Wow the j*zz are really getting hammered. I really don't think they are that deep, and those turnovers are showing the inexperience. I doubt if they could beat us 4 out of 7 w/o homecourt. and if tmac is playing like last night and tonight it is over.
Why would he want to purposely lose home court advantage on purpose when his team will be the underdog against us in a playoff series？
wait so Jerry Sloan has a playbook for the suns but has no answer for the Golden State "psuedo-suns" Warriors?
dude.. the warriors are looking pretty damn good going down the stretch. about time something good happened to them.
Not to rain on the parade, but keep in mind that we have to finish ahead of Utah, not tied with them. After they lose to the Warriors, we'll have the same number of losses. They still own the tiebreaker. Now where tonight's scores really matter is that we're back in control of our own destiny. If we at least keep pace with the Jazz til the 18th, we can get home court with a win in Utah in the finale.
At this point now they have a tough Denver game on the 11th,Dallas and Phoenix on a back to back the 13th and 14th. Dallas may rest their players, then again Dirk had 40 minutes tonight against the Clippers. We play Portland the 11th and New Orleans on the 14th. At that point we would have both played the same number of games and we each have a game on the 16th before our final showdown on the 18th. It gets confusing but here is what i've figured If San Antonio Wins out until their game on the 15th with dallas. and Phoenix wins including the game in Utah, then they would have clinched the 2 seed and the game against us will be meaningless, while the game against Utah will be to clinch the 2 seed. So Utah could see a good shot from phoenix while we get their weak shot, we could concievable go into the final game of the season with homecourt advantage clinched. The Magic number is now 4.
You sure about that? If we win our next 3, the Jazz have to lose 2 out of their next 4 to render that last game in Utah meaningless. That would make the magic number 5.
Since we play Utah in the last game, wouldn't our Magic number be just the number of games we have left? DD
There are not 5 games left, therefore the magic number could not be 5. If we win 4 games, it doesn't matter what happens to Utah we will have home court advantage. Therefore at the minimum we need to win 4 games. although every Utah loss from here on out reduces our number by 1. Utah lost tonight in Golden state they have 4 games left, before our showdown, if they win all four and lose to us we get the home court. So what i'm basically saying is that home court is in our hands since we can win out and take it.
Now this GS Warriors team is kind of scary. If we meet them 2nd round, well, M&M will take care of them.
So, what happened to all that TANK talk? Seemed like everybody wanted to tank the last few games just to get 2 spots higher in the draft . All you doubters didn't believe we could still get HCA and look at us now! Half game lead ahead of Utah. So much for the Utah Jazz doing their "scoreboard watching" because I'm pretty sure the Jazz did care about losing those games.
Didn't know where to post this with the abundance of Jazz threads. but I have compiled some interesting bits from the Salt Lake Tribube regarding the Jazz poor play that I thought Rocket fans might enjoy reading. http://www.sltrib.com/jazz/ci_5621082 JAZZ: Utah gets clobbered by the Warriors OAKLAND, Calif. - As the first half ended and the teams left the floor Monday night, Warriors forward Stephen Jackson held a long discussion with the game's referees. Presumably, he was complaining about the lack of competition. The Jazz completed their 0-4 sweep of Western lottery teams with a rout so ugly, Golden State isn't even a lottery team anymore. Using a small but lightning-quick lineup, the Warriors tried out alley-oop passes as though seeking college credit, ran fast breaks unimpeded by anyone wearing blue, and swatted away Utah passes like they were flies buzzing around the basket. And maybe flies would have put up a better defense. While ESPN will love all the fancy bucketeering and can-you-top-this highlights produced by the Warriors' 126-102 drubbing, it stripped the Jazz of something that supposedly means a lot to them. While