win the most. There is just one adjustment made to allow comparisons across all NBA seasons: for seasons prior to the official distinction between offensive and defensive rebounds, the formula is adjusted to incorporate total rebounds in their stead.

Discussion

The first thing to note is that as we apply the formula increasingly further back in time, we might become somewhat less certain of its absolute accuracy as the boxscore statistics on which it is based drop from the official record. Thus, for the very earliest years of the BAA, we might not be as confident in our estimate as for most years since, but the results are still very compelling, and seem to hold up to scrutiny despite the relative dearth of data. One of the merits of Winshares as a measure is that it is relatively flexible across a variety of situations, relying as it does on player percent contributions, which can almost always be measured in some manner.

Another caveat is to bear in mind that Winshares is a season-cumulative statistic, and so the ceiling varies by the number of games played in a season. Winshares for the strike-shortened season of 1998-99 are much lower than other contemporary seasons, due to the fact that all teams won fewer games than they normally would have. Adjustments can easily be made, however, by finding per-game or per-minute Winshare rates, and making comparisons at that level. This helps, too, in determining the impact of an injured player, given that he has played fewer games. However, the initial impetus for constructing Winshares was to estimate player value in terms of wins, and this is best done on a season-cumulative scale.

One thing done relatively poorly by Winshares in its current iteration is measurement of the value of players traded during the season. To do this completely accurately, it would be useful to isolate only the games the player appeared in for each of his several teams, looking at individual statistics and team wins within those sub-season units. However, this sort of analysis requires data not generally available in convenient form, and truly, the logical extension of this idea is fairly well captured by the plus/minus statistic. As it stands, Winshares still does a relatively good job (subjectively assessed) in measuring traded players' value, but it is something worth noting.

Winshares in application

Often understanding is best achieved through application, and so I present

The Top 1,000 Winshare Seasons

covering the NBA, ABA, and BAA from 1946-2008. Keep in mind the above caveats about data availability, especially for seasons prior to 1951-52. In a similar vein, here is a list of

The Top 100 Winshare Careers

again, this is cumulative across the entirety of each player's career, and so players with longevity are advantaged. I have included games played in this listing, to allow the reader to make his or her own adjustments.

Finally, every player, every team played for, 2007-08 season.

Geometric representation

One of the more useful ways to conceptualize Winshares is as player percent valuable contributions * team success. This has a particularly interesting expression in geometric terms, where Winshares can be thought of as the area of the rectangle created by multiplying valpct by team wins. The following series of visualizations depicts Winshares as a geometric comparison of player value. The color scheme is based on playing style--more detail on this classification may be found here.

2007-08 NBA: Chris Paul edges out Kobe Bryant as most valuable player according to Winshares, Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce turn in stellar seasons for the Celtics, and LeBron James carries a huge load for his team, and is rewarded in terms of Winshares, if not in post-season success.

1986-87 NBA: A season featuring more all-time greats than perhaps any other (as noted here), we see Larry Bird and Magic Johnson at the height of their rivalry, Michael Jordan and Hakeem Olajuwon coming into their own, and too many other star players to even mention.

1971-72 NBA & ABA (combined): Classic Lakers and Celtics teams, a young Dr. J, Kareem's greatest year, an almost-as-great year from Artis Gilmore, and countless other NBA past greats.

Sacramento Kings Franchise History: This storied franchise didn't quite make the playoffs in a very competitive 2007-08 Western Conference, but its history is littered with greats such as Oscar Robertson and Chris Webber.

Well, with the off-season now here for the Jazz, it's time to get into other things. Free agency, the draft, resignings, trades, and... above all... rumors. And it's rumors that I have for you right now.



Deron Williams, star PG for the Jazz, is nearing the end of his rookie contract. If it all works out, he won't even have to worry about it. The Jazz will probably give him a 5-year max contract, which would keep Deron here through the 2013-2014 season.

That's the plan," Williams said. "I definitely love it here. I think we have a great team, a great coaching staff and have a chance to win. That's the thing that's most important to me."

Getting him signed is huge. He's the star & the leader of this team... letting him go would be a huge blow to the team.

His first preference would be to stay with the Jazz, but Miles is expected to go through a second summer as a restricted free agent. The Jazz are expected to tender him a $1.2 million qualifying offer that would enable them to match any deal Miles would sign.

But, just to note...

Counting Miles, the Jazz would have 14 players under contract. O'Connor prefers not to fill the 15th spot on the roster in case he has to take back an extra player in a two-for-one trade. The Jazz also own the No. 23 pick in the June 26 draft.

The team also has two 2nd round picks. I would love for CJ to stick around... but I question if he'll want to knowing that he's not going to get a lot of playing time barring injury or a surprise trade or retirement or something.

O'Connor could opt to trade Kirilenko, but the Jazz would have to find a taker for the $50 million left on his contract.

We all know that's an option... it has been for a while now. After AK demanded the trade last year, he seemed to settle down a bit and played a lot better this season. Plus, trading him would be hard with his contract. And you have to assume that his missing practice before Game 6 isn't going to be looked upon too highly, even if he had gotten a previous okay.

Jazz coach Jerry Sloan agreed to a one-year extension in December and is expected back next season. Sloan said he would go through his usual practice of notifying the team this summer that he did want to return.

I guess this was expected.

The Jazz are expected to exercise the third-year option in Millsap's contract before June 30. Jason Hart faces a similar deadline to decide about opting out of the second year of his contract, worth $2.5 million.

Both Chicago and Phoenix have requested permission to speak with assistant Tyrone Corbin for their head coaching vacancies, while the Suns have inquired about assistant Phil Johnson.

With Miles' qualifying offer, the Jazz have a payroll of $62.5 million for 2008-09. The league's salary cap for this season was $55.6 million and its luxury-tax threshold was $67.9 million.

'Sap's contract was a no-brainer. No way you let him leave. Hart... he knows he won't get much time if he stays. The question is, can he get similar money elsewhere? If so... good-bye. If not... welcome back.


I've never understood the point of a salary cap below the luxury-tax threshold, but eh... no one has ever convinced me that the NBA is smart anyways. I'm all for a hard salary cap... something the NBA doesn't have.

Harpring, who is in the middle of a four-year, $25 million deal he signed with the Jazz in July 2006, doesn't have any immediate plans to retire. He takes his career year by year, he said. It was clear Friday night that while his knees might ache and his minutes may dwindle from season to season, Harpring would feel like he had cheated himself of an opportunity to win an NBA title if he quit now.

I guess he'll be back too.

If Pat Riley and the Heat win No. 1 pick in Tuesday's lottery, he's put Derrick Rose ahead of Michael Beasley, according to the New York Daily News.

He needs a point guard and he's targeted Utah's Carlos Boozer as a candidate for a free-agent signing down the road, perhaps even next summer.

...Boozer has a $12.65 million player option for the 09-10 season...

This is kinda worrisome... even with his horrible post-season. Booze is still one of the stars of the team, and having him opt-out and leave is a little frightening to think about. Just a little.


Enjoy.

Well, all the Lakers fans, after whining their asses off during & after Games 3 & 4, came back in full strength after Game 5, asking us (as bloggers/fans) why we didn't quit our whining (because obviously only they can do the whining) and win (because obviously we play for the Jazz &/or otherwise control whether they win or lose). So then... let's focus on the positives coming from Game 5, shall we?

