‘She Ain’t Ready To Sing!’

It’s a simple concept and you hear it all the time. Just play “one game at a time.” Every coach says it, and they mean it!

It doesn’t matter if it’s game 1 of an 82 game season or the next game in a 7 game playoff series. All you can control is the next game. If you are down 0-3 or are 3-0, all you have to do is “win the next game.” The series isn’t over until someone actually wins the 4th game.

It doesn’t matter how bad the odds are. It doesn’t matter what history there is. It could have never been done before. It still makes no difference whatsoever, if you “win the next game.” Just like Boston did to the Yankees.

It’s like flipping a coin. Flip it a million times and it will come up heads almost exactly 500,000 times. During that time you will have multiple flips come up heads sequentially, maybe 20 or 30 times in a row, during those million flips. The odds of flipping 30 heads in a row must be astronomical. Even if you just flipped heads 29 times, what are the odds of flipping heads again? Sill just 50/50. Read more…

“So you’re telling me we have a chance.” -Lloyd Christmas

After being told that the ratio of possibility for him to be with the woman he loved would be about one in a million, Lloyd chose to think on the positive side. After all, one shot is one shot.

This is what I’ve been telling myself since game two of the Lakers, Jazz series and if life is anything like “Seinfeld,” I know that a “one in a million shot doc” is possible. The Jazz’s chances are even better. I’m not sure how to do the math, but the equation that will equal the Jazz coming out of this series and going on to New Orleans will include many factors. This is one of those equations that eluded me in college algebra, but I know that it will include: the exponential positive of the home crowd at the loudest arena in the NBA, Kobe Bryant scoring less than 30 points, Derek Fisher not hitting everything(!), Memo and Kyle hitting the downtown shots, Deron not being afraid of Derek, and Carlos Boozer playing smarter all around. Oh, and a few more steals, tips, deflections and made baskets from Andrei Kirilenko. Add and multiply all of this up, carry the three, and it is still statistically possible for the Jazz to win. Do the math, you’ll see that I’m right.

P.S. The fact that the only D+ that I’ve ever received in my life came in this very same college algebra class was due to prolonged absence during the quarter; I swear.

 
‘Let’s Do This’ (Melissa Majchrzak - NBAE/Getty Images)

People in the NBA love to tell you a series hasn’t started until the home team losses a game.  It is a neat little phrase, but I think it was made up by those who are down 0-2, like the Jazz, so they have something to cling to.  History shows only 6% of teams have ever recovered from being down 0-2.  However, no team has ever recovered from 0-3, so I’ll take our 6% and run with it.

Desperation

I hope the Jazz watched San Antonio vs. New Orleans last night.  The Spurs were literally grabbing, hitting, holding, throwing elbows, and anything else you can imagine.  They were down right nasty.  They were desperate, and it showed in everything they did.  They were the animal trapped in a corner that was going to find a way out no matter what it took.  If I were the Jazz coaching staff, I would be tempted to have my team watch the first 6 minutes of the third quarter.  It was impressive to see a group collectively want to win that badly.

Brilliance

One of our main players is going to have to be brilliant tonight.  We are moving past the moment where breakdowns, numbers, and scouting reports matter.  This has to be about basketball genius. Read more…

 
‘Getting it Back’ (Melissa Majchrzak - NBAE/Getty Images)

What to make of the incredible shrinking of Carlos Boozer? The leading scorer, double-double king and two-time All-star, who spent most of the year among the league leaders in field-goal percentage is in one grade-A serious funk. One stinky-stank funkadelic funk at such an unfunkadelic time is causing Jazz fans everywhere to yell in unison at their TV sets. They are pleading with their plasmas, hollering at their HDs, loathing their LCDs. The evil empire is up 2-zip and the Jazz are dangling precariously on the edge of the death star while Darth Vader (Kobe) is ready to pummel them soundly with his MVP trophy. Where is our Luke? Our cavalry? Where is our Carlos Boozer?

