‘In the Hot Seat’ (ESPN)

Wow, all I can say is wow.

David Archuleta sure was cute when he sat down in the middle of the stage the other night. That Ryan Seacrest is just so adorable when he tries to verbally mix it up with Simon. I saw it all of course, right down to the last tank-topped, teary-eyed performance of Miss Cook. I couldn’t stand the Jazz game turned slasher flick that unfolded on the other channel. Well, I did watch all the second half after American Idol was over. Am I the only one that has hopes clear until the last few minutes of a lost cause game that the Jazz will stage a come-back? It is of course painfully obvious that they did not.

There are some ruffled feathers out there because of comments that Stephen A. Smith of ESPN made concerning the Jazz. I understand the words regular or usual and garbage were used. First of all, to those disgruntled fans, consider the source. Secondly, the Jazz stunk it up, so I’m not so offended by the garbage comment; it was fairly apropos, but calling it regular or usual –them’s fightin’ words.

So the Jazz will be playing the Rockets on Saturday. No home court advantage, but you know some people just like to make things harder on themselves than they need to be. It seems to be part of the personality of this team, and has been for quite a few years. Besides, you know what they were doing don’t you? They were trying to look really bad going into the playoffs in order to psych out the Rockets–they won’t know what hit them. They’ll be expecting the Jazz to play like garbage because, well, Stephen A. Smith says they play that way all the time, and everyone in the world believes what he says. In fact I bet as soon as Rick Adelman knew who his team would be playing, he called Stephen A. on the phone and asked him what his game plan should be.

O.K., enough sarcasm. We all express our frustration with a nightmare game in different ways. Some of us will turn it toward the obnoxious sportscasters, some of us will turn the channel. The thing about the NBA is that there is always another game sooner than you know it, so hopefully while all of us commiserate; the Jazz have already moved on, and mentally they’re geared up to show the Rockets and the rest of the league what they are really made of. I’m just happy they got it out of their systems during the regular season.