• The horrible very fair officiating continued as the home teams improved to 19-1 in the 2nd round. Obviously, if you played 2 playoff teams on a neutral court, one team would declare it "home" and win 19 out of 20, no? Very, very reasonable. That's what makes the playoffs so great. I mean, in most sports, it'd be close to 50-50. What's the fun in that? 95-5... now that makes it exciting!
• Kobe Bryant got the win. That's all that matters in the series. Just ask any major (sporting) news source. The recap (& title) will undoubtedly focus on Bryant, his back & the Lakers win. No mention of the Jazz anywhere. Just like Game 3 only had mention of Kobe & the Lakers loss, and Game 4 added in the bit about Kobe's back. The Jazz? What's that? And that's as it should be. I mean, this is the NBA... league of the individual superstars. Down with the team mentality!
• It's the new rule... if you're wearing light blue uniforms in LA, you're not going to get any calls going to struggle because you suck. First the Nuggets, then the Jazz. Light blue doesn't cut it. It makes the team even worse. I mean, the nerve of them... to run into the paint & fall down upon getting hit. Seriously guys, it's a mans game! Grow up. Oh, and then the nerve to touch a Laker, especially Kobe. Seriously guys, don't you know that the league is all about babying the superstars? You've been in the league how long now?
• Lakers fans are the classiest in the league. No bandwagoners, and no Lakers fan has ever been anything but the most respectful to players & fans of every team, no matter how hated the rival. And they never whine about anything, even if they happen to (god forbid it) lose. Why don't Jazz fans, where everyone is a bastard & a whiner & cold-hearted & insensitive & classless & Mormon & a polygamist, learn better? Why boo the refs? You just have to wait until David Stern decides that it is time for your team to win it all, or at least make it there. This is Lakers year? Why try & fight it?
• Gordon Monson is a genius. I mean, who'd have ever guessed that David Stern isn't Vince McMahon? I mean, they have the same appearance & same name and everything! I used to think they were the same person. The NBA is a billion-dollar business? I was so sure that it was non-profit... wouldn't that have made it a bit more even for the teams? Oh wait... I forgot. Down with the team mentality! The whole thing would've come to light? What are you talking about? You mean that people would actually have noticed a guy getting ejected for laughing or that some players left the bench last season & got ejected while the same thing happened this year and nothing came to be? Or that they'd notice when the ref runs into the player & calls a foul on a defender? Or that they'd notice when they get T'd up for arguing a call... from their couch? Or that someone would realize that teams are 19-1 at home in the playoffs in the 2nd round? Oh, and what about the fans of other teams? They whine too... should they also shut up? You know... because fans are wrong? Not everyone is as classy as Lakers fans or as unbiased as some Gordon Monson. And he's right, everyone makes mistakes. Just recently, I was thinking that Stern was a horrible commissioner. What a stupid mistake I was making there. I mean, he's the best thing since portable toilets.
• Whoever said that Stern was just going for a Lakers-Celtics match-up is totally out of it. Stern is just letting every series go towards 7 games (with the home team winning most of the time) to maximize profits. The fact that the Lakers & Celtics (or Hornets &/or Pistons) end up at the top then is just coincidence. Nothing to do with Kobe or Chris Paul (the best draft pick in NBA history!) or KG (the most unfortunate player in NBA history!) or Ray Allen or Paul Pierce or the billions of bandwagon fans for one of the 2 teams that'll bring in trillions of dollars for the NBA. Lakers-Celtics as the goal... psshh. It's just an unavoidable side-effect.
• It's a known fact now... Jerry Sloan is a horrible liar & cheat. All these years of yelling "3 seconds" at the completely honest & totally perfect refs made them think such a rule existed on the offensive end. Luckily for them, Phil Jackson, who has never whined in his life because he too calls LA home at times during the season, let them know this before the playoffs. This way, they wouldn't buy into J-Slo's crap and accidentally blow the whistle on his own player (Pau Gasol) for committing a violation of a rule that doesn't exist. Can you imagine the uproar? Pau gets called for 3-seconds in the key. While Lakers fans would sit back and think "oh, the refs just made a mistake, but it's alright because everyone makes mistakes except us" & Jazz fans would celebrate due to being blinded by J-Slo's yelling it every year since the end of the dinosaurs, fans all over the nation would've jumped up yelling "WHAT??? Can they make up new rules in the middle of a game?" It would've been horrible for the NBA to try and explain that.
• J-Slo proved he does in fact deserve Coach of the Year. What other coach would've, for the good of the team, removed Ronnie Brewer for Matt Harpring? Just because Brewer was 7-9 from the field & had 5 assists, doesn't mean that he should play more than 24 minutes, even if he was the 2nd best offensive player on the court for the team. Some stupid coach would've left him in longer and let him go off for more. Obviously Harpring (2-4 from the field) and the fact that he can't defend Kobe worth a lick makes him a much more important player to have on the court. Plus, Harpring had twice the number of fouls Brewer did, suggesting he played twice as much defense. Oh, and the decision to stick with Kyle Korver late in the game instead of going back to Brewer? Ingenious. Korver may miss the 3's when you most need them while Brewer might make them, but you have to stick with Korver because he's shot more during the season. Simple. Practice makes perfect, and Ronnie hasn't jacked up enough 3's on the season. The CoY is J-Slo's next year for sure. After all, aren't all the awards now "Lifetime Achievement" awards?
• The Jazz foul everyone all the time. And they never attack the hoop, so they never get fouled. Their amazingly high FG% during the season didn't come because they were attacking the hoop, it came because they got lucky on their jumpers & didn't shoot a lot. They're doing the same now, but not getting as lucky. The team has never seen a jumper it doesn't like, and has never found an opportunity to drive to the hoop that they'd take... even to save their own lives. So all this complaining about them driving & getting hammered in the lane? Complete hogwash. Don't believe a word of it. The fews times they do drive, they don't get hit either. They fall because they don't know how to tie their shoes, so they trip on the laces. Or because their legs get tangled with other Jazz players, since none of them know how to react when the ball is inside the paint.
• New decree in the NBA! Don't try to defend Kobe Bryant. You can't. The Jazz need not even try anymore. It's now a punishment (a foul the first time, a 2nd foul the 2nd time, and so on) every time you try to. Kinda like steroids, except after 6 times trying to defend you can't enter the game, while after 6 times getting caught with steroids, you could still get a job with half the teams in the MLB. Or like committing crimes, except for that after the 6th crime, the Bengals would still welcome you open handed.
• CJ Miles played! (I've got to have something that isn't sarcastic, don't I?) Not nearly enough (stupid Harpring and his lack of D), but he still played!

In other words, there were plenty of positives (the game of one of the big guys on the Jazz isn't one of them), so focusing on the negatives (officiating so bad that the disaster known as The Titanic... Leonardo DiCaprio style... would be put to shame, Booze, turnovers, not driving to the hoop enough, not making the shots... getting hammered is not a good reason to miss, etc.) is not a good way to pass time.


Anyhow, Game 6 is sometime between now and the full moon on December 12th... I really don't know (or care) when. So go out... make your signs & paint your faces & buy those Jazz jerseys (but not pink Korver jerseys) & get married (again?) if you want to & even make up sick & wrong jokes (I won't, but everyone has their own way to bet ready) about Derek Fisher. It's wrong & classless, but hey... you're a Jazz fan. Everyone thinks that of you anyways. If you have the reputation & no one is going to back off because there are some idiots in Utah (obviously, there are no idiots anywhere else in the world), might as well get involved. No? (To note... I support all of the aforementioned activities except the last one. Leave Fish & his daughter/family out of it. There's plenty of other people to make fun of, without bringing something serious into it. Like Luke Walton!) Maybe a "who's your daddy?" sign with a picture of Luke getting stuffed. Or a on-going tally of Kobe's airballs in Utah in the playoffs. Or a clock counting the number of seconds Gasol spends in the key before leaving. If you have that they, sit in the front so the refs can see you.


You stay classy, San Diego classless, Salt Lake.

Above is the picture of the hit that Ronny Turiaf laid on Ronnie Price in Game 4... after the whistle blew.

More pictures (and thoughts) below...

Above now is a picture of Price after he hit the ground.

And here is a picture of No Knees playing doctor, like we all used to do when we were young ones growing up.

If you want more images from the game, click here. Amongst them are more views of the Turiaf flagrant, plenty of pictures of Pau Gasol complaining, pictures of Kobe on the deck (Price was pushed to the ground, Kobe pushed AK and then hit the ground... just saying), and even pictures of the cast of High School Musical 3. 12 pages worth of pictures. Enjoy as you desire.


Anyhow, onto the foul. Price doesn't think Turiaf should've been ejected from Game 4. Some stupid logic from Phil Jackson makes it seem like he thinks the same thing. And now we know that Turiaf will not be suspended for Game 5. Or at least, Steve Luhm does. And he disagrees with the decision.

Turiaf was ejected from the game by the officials for hammering Price, but NBA disciplinarian Stu Jackson apparently decided running through a player who has already left his feet, leading with a left forearm to the chest, making a feeble wave at the basketball as the two collided and knocking an off-balance opponent awkwardly to the floor is not a big deal.


If you compare Turiaf's foul with a couple of others that have resulted in suspensions during the playoffs, you will see just how arbitrary Jackson's decision appears.
Washington's Darius Songaila was suspended for a looks-bad-in-slow-motion blow to LeBron James' face in the first-round series between the Wizards and Cavaliers. Meanwhile, Atlanta's Marvin Williams was suspended for the first game next season after pulling down the Celtics' Rajon Rondo from behind in Game 7 of the Boston-Atlanta series.
If you look at all three incidents, I think it's easy to see that Price was put in far greater jeopardy than James or Rondo. Yet, Turiaf skates.

By the way, Phil Jackson had this to say after the game...

"I thought the kid was out of control when he went in, and Ronny did go up to block the shot, but I thought he entirely played the ball," Jackson said. "I haven't seen a call like that. I was very surprised that he was put out of the game."