the Jazz were battling to collect more baskets than turnovers - and failing at that, too, for a while - the Rockets were winning in Seattle and officially taking the lead in the so-called "race" for home-court advantage in their upcoming playoff series. "That's the biggest thing to me, to win home court," said Jazz coach Jerry Sloan. "You reach one goal and try to go on to the next one." For the moment, the Jazz might want to set their goals a little lower. You know, win a road game, something they've done just once in their last 10 attempts. Make a team miss more than half of its shots, something that's happened only twice in the past six outings. Or heck, just don't get hurt - this time, Gordan Giricek and Deron Williams (the latter with a 1-for-8, four-point, three-assist night) were the victims, re-injuring bruised ribs and sore groin, respectively. Trouble is, the Jazz have squandered the, um, "easy" part of April's schedule, and didn't manage to beat any of the non-playoff squads. Now five games remain, and four of them are against teams that are headed to those same Western Conference playoffs that the Warriors climbed into with the win. "You look at how we've played and say, 'That's how close we are to turning a great season into a mediocre season,' " said Sloan, whose team is the only current playoff team other than the Gilbert Arenas-less Wizards, to be slumping. "We're in danger of that, the way we're finishing up." History suggests this is a highway to oblivion, too. The seven previous times the Jazz stumbled over themselves as the playoffs approached, they advanced past the first round only twice, and both times exited in the second round. The sort of basketball, and particularly the defense, that the Jazz played on Monday - allowing Baron Davis to split two defenders and waltz to the basket, watching four Warriors take on one, giving up 13 fast-break points in the third quarter alone - won't change that pattern. "If we keep losing for two more weeks, I'd say our finish matters," said Derek Fisher, who made just 3 of 13 shots against his former team to finish with 10 points. "But it really just matters where you are, mentally and physically, when the first game starts. That's the biggest thing. That's what we have to keep our focus on." Yep, that's pretty important, given how things have gone in the past week. And Fisher understands that it's possible, even if all anybody is going to talk about is the losses. "Definitely don't panic. That's what we have to remember - eight games, 10 games does not wipe away a season's accomplishment," Fisher said. "We're still the team that won a division championship, that went 12-1 to start the season. We can beat any team any night, and that hasn't changed." Here's another thing that hasn't changed: The Warriors' ability to embarrass Utah with its small lineup. "We didn't play a team all year that was as quick as they were," Sloan said. The Jazz allowed Golden State to pile up 64 points in the paint, most all season. They surrendered 30 fast-break points, another season-worst. They committed 25 turnovers and, yes, that too is the worst of the year. They watched as the Warriors made 55.3 percent of their shots, using an 18-4 run in the second quarter to make the outcome academic. Ronnie Brewer, given 33 minutes in Andrei Kirilenko's injury absence, led the Jazz with 21 points, but "in a loss, it doesn't do your team any good," the rookie said. Carlos Boozer had 17 points and 11 rebounds, but didn't play in the fourth quarter. pmiller@sltrib.com http://www.sltrib.com/jazz/ci_5625234 Swagger gone as Jazz stagger in late slump Having suffered three straight losses to lottery teams that have painfully illustrated the point, the once finely tuned Jazz suddenly are no longer gearing up for the playoffs so much as sputtering to lurch into the parking lot before the transmission gives out and the fenders fall off. But losing nine of their last 14 games - and four of the last five, since clinching the division - understandably has created a certain anxiety in the locker room, heading into the last six games of the regular season. After all, the Jazz have not won a playoff series in seven years, and they needed every last bit of home-court advantage to do it. "We're obviously not getting stops," Harpring said. "And we're