Maybe whoever brainwashed the Grizzlies to give up Pau Gasol for a bag of magic beans got to Boozer to. Hypnotic suggestion? Voodoo curse? A bad case of the yips? A secret microchip planted by some over-zealous ABC executive praying for a Lakers-Celtics final? Who knows but the Jazz are now officially at DEFCON-5 and are in serious need of a Boozerectomy. Not to put any more pressure on you Booze, but you’ve got the entire Jazz Nation hanging on every jump shot. We are the wind beneath your wings, okay maybe that is a stretch but we get really ticked off when you are clankin’ more iron than a chain-gang.

You’ve lost your confidence and you need to go to your happy place and get it back. I don’t know if you need to go metaphorically run on the beach with Apollo Creed ala Rocky Balboa, but you need the Eye of the Tiger! You need to dig deep and find that inner Boozer and pull him up by his high-tops. You are BOOZER, lets hear you roar. Yes, the Lakers have had their share of dynasties but this is not one. Not yet anyway. These guys are not Magic, Jabbar and Shaq. They are Kobe and his merry band of roll players whose names I can’t even pronounce who take anything Kobe shovels them their way.

For all you Jazz fans screaming “Boozer, what are you thinking?” I have got the answer right here. Read more…

We are back from Los Angeles without a win.  I am really surprised at what transpired at the Staples Center.  I always knew the Lakers were good.  I knew that Kobe had pushed his game to entirely different level, but I thought the Jazz would be able to match it.

No Control

What has been most shocking is that, in my opinion, the Lakers have controlled all 96 minutes of this series. Throughout the year, the Jazz took control of games and dictated how they were played.  Thus far in the series, the Jazz have not done that.

Even when the Jazz have played well, it felt that they were at the Lakers whim.  On a few occasions the Jazz have been within two possessions, but every time the Lakers got the stop they needed on defense and converted on the other end of the floor.

Pace of Play

The Lakers made a concerted effort to increase the tempo of Game 2.  They pushed the ball, they established early post ups for both Kobe and Odom, and prevented the Jazz from getting in a defensive position. Read more…

‘D-Will vs Odom’ (Andrew D. Bernstein - NBAE/Getty Images)

Final Score - Lakers 120 Jazz 110
This game was never close. It is very discouraging that the Lakers dictated everything that went on in this game.
It felt like the Jazz were at the Lakers whim at all times.
None of the Jazz stars played well.
Milsap was the best Jazz player tonight — he was fantastic with 17 points and 10 rebounds.
The Carlos Boozer questions are going to continue as he was 3 of 10 with 10 points and 5 rebounds.
The Lakers showed more of their offense in this game and the Jazz seemed helpless to stop it.
Deron stats are infalted by hitting three straight three’s in the foul portion of the game.
Kobe was unstoppable he had 34, Odom and Gasol were a handful and Fischer was the nail in the coffin.
The Lakers were far shaper than they were in Game 1 and that is daunting.
They say a series doesn’t start until the home team losses but this still feels as though quite a statement has been made in the opening two games of this series.
The good news is the Jazz scored but what I don’t know is did the Jazz score because the Lakers didn’t need to get a stop or did they score because they were capable of scoring. I am not sure the Lakers couldn’t have gotten stops when they wanted to.

2:24 4th Quarter – Lakers 109 Jazz 99
Not going to happen tonight . We are coming back to Utah down 0-2
I am surprised how much the Lakers dominated this game.
The Jazz were never in it,
Interesting Sloan had Harpring on Kobe which seems absurd but he was quite and non-aggressive and the minute he got AK on him he took off and made every play.
This game was lost a lot earlier than the 4th but a ton of missed opportunities to make it a game. Boozer got blocked with a chance to cut it to 5 and it went the other way for a Fischer 3 that made it a ten point game instead of a 5 point game.
Fischer is just crushing us tonight. He has 22. Read more…

‘Their Turn’ (Jesse D. Garrabrant - NBAE/Getty Images)

It’s over. It’s done. The torch has been passed. It’s time everyone got on board with this. Chris Paul and Deron Williams are the top point guards in the National Basketball Association. Nash and Kidd had a good run. Their run is now over. It’s done. The next generation of point guard leadership is here.