Now, I'll admit that I didn't see the game (or at least not this part of the game), so I'm probably not one to comment on this. In fact, I know I'm not one to comment on this... so I'm not going to. For those that saw the play... should he be suspended or not? Is Luhm right... or losing it? Should a hit like that (whatever it was like) after the whistle be enough to warrant a suspension?

Not much more to ask for, considering that the Jazz came home down 2-0. Two home wins, sending the series back to LA tied (so much for a sweep, eh Lakers fans?), and guaranteeing at least a Game 6 at the ESA. Knowing that the Jazz have to get at least one game in LA if they hope to move on, I really hope that it's Game 5 and not a potential Game 7.


The officiating, which has been so bad in the playoffs, was generally good during the game... the decision to toss Ronny Turiaf might've been a bit much, but other than that... In the end, after a disappointing Lakers' comeback late (down 12 with 3 minutes to go, tie it up and force OT), the Jazz took over in the OT. They were really helped by Kobe... who was playing injured but seemed to still lose confidence in his teammates late.



Booze had a horrible 1st half, and that's being generous. He was 1-7 for 2 points. His 2 points came on a fast-break, where he was the trailer that benefited from Deron's amazing passing ability. Other than that, he was clanking jumpers left and right. Deron picked up the slack though, getting 19 first-half points. Also big early was Ronnie Brewer, who got 2 alley-oops from Deron to get the crowd going, and then had a nice outlet pass off a board leading to a Deron fast-break dunk.


Speaking of fast-break dunks, you know who didn't get one? Luke Walton, that's who! Amazing play by Ronnie Price to get back and block the shot. Walton had an easy fast-break lane to the hoop (he was well ahead of everybody), but he slowed down and let Ronnie get back. Ronnie really has some hops, by the way.


And speaking of Ronnie, he doesn't seem to think Turiaf should've been tossed either. I'll admit, I didn't see the play, but I guess the refs will use the "after the whistle" argument. Whatever. In a series where the officiating has been as reliable as Carlos Boozer, you take what you can get. Price hit the ground hard, but bounced right back up.


The bench was huge for the Jazz... outscoring their Laker counterparts, 39-16. No Knees played well offensively. KoKo missed quite a few shots, but still hit the double digits (and was solid from the line late in OT). 'Sap showed determination to get to the hoop... something that Booze didn't. And Price was solid in his very few minutes. For the Lakers... Walton & Vujacic did some scoring. Turiaf, Mbenga & Farmar... not so much.


Deron finished with 29 and 14. Booze bounced back in the 2nd half, finishing with 14 on 5-15 shooting (aka, 4-8 in the 2nd half & OT). He also had 12 boards. Okur finished with 18 and 11, and had 2 huge jumpers in OT to put the Jazz ahead for good. AK finished with 15, including a huge 3-point play late in the OT (after a huge rebound by Okur to let the Jazz run the clock a bit more). It was a huge play by AK too... took the pass from Deron, and went from right-to-left under the hoop to get the jam and foul while making sure the shot couldn't be blocked. Brewer finished with 8 points in 23 minutes... getting very little time (if any) late.


For the Lakers... Kobe finished with 33 points. But it took him 33 shots, of which he made 13. This includes a 1-10 night from long range, and 6-10 from the FT line. He was struggling with the bad back... late in the game he was unable to get the explosion that we're used to see him getting. That led to a couple of blocks for AK (he finished with 5). And in OT, it was Kobe shooting (and missing) early and often. Gasol finished with 23 on 11-16 shooting, but his most aggressive move of the night came in OT... and ended with a missed reverse jam. Odom had 26 & 13, but had the late foul on AK. He is the reason there was OT though... draining a huge 3 late, and then getting a put-back with less than 5 seconds left to knot the game up at 108. Vladimir Radmanovi went 1-6 (0-3 from long range) for 2 points. Fisher finished with 15 points, including 4 3-pointers late. He got into early foul trouble again (Deron needs to attack Fish early in Game 5... the back-ups can't stick with him as well as Fish can), but still hurt the Jazz late with the huge shots.


I'll admit... I didn't watch the whole game. I caught the first quarter, and then the Lakers comeback late in the 4th, and then the OT session. So I missed the Price flashes. And most of Boozer's horrible 1st half. And a lot more. But, from what I saw... Kobe was hurt. Booze struggled. Memo was solid late (the jumpers in OT, the huge rebound late in OT). Odom stepped up big late. KoKo was perfect from the line when it most counted.


Kobe airballed a 3-pointer late in OT... flashing back to the Kobe of his rookie season. In OT, it seemed like Kobe either lost all confidence in his teammates, or simply decided to try and take over. Which is a bit harder when you're injured. Anyhow, he struggled... a couple missed jumpers, a couple shots blocked, before the airball. He did get 3 FTs on a stupid foul by AK late, but yeah. Too little, too late... the Lakers stunk it up early in OT, costing them any shot they had to win the game. The Jazz got a couple of huge jumpers from Okur, and then got the AK "and-1" and FTs to seal the deal. Of course, while people will blame Kobe now for taking everything in OT while injured, you realize he's the superstar on the team, right? And with Gasol's missed jam and the rest of the team just standing around... plus, if he had kept passing and the team had still lost, he would've been blamed for not shooting enough.


The Lakers were 14-25 from the FT line. That's 56%... aka horrendous. The Jazz were above 82%, and shot at 53% from the field (to the Lakers 47%). The Lakers shot 26 three pointers, and missed most of the them (17)... no thanks to Radmanovic (0-3) & Bryant (1-10). The Jazz were 6-17 from long range (KoKo 2-6, Deron 3-4, Okur 1-4). Each team had 41 rebounds; the Lakers had 12 offensive and the Jazz had 7. The Jazz had 12 more assists and 4 more blocks.


Game 5 is Wednesday in LA, Game 6 is Friday in Salt Lake. If necessary, Game 7 will be Monday in LA.

Closet Jazz fan???

I'm really trying to avoid bringing the refs into this. I promise. But the game today was just plain and total crap.


I mean, I could go into many (good?) things...

• Booze finally showed up. He got himself 20 & 20, and even shot above 50% from the field. He had a couple of huge shots late, before a Jazz time-out. After that, the Jazz didn't go back to him until there were like 3 seconds left in the game.
• Deron had 18 & 12. He had a couple of big shots late. He took a hard fall in the 2nd, and was icing his wrist whenever on the bench after that.
• Okur was 4-7 from long range, and finished with 22 & 7. And he had a big shot late as well.
  

• AK had 12 and played great defense on Kobe before fouling out. He also had a nice put-back at one point in the game.
• No Knees got 12 as well, but was an absolute horror on D. And he had a horrible end to the 1st quarter. In other words, he still sucks. Why would you ever put him on Kobe? That's like suicide. Except worse.
• Brewer had 6, KoKo had 5 & 'Sap had 2. CJ got another DNP because J-Slo would rather see No Knees constantly foul Kobe.
• Kobe had 34 points, exploding in the 2nd half. He shot 17 FTs. And he was 0-6 from long range, including a couple of shots that seemed oddly familiar to T-Mac's shots from the 4th quarter in the first round.
• Four other Lakers hit double-digits, and 2 more got 8 apiece. No one else scored for the team.
• There didn't seem to be any booing of Fisher... either the person (good) or the Laker (bad... how can you cheer for an opponent when he drains a trey in a close game?). Of course, there were probably some idiots in the stands, but I didn't catch anything much.
• Did Phil Jackson even think before dressing up before the game? I mean... what was going through his head? Look at how well his suit matches with the color of the crowd... of the opposing team! Hilarious.
• The Jazz shot 50% from the field and 37.5% from long range to overcome the FT discrepancy that the refs gave them. And it was needed, given that the refs kept the Lakers in even though the Jazz shot better, had more boards, more assists and fewer turnovers. Ah... the advantage of having the refs on your side.

But the game can be better summed up by a picture. I am bad with (aka, I've never used) photoshop, so before you see the pic, you need to do something. Remember... the person in the picture isn't Charles Barkley, it's Kobe Bryant. Simple enough, right? Remember that though, otherwise the picture doesn't work.


I mean, what's the point of stating the good (arguably)? All that does is take away from the obvious bad... something that has really made the NBA a pain to watch. Even then though... it was nice to see Boozer play well. It was good to see the Jazz play nice D on Kobe... forcing him to get all his points with the help of the 3 blind zebras. Nice to see that Flop didn't get 11 minutes this time around. And more.