not moving the ball on offense. It's a bad combination." Worse, the Jazz have inexplicably blown huge second-half leads in their last two games against the Kings and Sonics, and might have to play the rest of the regular season without injured forward Andrei Kirilenko. "The playoffs are around the corner, and we have to nip this in the bud before they get here," the Jazz's Carlos Boozer said. Coach Jerry Sloan, for one, said the Jazz have been playing for some time the same way they did during the loss to the Sonics, and that some of the players "got a little upset with me" for emphasizing it even after the few recent victories. "We were playing exactly like we were" against the Sonics, he said. "Just not really getting a lot of stuff done. And when you go out and try to play that way, you get against teams that get after you and play you, then what do you do? You don't have much to fall back on. We just haven't been able to finish games. "That's the thing you have to learn," he added, "because if you're going to play in the playoffs, there's going to be situation-basketball that's coming at you, and you can't make mistakes." The Jazz play at least four of their last six games against fellow playoff teams, and the Warriors are fighting to become a fifth. They're one game out of the final playoff spot in the Western Conference, while the Rockets play only two playoff teams in their final five games. "We have a tough schedule ahead," the Jazz's Mehmet Okur said. "We just can't think about what Houston's doing right now and just focus on what we're doing out there." http://www.sltrib.com/jazz/ci_5621082 Jazz: Stat sheet tells of utter collapse Call it a Sonic swoon. The Jazz took a 20-point lead into the fourth quarter Saturday night before watching lottery-bound Seattle speed past them and score a stunning 106-103 victory at EnergySolutions Arena. Some fourth-quarter numbers tell the story: * Seattle outscored the Jazz, 39-16. * Utah missed 14 of its 21 field-goal attempts. * The Sonics made 12 of 14 shots, including six of eight three-pointers. * Rashard Lewis scored 16 points, including eight in the first 2:09 to cut Utah's lead to 15 and ignite the comeback. "Obviously we couldn't stop them, especially Rashard Lewis," Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said. "He was just on fire. . . . All of a sudden he got going and it didn't make any difference what we tried to do. We couldn't get close enough to guard him. He basically took over the game and won the ballgame for them." Turnovers were a another problem for Utah, which committed five in the fourth quarter and three in the final five minutes. "We started throwing the ball away," Sloan said, "and some of those [turnovers] were totally unforced. . . . I'd rather eat the ball than throw it away. At least you've got a chance to get back and play defense." Defense? The Jazz didn't play much in the final minutes, when the Sonics scored on eight straight possessions and wiped out a 95-89 deficit. Lewis scored eight of Seattle's final 16 points, including the go-ahead jumper with 21.3 seconds left. "We didn't do a very good job guarding him," Sloan said. "When he's hot, you're probably not going to stop him anyway. . . . But at least get close enough to foul him." In all, Seattle scored on 18 of its 22 possessions in the fourth quarter. "The last three games have been like that," said the Jazz's Carlos Boozer. "I don't know what's going on. I don't know if we're not doing the right defense or what. . . . It seemed like the whole second half Rashard Lewis was open. I don't know if we should have trapped him or what. It's just frustrating." Offensively, Boozer was 3-for-4 in the fourth quarter. Deron Williams was 2-for-5. Memo Okur was 1-for-3. Five other Jazz players combined to go 1-for-9. "They did a good job of rotating to Memo so he wouldn't get his wide-open shot," Boozer said. "I don't know. We've got to watch the tape of this game and evaluate it, because the playoffs are around the corner and we've got to nip this in the bud before they get here." --------------------------------------------------------------------- Good to see the Jazz struggling heading toward the playoffs. It makes me feel better when The Rockets are not playing at their best to see another good team doing even worse.