The four top point guards have arguably played on the same level all season. For Nash and Kidd the season is now over. Williams and Paul play on into the second round – a tribute to both of the guards and their brilliant start to the post season.

It’s important we notice this event. It’s important we respect it. When the debate is brought up during the summer and when next season begins – we need to remember it. Preseason rankings need to reflect Paul and Williams in the lead. All-Star buzz in the crowded Western Conference needs to start with their names. Put them on your MVP watch list. It’s begun, their time is here. Their time is now. Read more…

Last night I re-watched Game 1 of the series, and charted 4 different elements:  all of Kobe’s possessions, all of Gasol’s possessions, the Jazz pick and roll game, and the possessions of Carlos Boozer.  Please realize I did the best I can, but I am not a professional game scout, and I don’t know all the play calls, etc.

On each play, I charted where they got the ball, what direction they went with the ball, who the defender was, and what the result of the play was.  Here are some of the findings:

Kobe Bryant

Kobe had an amazing 42 times he got the ball in the scoring range.  He created 48 points out of those plays.  In a game that had about 90 trips on the Lakers offensive end, and some of those were transition, that is a really high number.  In the first half of the game, Kobe did everything for himself.  He only created 2 points for his teammates, in the 21 scoring opportunites he had.  However, in the second half, largely due to the pick and roll with Gasol, he created 11 points for his teammates.

AK guarded Kobe for 6 possessions, and he scored 7 points on those possessions.  Brewer guarded Kobe for 25 possessions.  During those possessions, Kobe scored 12 and created another 11, for a total of 23 points on 25 possessions.  Kobe scored 6 points in the 6 possessions Kyle Korver was on the defensive assignment.  Kobe has 8 points on 4 transition opportunities.

He went left on his drive 15 times, and right on his drive 17 times.  That gives you a pretty clear understanding of how difficult it is for a Jazz player to guard him, when he can go either way.  In the 15 drives to his left, he scored 8 points while creating 7 for his teammates.  Going right he was more likely to finish the play himself scoring 15 points, and creating 5 for his teammates on those 17 drives.

What was amazing is how few tendencies Kobe showed in this game.  I looked to see if he was more likely to shoot the jumper going one way or the other, or if he was more likely to pass or finish at the rim, and their were no tendencies.

Scouting reports around the league say that you are better off if he goes left, but that must be minimal. Read more…

‘The Lakers - Circa 1987′ (Andrew Bernstein - NBAE/Getty Images)

My better half, Kurt, loves the Lakers. I am ashamed to say. He has been a fan since before we were married. He cheers for Utah in every game of every season but when it comes to the Lakers, his loyalties are divided. In all honestly, it is very very difficult not to respect the Lakers. They have a fabulous record, big name superstars, fans that make more money than they do. I like to argue with Kurt that it sure is interesting what can be done with a BIG CHECKBOOK. Doing what Utah does each year while staying WITHIN the salary cap, now THAT’s an accomplishment! Regardless of where your loyalties lie, it’s always intersting to learn a little about the competition.

The Los Angeles Lakers hold one of the best all time records of any NBA team. Originally the Lakers were from Detroit and the name was the “Detroit Gems”. They then moved to Minneapolis where they were named based on the state’s nickname of ‘Land of 10,000 Lakes”. The Lakers arrived in Los Angeles in 1960 and have been there ever since.

I am not going to list the seemingly unending stream of names of awesome players who have played for the Lakers. Suffice it to say there are many. Even the coaching roster is full of names we know and love. And, yes, as we are all acutely aware, they have won many NBA Titles (15 total but who’s counting?). Read more…

‘Live in Utah for Game 3′ (American Idol/FOX)

American Idol finalist David Archuleta, a Salt Lake native, will sing the national anthem at Friday night’s playoff game at Energy Solutions Arena. He is currently one of the final four contestants competing for this season’s prize….

Go David & Go Jazz!!