The refs were just bad. I mean, horrible. Especially late, where pretty much everything but the totally obvious went the Lakers way. There was the hook by Kobe (pic here... scroll down to the only pic in the comments) that wasn't called... even though Dick Bavetta was looking right at it. They had no troubles calling a tech on J-Slo when he complained though. And that's just one of the many bad calls/missed calls. Plenty of bad calls... most favoring the Lakers. Oh, and all the people that say the Jazz get "all the calls at home"... the Jazz had 28 fouls, the Lakers 23; the Jazz had 28 FTs, the Lakers 37. And the Jazz weren't exactly fouling to try and get the ball back at the end of the game. And it's not like the Jazz settled for jumpers every possession either. They drove in plenty, but got no calls. The Lakers got calls everywhere. It's total crap. In fact (from after game 2)... read this. (Hat tip to SLC Dunk) And the inconsistencies between the teams and in games has been horribly frustrating.


Remember... it's Kobe in the picture, not Barkley. Kobe, not Barkley.

(Image comes from The Sports Hernia, via Google Image search)

Yet again, the Jazz only played 3 strong quarters, finishing the 2nd, 3rd & 4th quarters with a +5 margin. Unfortunately, they fell behind by 15 after the 1st, and ended up losing by 10.


Why the loss? Let's see.

• Major free throw discrepancy? Check, the Lakers shot 27 more free throws.
• Bad team defense? Check, the Lakers had 3 guys with 20+ points, one more with 19 and one with 12. Oh, and the Lakers shot 57% from the field.
• Bad perimeter defense? Check, the Lakers were 7-11 from long range.
• Comparison... the Jazz were 7-18 from long range, and shot 81.2% from the line to the Lakers 81.4%. But difference from points at the line? 23. Ouch.
• Bad shooting? Check, the Jazz were a sad 44.6% from the field. Oh, and this... the Lakers took 68 shots. The Jazz took 101.
• Flop? Check, he played 11 minutes. On the other hand, CJ played 14 seconds.
• Stupidity? Check... the Lakers had 9 blocks to the 1 for the Jazz, 5 by Pau Gasol himself.
• And to note... the Jazz had more boards (offensively & total), more steals & more assists. They also had 10 more fouls. Do I blame the officiating? Yes, at least a little.

The blame can't just go on the officiating. You also have to add in the same 3 guys from game 1. Booze was 3-10 from the field, and ended up with a bunch of stupid fouls. I don't know where he's disappeared to in the playoffs, but he's stupid for it. We need him to play a lot better. A lot. No Knees jacked up 9 shots, making... 2. He also had 2 turnovers and 2 fouls. I don't get why he keeps getting time, he's clearly over the hill now. On defense, he can't keep up with any player (or team) that runs faster than a snail. Jerry... No Knees got 20 minutes. Booze got enough minutes to totally suck. Flop got 11 minutes. You only give 14 seconds to CJ? Brewer was 6-10 from the field in under 24 minutes. Why not play him more? Why not bench Booze and play 'Sap (7-13, 10 boards, 17 points) more? Seriously! He was the only player to get more than 5 boards. Why not retire?


Deron had a bad first half, and then exploded in the 2nd half. Unfortunately, with Booze still playing like crap, it wasn't enough for the Jazz, and they ended up falling by 10. Surprisingly, there is only 1 day off between these 2 games (games 2 and 3), even with the travel required. Why not give us 2 days here instead? Anyhow, the Jazz need to win 4 of the next 5 games (3 of the games are at home) to advance on. It's still possible (because "nothing is impossible"), but it looks about as likely as the chance that J-Slo stops playing No Knees so much. In other words, highly doubtful. I still hope, yes. But I'm not expecting any miracles from this team. Especially not with Booze revisiting the days when we had Mikki Moore & Tom Gugliotta playing the 4-spot. And that statement might be an insult to those 2 players.


So yeah... Game 3 is Friday night at 7 PM at the ESA. The Jazz have been in a 2-0 hole recently (against the Rockets last year) and come back to win... but those Rockets aren't these Lakers. First, the refs love Kobe. Second, the NBA head-honchos love Kobe & a potential Lakers/Celtics Finals. Third, the Rockets didn't acquire a star player for pennies on the dollar. It might not have even been pennies. Penny is more like it. And fourth, this year's Jazz team doesn't have the same Boozer.


Linkage
SLC Dunk recap
Jazz Hype has an idea... I'm all for trading No Knees; I'm still hoping Booze shows up though.
Siler's recap... the Sloan quote completely forgets one thing... the disadvantage the Jazz have on the coaching end.


On, and off-topic, but just FYI... the Zohan commercial with the split screen of Adam Sandler & Baron Davis is awesome. Yeah... just throwing that out there.

Jerry Sloan's coaching ability is disappearing by the second

Okay, to get it out of the way early... the officiating in the game was crap. At best. On both ends. Horribly inconsistent. It tended to favor Kobe and the Lakers (he's Kobe, it's the NBA), but is arguable both ways (the Lamar Odom no call at the end of the 3rd). But, you know what? The NBA is crap like that... you have to expect that. The superstars (as chosen by the head guys of the NBA & their marketing crew) will get the questionable calls in there favor. Others won't. The Lakers have a superstar (and then another star or 2 after that). The Jazz have no "superstars". Okay, end of that rant. The officials sucked. Again (just like the entire Rockets series). But you can't expect much more from the NBA these days.


Given all that, even if they played a big role in deciding the game, in the end, the blame has to fall on 3 other guys. Well, maybe more, but I only caught half the game (half of the 1st quarter, half of the 3rd quarter, and the 4th quarter until it became a hack-a-Laker fest in the final minute).


First... Late in the game, the Jazz have gone on a run and cut the lead down to 7, and have the ball. Yet, for some totally unknown reason, No Knees tries to play Kobe, and jacks up the next 4 Jazz shots (3 jumpers, 1 ill-advised lay-up on which there should've been a foul call). But he's not Kobe... All 4 miss, really hurting the Jazz-sters chances there. What was he thinking? And how did no-one on the team yell at him or punch him or something? Did he even realize what he was doing?



Second... The guy pictured above (Jerry Sloan) for a reason well described below. But to have some more here... the Jazz go on another late run with AK & Booze on the bench with 5 fouls each. The lead is down to 4. The Lakers call time-out... and coming out of the time-out with like 4-and-a-half minutes left, Booze is back in the game. What? Why would you change something that was working? I know Booze is paid a lot, but he played like crap (to be nice). Why put him back in... especially when the team had cut the lead to 4 without him? Of course, Jerry Sloan is a COY candidate every year... he obviously knows what he's doing.


Third... Carlos Boozer. Need I say more? If you want more... he was 6-14 from the field. He had 7 (7!!!) of the 13 Jazz turnovers. He fouled out with over 3 minutes left... let's stick with that (and see the Sloan thing above). Booze, who's having a horrible game both offensively & in terms of holding onto the ball, heads to the bench with 5 fouls. The Jazz go on a run, cutting the lead to 4. Time-out Lakers. Time-in... Booze back in. What? The Jazz go to Booze when they get the ball, and (surprise surprise) he drops it immediately. Lakers ball on the turnover. On the opposite end, Kobe goes straight at Booze. Kobe might've missed a (the?) FT, I don't remember. But the Jazz momentum was gone (partially because of the Lakers TO I guess, and partially because of the Booze turnover). And that was that. Oh, and don't forget his "defense". God... a rock could've done a better job on Vladimir Radmanovic. I still remember one play in the 2nd half (I think), where the Jazz had 5 guys in the area between the left end-line and the right end of the paint. Radmanovic walked over to the right end-line... and Booze stayed put. Easy 3 for Radmanovic right there. And the Lakers were attacking the lane all-night long... Booze did little on the plays where he didn't foul someone. At least stand in there and try to be a defensive presence.




Do I partially blame the refs? Absolutely. But saying that the officiating in the NBA is bad is equivalent to stating that the Giants won the most recent Super Bowl. It's a given fact. And you have to blame the guys that really cost the team. Stupid coaching. Stupid shooting-decisions. And stupid brick hands. And his stupid defense.


Deron was just 5-18 from the floor, but was just an assist and a board from a triple-double. Of course, stupidity wasn't the only thing that cost the Jazz in the game (and no, I'm not talking about the refs here). There was the pathetic 2nd quarter. And leaving Sasha Vujacic open from long-range. And not drafting Ronny Turiaf a couple years back. Oh, and the fact that the Lakers showed up to play. The Jazz have to realize that the Lakers aren't the Rockets. Their offense works better than the Rockets got theirs to work in the series. Oh, and you also have to remember that Kobe isn't Tracy. He doesn't miss free-throws. And he doesn't disappear in the 4th quarter either. And he's got a better supporting cast. Huge differences there that the Jazz have to account for. If not, we could be looking ahead to the NBA draft by the middle of next week.