http://www.deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,660210574,00.html Golden drubbing — Struggling Jazz put up little defense vs. Warriors By Tim Buckley Deseret Morning News OAKLAND, Calif. — Long-suffering Golden State Warriors fans have seen their favorite team fail to make the playoffs an NBA-active-streak-high 12 straight times, and the Warriors went into M0nday's game against Utah facing an uphill battle to avoid making it 13. Golden State Warriors' Jason Richardson, top, dunks in front of Utah Jazz forward Carlos Boozer during the second half of Monday's game in Oakland. The Warriors got lots of uncontested shots and won easily. Golden State Warriors' Jason Richardson, top, dunks in front of Utah Jazz forward Carlos Boozer during the second half of Monday's game in Oakland. The Warriors got lots of uncontested shots and won easily. As unlucky as all that sounds, it almost makes the Jazz's current woes — and they are rather plentiful — pale in comparison. Unless, that is, you happen to be Jazz coach Jerry Sloan, who has had a multitude of worries on his mind lately — and left here with even more. That's because Golden State had little trouble beating Utah 126-102 late Monday, marking the Jazz's fourth straight loss, their fifth in their last six games overall and their ninth among their last 10 road outings. Those are streaks of ineptitude marked by a mountain of maladies that had Sloan — whose Northwest Division-champion club begins postseason play later this month, probably against Houston, which beat Seattle on Monday to take a half-game lead over Utah for homecourt advantage in a probable 4-5 seed first-round series between the teams — quite concerned even before taking to the floor against the Warriors. "Are we gonna be tough enough to fight back and try to put together a team that's gonna compete when we get to the playoffs?" he wondered. "If we aren't, we're gonna be in and out pretty quick." And, no, that's not a reference to the IN-N-OUT BURGER chain so popular here in California. "When you get satisfied in this business, I think that's one of the worst things that can happen to you," Sloan added, perhaps pinpointing what's truly behind the tribulations of a team that's had its first postseason berth in four years clinched for two-plus weeks now. "You're probably gonna be satisfied just being here 10 years from now, and that's not a good sign." Jazz guard Deron Williams puts up a shot, surrounded by, from left, Golden State's Andris Biedrins, Monta Ellis and Jason Richardson. Jazz guard Deron Williams puts up a shot, surrounded by, from left, Golden State's Andris Biedrins, Monta Ellis and Jason Richardson. Bad signs for the Jazz were abundant early Monday as the Warriors went up by as many as 17 points shortly before halftime. "The Warriors outhustled us all the way around. They went after loose balls, and made us turn the ball over," Sloan said after the Jazz committed a season-worst 25 turnovers, including a season-worst six attributed to forward Matt Harpring. "They did a terrific job at not letting us get a decent shot. They were all over us defensively." By the time Golden State went into the fourth quarter leading 99-75, it was evident Utah had blown yet another opportunity — four in a row now — against a likely lottery team. Against Portland last Wednesday, it was because point guard Deron Williams exited early with a groin-strain aggravation, and the Jazz failed to execute on two particular late-game possessions. Williams, who shot just 1-of-8 from the field Monday, aggravated the groin a bit again against the Warriors and left after logging fewer than five third-quarter minutes. Against Sacramento on Friday and Seattle on Saturday, it was because they blew second-half leads of 17 and 22 points, respectively. This time, though, it was simply because they were out of it by halftime. "You have to give them credit," Harpring said. "They played harder than us." That's becoming quite a trend for the Jazz. And the fact it's happening against teams either certainly or perhaps not headed for postseason play — the Warriors started the night ninth in the Western Conference, and barely slipped into the West's eighth and final playoff spot by winning — had to compound Sloan's frustrations. "I think you have to have a killer instinct to want to come back and get after people and prove that you belong, wherever you are, every night," he said. "That's what the great teams, and the good teams, really do on a night-to-night basis. "Now, I think we're a good team, but ... (that) still linger(s) with us a little bit." NOTES: Jazz backup shooting guard Gordan Giricek aggravated the already-sore right-side ribs that caused him to recently miss six games, and didn't play in Monday's second half. Both he and Williams are being called "day-to-day," leaving uncertain their availability for Wednesday's home game against Denver. ... The Warriors went up by as many as 32 points in the fourth quarter, three shy of the Jazz's largest deficit in a game (last month against the Los Angeles Clippers) this season. ... Stephen Jackson scored a game-high 28 for Golden State on 10-of-16 field shooting. ... Jazz rookie Ronnie Brewer's 21 points were a team-high and, by nine, a career-high. ... Carlos Boozer's double-double (17 points, 11 rebounds) was the Jazz power forward's 49th of the season. He came into the game ranked fourth among league leaders in double-doubles.