Booze has absolutely disappeared in the playoffs. It's sad, really. Maybe I was wrong about the Jazz being set at the 4-spot... they still need a defensive-presence, and maybe even another scorer because what they have now isn't enough.


Anyhow, because the NBA is stupid, Game 2 takes place on July 13, 2068 Wednesday. The games not at the ESA, so if you have tickets for the game, someone gypped you.

Jerry Sloan's coaching ability is disappearing by the second

Okay, to get it out of the way early... the officiating in the game was crap. At best. On both ends. Horribly inconsistent. It tended to favor Kobe and the Lakers (he's Kobe, it's the NBA), but is arguable both ways (the Lamar Odom no call at the end of the 3rd). But, you know what? The NBA is crap like that... you have to expect that. The superstars (as chosen by the head guys of the NBA & their marketing crew) will get the questionable calls in there favor. Others won't. The Lakers have a superstar (and then another star or 2 after that). The Jazz have no "superstars". Okay, end of that rant. The officials sucked. Again (just like the entire Rockets series). But you can't expect much more from the NBA these days.


Given all that, even if they played a big role in deciding the game, in the end, the blame has to fall on 3 other guys. Well, maybe more, but I only caught half the game (half of the 1st quarter, half of the 3rd quarter, and the 4th quarter until it became a hack-a-Laker fest in the final minute).


First... Late in the game, the Jazz have gone on a run and cut the lead down to 7, and have the ball. Yet, for some totally unknown reason, No Knees tries to play Kobe, and jacks up the next 4 Jazz shots (3 jumpers, 1 ill-advised lay-up on which there should've been a foul call). But he's not Kobe... All 4 miss, really hurting the Jazz-sters chances there. What was he thinking? And how did no-one on the team yell at him or punch him or something? Did he even realize what he was doing?


Second... The guy pictured above (Jerry Sloan) for a reason well described below. But to have some more here... the Jazz go on another late run with AK & Booze on the bench with 5 fouls each. The lead is down to 4. The Lakers call time-out... and coming out of the time-out with like 4-and-a-half minutes left, Booze is back in the game. What? Why would you change something that was working? I know Booze is paid a lot, but he played like crap (to be nice). Why put him back in... especially when the team had cut the lead to 4 without him? Of course, Jerry Sloan is a COY candidate every year... he obviously knows what he's doing.


Third... Carlos Boozer. Need I say more? If you want more... he was 6-14 from the field. He had 7 (7!!!) of the 13 Jazz turnovers. He fouled out with over 3 minutes left... let's stick with that (and see the Sloan thing above). Booze, who's having a horrible game both offensively & in terms of holding onto the ball, heads to the bench with 5 fouls. The Jazz go on a run, cutting the lead to 4. Time-out Lakers. Time-in... Booze back in. What? The Jazz go to Booze when they get the ball, and (surprise surprise) he drops it immediately. Lakers ball on the turnover. On the opposite end, Kobe goes straight at Booze. Kobe might've missed a (the?) FT, I don't remember. But the Jazz momentum was gone (partially because of the Lakers TO I guess, and partially because of the Booze turnover). And that was that. Oh, and don't forget his "defense". God... a rock could've done a better job on Vladimir Radmanovic. I still remember one play in the 2nd half (I think), where the Jazz had 5 guys in the area between the left end-line and the right end of the paint. Radmanovic walked over to the right end-line... and Booze stayed put. Easy 3 for Radmanovic right there. And the Lakers were attacking the lane all-night long... Booze did little on the plays where he didn't foul someone. At least stand in there and try to be a defensive presence.




Do I partially blame the refs? Absolutely. But saying that the officiating in the NBA is bad is equivalent to stating that the Giants won the most recent Super Bowl. It's a given fact. And you have to blame the guys that really cost the team. Stupid coaching. Stupid shooting-decisions. And stupid brick hands. And his stupid defense.


Deron was just 5-18 from the floor, but was just an assist and a board from a triple-double. Of course, stupidity wasn't the only thing that cost the Jazz in the game (and no, I'm not talking about the refs here). There was the pathetic 2nd quarter. And leaving Sasha Vujacic open from long-range. And not drafting Ronny Turiaf a couple years back. Oh, and the fact that the Lakers showed up to play. The Jazz have to realize that the Lakers aren't the Rockets. Their offense works better than the Rockets got theirs to work in the series. Oh, and you also have to remember that Kobe isn't Tracy. He doesn't miss free-throws. And he doesn't disappear in the 4th quarter either. And he's got a better supporting cast. Huge differences there that the Jazz have to account for. If not, we could be looking ahead to the NBA draft by the middle of next week.


Booze has absolutely disappeared in the playoffs. It's sad, really. Maybe I was wrong about the Jazz being set at the 4-spot... they still need a defensive-presence, and maybe even another scorer because what they have now isn't enough.


Anyhow, because the NBA is stupid, Game 2 takes place on July 13, 2068 Wednesday. The games not at the ESA, so if you have tickets for the game, someone gypped you.

One game after being embarrassed in Houston, the Jazz came out & put the hurting on the Rockets, running away to a 113-91 win (after a huge 3rd quarter) that gave the Jazz the series by a 4-2 count. The Jazz started the game out strong, and after the Rockets got back a bit in the 2nd, the Jazz exploded in the 3rd. The Jazz outscored the Rockets 27-11 in the quarter, getting 12 from Deron on his own. The Jazz finally put it all together last night, and rolled to the relatively easy win.


To note...

• The Jazz hit their FTs, draining 21 of 25. They also went 10-22 from long range, led by Deron's 6-9 performance.
• The Jazz shot 46.6% from the field, while the Rockets were at just 39%.
• The Jazz had 7 players in double-digits, including double-doubles for Booze & Okur. Booze had 15 & 10, Okur had 19 & 13. Deron had 25 and 9 assists. Brewer added 13, AK had 11, and No Knees & KoKo each had 10.
• For the Rockets, Tracy had 40 & Scola had 15. No one else had more than 8.
• The Jazz had 49 boards (17 offensive), the Rockets had 40 (13). The Jazz had 19 assists to the Rockets 10.
• Bobby Jackson went 2-12 on the night, finishing the series at 20-70. That can't be good.
• The Jazz caught a slight break when Rafer Alston went down and didn't return. Because although he was just 2-7 from the field, he was playing a lot better than Jackson (or Luther Head) did. His coming back to play in Game 3 really provided a spark to the Rockets... one that us Jazz fans (having rarely watched the Rockets) really underestimated.

The Jazz zoomed ahead early, jumping ahead by 10 after 1 (thanks in part to a couple of nice defensive plays by Brewer) and held on after the Rockets cut the lead to 4 going into the half. After the 3rd quarter though, it was all over. Tracy finished with 40 points (13-26 from the field), but got little help from anywhere else. Well, unless you count the refs, who were again horrible on both sides. Again. Seriously... is it that hard for the NBA to find a good ref? Of course, I guess the fouls result from both teams having a physical style of play... it's really frustrating to see the game stopped every 20 seconds because Tracy (who has the ball) runs in to AK (who's playing great defense) though. I mean, I understand the whole "if there is contact, it means the star player was fouled" approach that the NBA has adopted, but it's kinda frustrating when it slows the game down so much. Time outs start having the same problem when you have 1 time out for ever 15 seconds played in the final 2 minutes.


It was nice to see the Jazz start clicking in the game. With the NBA giving them no rest because they want the Lakers on national TV on Sunday, it was nice to see them connecting from both long range & the FT line. Hopefully it continues.


Have to congratulate the Rockets on a great season though. They played well, even with the injuries, and never really gave in. More congratulations, though, belong to the guys over at The Dream Shake, who were extremely classy throughout, showing the same type of homerism that all us Jazz fans showed, while putting up with most of the "anonymous" comments that no one likes anyways (for more anonymous comments reading, the Lakers fans have started visiting My Utah Jazz). Here's hoping we don't have to meet them in the 1st round of the playoffs again... it'd be nice to get a quick 4-0 sweep and rest for another team instead of being the team that plays the longest first round series in the West (6 games).


Anyhow, up next are the Kobes. The first game is sometime tomorrow, and then we're off till Wednesday. Why not start the series on Monday then? You know... let the Jazz rest a bit and let the Lakers do a bit more preparing for the Jazz. It should result in a better series, which should be the NBA's target anyways, no?


Game tomorrow. I'm not going to be at home for most of the day, so yeah.


Go Jazz!

For the 2nd straight game at the ESA, a whistle-blowing contest, headed by official douche Bob Delaney, was interrupted by the Jazz & Rockets. This time Delaney had enough, getting the Jazz into a penalty 2 minutes into the 4th quarter... with a bunch of horrible no calls & horrible calls. Not really surprising though, considering that last game (and the fact that he's the same stupid ref who didn't call a foul on Bruce Bowen when he pushed LeBron in the Finals last year). My only question is... how the hell is this guy allowed to officiate in the playoffs? He sucks. Like majorly. The game is about the players, not the refs. But he refuses to let them play. Oh look, T-Mac flopped backwards. Foul! Oh look, Jumping No Knees flopped on an off-balance shot. Foul! I hope you choke on your whistle, you Jazz-hating bastard. Stern... you should use your best refs in the playoffs. And if he's in the "best" category, the NBA is fucked. Especially given that he is completely anti-Jazz. Biased officials aren't a good thing. Oh, and one more thing... the Jazz are getting no love at all under the hoop. None. The Jazz are getting hammered. Some clean, fine. Some no so clean... where's the whistle?


You want to know what else sucked? The FT shooting on both sides. But I don't care about the Rockets, so ignore that. The Jazz went a horrific 20-33 from the line (60%). AK missed 2. Okur missed 3. Booze missed 5! Deron, Jumping No Knees & 'Sap each missed 1.


The Jazz were only credited with 12 TOs, but the play was just bad. They had many opportunities at boards that they just let get away... The team obviously underestimated Rafer Alston... Deron, that late in the game, you have to lean in, not fade away. Draw the contact (and if you have fair refs, the foul). Fading away gives the D the advantage... Speaking of D, what the hell was up with the Jazz D? It was atrocious... KoKo on T-Mac is a bad idea; Jumping No Knees should be used instead... Jumping No Knees managed a jump, and out-jumped Luis Scola. Thus the new nickname...


Yeah, pretty much... Fuck Bob Delaney & David Stern. And Jazz-sters... make your free throws.


The next game is Saturday. Luckily, the NFL draft is also Saturday, so I won't have to watch the worst officials in the league (why'd the Jazz get stuck with this crew of "refs"?) make a mockery out of the game. The series got the worst rotation of refs possible... why? Oh, and the 8:30 PM game start time is insane... no one wants to be up till 11:15 PM (and that's in Utah... it's already tomorrow in Houston) watching a game that is horribly officiated... Oh, and Deron... you have to take over the game when the rest of the team is stinking it up. You let us all down tonight.


And now, we will forget about this game and the horrible effort the Jazz put up in front of their home crowd. Look ahead. Looking back is for wimps & bad superstars. Look ahead, and be better prepared for Game 4. Oh, and the officiating isn't going to improve because David Stern doesn't like the Jazz (or the West for that matter). So all you can do is hope for a better crew (both teams, that is)... one that lets you play an actual game and not a FT shooting contest during their whistle-blowing contest. Oh, and work on your FTs. Shoot that badly, and you're screwed.


I'd link to others, but I don't feel like it. Plus, no one in their right mind has something up now (except for the rightfully celebrating Rockets fans... the Rockets came out prepared and they held on to win despite their own FT shooting woes).

As seen here, McGrady has taken the "blame others" approach this year. But instead of stopping after the first game, he's at it again. Tracy McGrady decided to lash out at critics (using sarcasm to deliver his thoughts), saying the following...

"It's my fault," McGrady said. "It's my fault we missed free throws. It's my fault we lost both games. Blame me. It's my fault we fouled to tie the game up. That's my fault. It's my fault they get easy layups. It's my fault we're not executing well on the offensive end. It's my fault a couple people in the stands ordered Heinekens and they got Budweiser. It's my fault. I'm sorry."
...
"Everybody's blaming me. The Suns (for being down 2-0 to the Spurs). I mean, everybody. That's what it seems like. It's my fault. I'm out there by myself."

Good lord. Can he really be that stupid? No, you idiot. You're not being blamed for the team missing FTs or for fouling to tie the game (what the hell is he talking about here?) or the entire Jazz team getting easy baskets or the beer switch-up. Duh.


First, the reason you are being blamed... you are considered a superstar. You're supposed to be the team leader, the one that comes through in the clutch as your teammates expect you to. With Whiny Little Girl out with injury, the burden falls on your shoulder (of course, if that's causing a sore shoulder, maybe you should sit out for a day or a week or forever).


So, while Luis Scola shooting sub-40% and Bobby Jackson going 3-15 the first game aren't your fault, other things are. For example... you have 1 point in the two 4th quarters combined. Whose fault is that? You're missing your free throws. Whose fault is that? The guys you're defending are blowing past you (or not really blowing, in the case of one No Knees) for layups. Whose fault is that? As for the offensive execution, some of the blame has to fall on you. There's no need for you to be jacking up ugly looking 3's, even when the game is almost over. First, you're not exactly amazing from long distance. And second, when there's 2 guys on you, someone else has to be open. You putting up the shot (and not even drawing iron) is your fault. Its also your fault that you passed up a chance at finding someone with a better shot of making it... and stagnating the offense in the process.


Look. You're a superstar. And while I, as a Jazz fan, have no problem with you acting like this & playing like crap during "crunch time", you're being a disgrace to all superstars out there. When your team is struggling, you need to come through. If you win, you end up all over ESPN (unless you play for the Jazz or the Grizz or some other small-market team that ESPN hates). If you lose, you get the blame (unless you're Chris Paul, in which case the media goes nuts explaining that its the rest of the team to blame). Yeah... superstar-dom... it doesn't just come freely. You work to get there... and you have to keep working after. If you don't like the blame falling on you, go play as a role player for some other team. Otherwise, grow up and live with it. You want to be paid as a superstar. Act like one then.


Oh, and since it is your fault that the Suns are trailing 2-0, I hate you even more.

For 3 quarters yesterday, T-Mac was the star everyone thinks he is. He was approaching a triple-double, and already had more points at the end of the 3rd than he did all of Game 1. The Jazz had been keeping up, thanks in part to an early run of treys by Deron and a couple of treys by Okur to close the half. That made up for the quiet half for Booze (2 points) and sent the Jazz to the locker room up 6. The Rockets made a run in the 3rd quarter, taking the lead back right at the end and looking to go into the 4th with the momentum in their favor. And then, just like that... Ronnie Price blocked a shot by Chris Rock Aaron Brooks, rushed down court, and drained a 3 at the buzzer, putting the Jazz up by 2 after 3 quarters.


The first 3 quarters had been surprising... the Rockets were out-shooting the normally hot Jazz team, and Bobby Jackson seemed to have overcome the 3-15 night from Game 1. Something happened in that 4th quarter though...


Bobby Jackson sat on the bench. T-Mac disappeared, scoring only 1 point in the quarter. The refs continued to suck, letting some plays go when there should've been a whistle (the shoulder into Deron in the 3rd, Battier slamming AK after a board late in the 4th) and calling some where there shouldn't have (the "up & down" on Deron in the 2nd/3rd when he caught the ball in the air). Anyhow, enough with the refs... this series got the worst officiating crew possible for both of the 1st two games.


Late in the 4th, you have the Scola foul on AK. Yes, it was a foul. Scola, like Mutumbo, has been extending his arms like no other all series. The "flop" there was the only reason it got called. And that's good, because the Jazz have been getting hammered the entire series without getting the calls.


And then you have the KoKo miracle shot with 20 seconds left. He misses a turn-around off the side of the backboard... AK gets the rebound and flips it to KoKo, who gets the shot up with a second left on the shot clock... and somehow makes it! That put the Jazz up 87-82, and all but ended the game. Of course, it was helped by T-Mac taking a horrible looking long jumper on the ensuing possession for the Rockets. Why take that?


Jackson (7-17), Scola (4-11) & Brooks all joined T-Mac (9-22) in double-digits... and missed quite a few shots too. AK was off offensively, but came up huge defensively on T-Mac in the 4th, and got the huge board on the KoKo shot. Booze had 13 & 7, as he got going in the 2nd half. Okur had 16 & 16, Brewer had 10 & Deron had 22 and 5. Price had 8 off the bench, with a couple of huge 3s and a steal & dunk in the 1st. KoKo & 'Sap each had 7, and No Knees had 4 and 4 fouls (some of them were really crappy calls).


T-Mac came out after the game, and again threw the blame elsewhere... blaming the refs for the call & AK for flopping. Problem is... it was a foul. And if you're gonna call out flopping, what about you flopping earlier? Or Scola? Or why not blame them for not calling fouls when Battier attacked AK, or when Brooks through a side into Deron and sent him to the floor? Okay, we get it... the officiating sucked. It's David Stern's league... it's been like that for a while. If a call is the thing that kept you from winning, maybe you should've tried a bit harder. Like, I don't know... don't go 4-19 from long range (T-Mac was 0-4). Or don't miss 10 FTs (T-Mac was 5-9). Not to mention, the Rockets got more calls towards them, and shot 5 more FTs than the Jazz (making 1 more).


As for the foul on Scola (again), Charles Barkley has it best... "That's a good call, but a little flopper on it." (I think that's what he said at the end, I didn't hear him clearly.) Also... is T-Mac calling out his teammates again? It seems like he is, but I'm not certain. Oh, and ESPN... fuck off. If you want bitch about flopping, go watch the Spurs play. Why not mention the stupid calls against the Jazz (or the lack of calls against the Rockets)? AK flopped? Fine, he flopped. If you say so. But it was to the point where some over-acting might've been needed, simply to get the refs to notice him (they didn't notice Deron get hammered... and that wasn't no "flop" either). The crew had been anti-Jazz almost all night... and this guy isn't exactly the best ref in the league (see the Siler recap). Why does ESPN hate the Jazz so much? Bastards.


So, the Jazz come home now up 2-0. Game 3 in Thursday night at the sold-out ESA. It should be a good one.


Linkage
Basketball John recap & videos.
My Utah Jazz recap
FLA early thoughts (including a nice list of players with more 4th quarter points than T-Mac in this series) and an instant classic?
Utah Jazz Blog recap
Siler's recap
The Dream Shake... with almost the entire front-page containing stories from after Game 2.
True Hoop sees foul & has links dealing with the game.

Well, that's how you want to start the playoffs. Especially when you're the Jazz, and you're on the road. Of course, looking at the stat-line for Okur, very few people would've predicted the Jazz to win.

M. Okur: 31:51 minutes, 2-8 from the field, 0-2 from long range, 8 boards, 3 assists, 3 fouls, 4 points

Luckily for the Jazz, someone else stepped up. And that someone is none other than... AK???

A. Kirilenko: 40:22 minutes, 8-12 from the field, 1-2 from long range, 4-5 from the line, 4 boards, 3 assists, 2 steals, 21 points

The Jazz had an early lead, lost it mid-way through the 3rd when T-Mac took over... and then got it back late in the 3rd/early in the 4th. This is largely due to a couple of things... first, KoKo drained a couple of treys (back-to-back, I think), the second coming on a fast-break. All of a sudden, the close game was close no more and the Jazz had their confidence back. And then you have the fact that T-Mac (him of his 20 points on 7-21 shooting) went to the jump-shot in the 4th quarter... and disappeared. Well, until there was 1:05 left in the game, at which point he fouled AK and took himself out of the game.


Deron had 20 points and 10 assists. But he also had 5 TOs, and played 44 minutes. Booze had 20 points and 16 boards. Brewer ended up scoreless... making AK's big night that much more important. No Knees & 'Sap each ended up with 6 points off the bench, and KoKo had 11, including the 2 big treys. Ronnie Price added 5 points in 4 minutes of action.


For the Rockets, Shane Battier led the offensive attack with 22 points (7-7 from the field, 4-4 from long range & 4-6 from the line). T-Mac got his 20. Scola had 14 and 13 boards. Where else to look? Bobby Jackson had 7 points... on 3-15 shooting! Aaron Brooks went 1-7... 0-3 from long range.


The Rockets shot 29-79 from the field. That's below 37%... in contrast, the Jazz shot 52%. The Jazz were 5-10 from deep, the Rockets were 6-22, due largely to T-Mac's 1-5 and Jackson's 1-7. The Jazz were 12-19 (63%) from the line, the Rockets were worse and 18-29 (62%). Each team had 41 boards... the Rockets had 18 offensive ones and the Jazz 13. The Jazz had 22 assists on 38 made shots, the Rockets 15 on their 29 made baskets. The Jazz were whistled for 23 fouls, the Rockets for 18.


I'm really glad the Jazz came out and won, even with the sub-par efforts of Brewer & Okur. Given the way the series played out last year, plus the stupid talk about the Jazz intentionally tanking against the Spurs to get to this match-up (Sloan would never allow that), and the fact that almost everyone is favoring the Jazz... I was afraid that the Rockets would come out with a chip on their shoulder while the Jazz came out overconfident. Not sure how the Rockets came out, by the Jazz played hard throughout (overcoming the foul trouble for Booze & 'Sap as well) and ended up with the 93-82 win.


The game was nowhere close to ideal... the bad games (I need to stop harping on this), the foul trouble, the bad FT shooting... but still. A win is a win. I expect both teams to come out better prepared on Monday.


The Dream Shake isn't too happy with the Rockets performance.
FLA
My Utah Jazz
Basketball John
---still waiting for the Jazz blogs to get something up... if you really want, you can go read the comments there in the "pre-game" posts
Hardwood Paroxysm has a poll up for the NBA blogger awards. I'm happy to be included in the Northwest Division voting & the Western Conference voting. Anyhow, my point is... just go vote. Everyone likes people that vote. If you vote for me, I'd be happy. If not, then meh... whatever. (I'm kinda late with this... BBJ has had the link up for a while, so it's been running for a while.)
Luhm on the Rockets missing WLG, and the spark provided by 'Sap.
Utah Jazz Blog on the game... Look who's back! Again.
While we're talking about being back, lets renew the discussion... did Jordan push Russell? I say yes.


Game 2 Monday night. Peace.

I could go with the whole _enver Nuggets thing again, but what's the fun in that? Especially when, for 2 quarters, the Jazz D was just as bad. I mean, the 3rd quarter involved a lot of the teams exchanging dunks & lay-ups in a blistering pace. Almost as if defense had never been invented.

The Jazz jumped out early, rushing to a 40-25 lead after the first quarter... shooting a blistering 75% from the court. The Nuggets came out firing in the 2nd quarter though, going on a 14-0 run and getting within 3 at half-time. The 3rd quarter started out the same way, as the Nuggets even took a lead, 71-70. And then the Jazz exploded. Aided by a flagrant foul call on Hit-N-Run on Deron (I didn't watch the game, so I'm not going to comment on it), the Jazz just exploded. They finished the 3rd quarter ahead by 11, and went on to win with ease, 124-97.


For the Nuggets, it was the same thing as in the last game. Hit-N-Run (22 points, 5 boards) and AI (28 points, 2 assists, 5 TOs) were themselves. But they really got no other help. Linas Kleiza had 12 points and 5 boards, but was relatively quiet (especially compared to his 41 point outburst against the Jazz earlier this year). JR Smith has 11 points, but 0 assists and 4 turnovers. After that, the next highest scorer is a tie between starter Marcus Camby and reserve Chucky Atkins, each of whom had 5. Anthony Carter & Kenyon Martin (the other starters) each had 4. Throw in 3 apiece from Eduardo Najera and Steven Hunter, and you have 97 points for the Nuggets.


For the Jazz... Okur (20 points, 15 boards), Booze (20 points, 6 boards, 7 assists) and Brewer (20 points, 5 boards, 6 assists) all led the way. Not far behind, with his 19 points and 11 assists, was Deron. AK added 9 points, 2 assists, 3 steals and 2 blocks. Off the bench, everyone but Flop scored. KoKo had 4 points, but was just 2-9 from the field (0-6 from long range). He also managed to get 3 blocks. 'Sap had 6 points & 5 boards. No Knees had 4 points. Price had 8 points, and was on the receiving end of a Ronnie-to-Ronnie oop. CJ had 2 points in garbage time. But the big surprise was Jason Hart, who got time in the first quarter, and finished with 12 points... 6 in the first quarter and 6 in the 4th quarter. He was 5-7 from the field and 2-2 from the line. Yes... I'm talking about Jason Hart. Shocking, no?


The Nuggs shot 48% from the field, but just 20% from long range (3-15). And their 60% from the line (24-40) isn't very impressive either. On the other hand, the Jazz shot 57.5% from the field & 26% from long range (5-19). And they went 19-24 (79.2%) from the line. Not impressive from long range, or the line, but a bit more impressive than the Nuggets. The Nuggs had 16 assists on their 35 made baskets, but also had 16 turnovers. They had 36 boards... 7 offensive. The Jazz had 37 assists on their 50 shots. They had 10 steals, and only 9 turnovers. They had 8 blocked shots. And they had 44 boards, 8 offensive.


The Jazz are seemingly all but locked into the 4-seed in the West... it'd take a miracle to have them move up. But if they win out, they'll still have a shot at home-court in the 1st round, which could be huge. The last 2 games are a home date with Houston (remember last year how the teams ended the season against each other & then faced each other in the 1st round?) and then a road date in San Antonio. Technically, a sweep and some help could still get them to the #3 seed, and a date with the #6 seed (probably Phoenix). Of course, you could still see the Jazz have the #4 seed... and have them playing the Hornets in the 1st round. That's how screwy the West is... the team that started today #1 in the West could be #5 in 3 days.


Elsewhere in the Western Conference playoff race... the Blazers beat Dallas at home. The Hornets fell out of 1st place, losing in Sacramento. And the Dubs moved into a tie with the Nuggs after beating the Clippers (the Nuggs have the tie-breaker though). If the Nuggs & Dubs both win out, you'll have the Nuggs in the playoffs and a 50-win team missing the playoffs. Ouch.


For tomorrow...
Spurs @ Kobes. The lesser of 2 evils? I'd go for the Spurs here... drop the Lakers back to #2.
Rockets @ Nuggs. This is even worse. Kinda want the Nuggs, because then the Jazz get help in trying to get home-court from the Rockets in the playoffs. On the other hand... it's the Nuggs.


The next games on Monday. The playoffs are approaching! Get ready...

No idea what happened here, but holy shit! The 64 points scored by the Spurs ties a franchise low set back in '97. The Spurs only got 9 points in the 4th quarter... all of them came from Damon Stoudamire. The Jazz fell behind by 6 after the first, but kept it close, took the lead into halftime and then exploded in the 2nd half. The Jazz ended with a 50-26 advantage in the 2nd half, 26-9 in the 4th quarter. It was an ugly game (and a very ugly 2nd half, especially for the Spurs), but at this point and time, a win by any name is still a win. The Jazz need wins (and help). They're getting the wins... but not the help.


Deron had 16 & 11 to lead the Jazz. Okur had 17 & 16 boards. Booze had 16 & 7. AK had 10 & 5, along with 6 assists & 3 steals. Ronnie Price was the only started to not hit double digits, finishing with 6 points. KoKo had 11 points off the bench, and No Knees added 9. 'Sap had 2, and CJ dropped in a 3 at the end of the game. The Jazz went 10-19 from long range, which helped in overcoming their 41% night from the field. "Leading" them to that amazing(ly bad) FG% percentage were guys like Price (2-7), Deron (4-13), 'Sap (1-4) & No Knees (4-11). The team did go 16-19 from the line though. And they had 44 boards (11 offensive) & 21 assists.


The Spurs only had 2 players in double digits... Duncan finished with 15 & 10 boards, while Mr. Longoria had 17 points. The Fu**ing Flopper only had 8 (on 2-10 shooting!), and Stoudamire didn't score save for his 9 points in the 4th quarter. The Spurs only shot 36.4% from the field, and they were just 2-10 from long range. They did go 14-18 from the line, and did haul in 39 boards (5 offensive), but in the end, it wasn't enough. They only had 8 assists in the game, and had 16 turnovers (the Jazz only had 12).


I didn't really see the game... I was following the Pirates loss... and only caught the last half of the 4th quarter. By which point the game was decided and the Spurs bench was on the court (not so for the Jazz... that only happened with 2 minutes left in the game). CJ remains hot, draining his only shot of the game. I don't know how they did it defensively, but Duncan & the Flopper both seemed to have issues with the Jazz D. Which is surprising because one normally kills the Jazz and the other was being defended by a guy who doesn't like playing defense. AK finally showed up again... which means it'll be even harder for CJ to get any time. Which is highly frustrating... it really wouldn't surprise me to see him leave in the off-season (someone will give him a shot that actually involves playing). Hopefully he'll get some time in the remaining home games so we can see what exactly we're letting get away. Whatever the Jazz did today though, they need to keep it up... it's not going to get easier. The defense was big for the Jazz... normally you don't beat teams when shooting just 41% from the field. But when you hold the Spurs (one of the best teams in the league) to 64 points, you did something right somewhere.


Linkage
Basketball John
Frank Layden recap
My Utah Jazz
Siler & Luhm
Pounding The Rock


About the help... the Dubs beat the Grizzlies (actually, they killed them), keeping the Jazz from clinching a playoff spot. The Hornets beat the Knicks, as was expected. The Suns are crushing the T-Wolves late. The Rockets & Sonics are in the 3rd, and the Lakers & Mavs are playing early in the 2nd half. The Jazz are now off till Tuesday. If you're looking for teams to root for tomorrow, the Kings will be in Denver. That's it for the West. Oh, and congrats to the Hornets... they just became the first team in the West to clinch a playoff spot.

I guess that I misspoke over here. I really assumed that 29 points on 12-17 shooting would at least get CJ a bit of love from Jerry. No such luck. CJ sat on the bench for the entire first half, as the Jazz struggled to the locker-room with a 3 point lead. Of course, the return of AK might've had something to do with this... but so does Jerry's re-found obsession of saying the Jazz need to play better defense... and then starting a 6'2" guard (Ronnie Price this year) at the 2-guard spot. Miles ended up not getting in until late in the 3rd, by which point the game was all but over (19 point lead for the Jazz after 3 quarters). Jerry... you suck. I hate you. This is exactly why you don't get the Coach of the Year award. Resisting the changes that are taking over the NBA (and improving the games) doesn't make you a better coach. It makes you a stubborn jackass. And no one likes stubborn jackasses.


Truthfully, I don't even feel like recapping. It's been a day, and I still can't get over the fact that Jerry coaches without a brain. There is no point in any game (barring injury) for which Flop should be getting minutes over Fesenko. None. Hart getting more minutes than Almond? Nope. If you really need PGs that much, start Miles and bring Price off of the bench. I like the 4-shooter approach as much as FLA, but it doesn't work when you're bring Flop & No Knees & Hart off of the bench over Almond & Miles. Oh, and AK isn't really a shooter either...


Yeah, screw the recap. If you want more, here's the box. I've got my own ideas about the 4-shooter line-up, I'll get those up when I get the time (aka... when there isn't a Pirates game as soon as I get home from class). There's a game against the Spurs tomorrow at the ESA... the Jazz could win, provided Sloan lets them. Which isn't a guarantee to happen. Oh, and about the 4-shooter line-up... if only Booze was a bit taller. We'd be set.


Now to go find a coach that'll implement a system that fits the players we have (or will have after the desired trades go down).

The Jazz went into their game last night against the Wizards without Ronnie Brewer & AK. Yes, I know the Wizards were without Gilbert, Antonio Daniels & Caron Butler, but since I'm not going to use this entry to complain (at least not too much), I'm going to ignore it. I'm also not going to mention the Jazzsters embarrassing performance in Minny and the Wizards OT loss to the Kobes... both less than 24 hours before. Because those don't really relate. What I am going to mention is that due to the injuries, Jerry was forced to start not only CJ (who's been starting whenever Brewer or AK is out), but also Ronnie Price. And while I'm not much of a fan of starting a 6'2" SG (see most of last year), it worked out fairly well yesterday. Of course, almost everything did. And it really makes the idea of 4 guards/wing & 1 low-post guy very appealing (it really works well in video games too... I've tried), as Matt over FLA mentions. I'd keep Brewer though... he's developing his outside shot, and if you trade AK he'll be your best perimeter defender. By the way, the decision to start Price was a good one, even with the size issues that it causes. Because Price is shooting well, and is able to lead the team, giving you 2 good PGs. Of course, when you win by 42, everything looks a bit better. I'd imagine, at least... it doesn't happen very often.


Anyhow, back to blow-out at hand. First for the Wizards. Roger Mason got the start, and finished with 16 points and 6 assists, while going 7-11 from the field. Ex-Jazzster DeShawn Stevenson (now with a grown out beard that really doesn't fit) finished with 9 points. Antawn Jamison had 22, and rookie Nick Young. had 18 off of the bench. That was it really... though you really don't expect much when the team only had 87 points.


As for the Jazz... Price was impressive in his first start of the year. He finished with 10 points, 4 boards & 4 assists, along with a handful of hustle plays that really got the crowd into the game early. Deron had 12 points, 4 boards, 3 steals & 16 assists. Yet another double-double for him. Okur had 16 points, 5 assists and a team-leading 9 boards. Booze went 9-13 from the field, finishing with 19 points. He only picked up 2 boards though. Deron, Booze & Okur all played less than 30 minutes in the game, which is nice to see. Off the bench, 'Sap had 4 points, 6 boards, 3 assists & 2 steals. No Knees had 13 points & 5 boards. KoKo was 6-6 from the field, finishing with 15 points (3-3 from long range). Morris Almond had a career high 5 points, including his first 3-pointer in the NBA. Flop