Karma is a b****. They wouldnt be so confident it Boozer or Williams blew out that knee in the 1st quarter. TMAC IS DUE!
Because of the matchups, I think Utah is the one team against whom Yao is a liability. Memo pulls him too far away from the basket, and Boozer is too quick for him. We only lost that series by 3 or 4 points last year. Plus, they've gotten weaker, imo, losing Giricek (sp?) and Fish. Whereas, we've shored up the 4. I think we've got a decent shot at Utah. Without Yao, though, any other seeded team in the West is going to be extremely difficult.
It isn't the confidence that is misplaced, but the all out arrogance that must be punished. The Jazz, if they need to be reminded of this again, have never won anything. They won the West in a couple of down years, but they could not win it when the championship was there for the taking. Why? Because they got beat by us twice. And we did capitalize. It was a long time ago, but here we are 13 years after our last championship, and they Jazz have the same amount of championships as they did then. Zero.
How many rings do the Jazz have? Just checking. Until then, no Jazz fan has any room to talk about advancing in the playoffs.
i would face the rockets b/c i'd figure that our team is worthless, and we suck...so it'd be best if the really good team killed us fast to get it over with...
I don't think being realistic causes a person to lose their fan card. We are without our All Star center and our starting point guard. These are the two hardest positions to fill in the NBA. You pick any team and pull two of their starters then try to tell me that wouldn't be your favorite matchup in the playoffs. If the rockets use the fact that nobody gives them a chance as motivation and not an excuse then we will be fine. This team has a LOT more character than last years team.
Agreed, except, ESPECIALLY for a team like the Jazz, homecourt advantage might trump matchup. They are so good at home and so mediocre on the road, if you're them, you might prefer to play San Antonio with home court advantage then the Rockets, as injured as they may be, without. I can see this series going 7, with each team winning on the other teams homecourt once before the seventh game. Can the Jazz win twice at the Houston. They'll either have to do that or protect their home court again. If you count this week's Jazz game as a pseudo-playoff game, that means that in 7 playoff atmosphere contests against the Rockets in Utah, they win all seven. Certainly possible, but you have to think the Rockets one day will be able to eek out a win in Utah, right? Plus, if they played and beat San Antonio, they'd go on to face the Hornets/Mavs, who would probably be better matchups for them then the Lakers.
say what you want about the personnel, but in record, differential, efficiency, and experience the Jazz are better than last year. they not only beat but destroyed alot of the elite teams this year.
nail on the head. i also think that van gundy's control freak nature made last year's team play "not to screw up" alot more than this year's team. we all know what happens when you play "not to lose". man, reading your post reminded me: how great does the Bjax trade look now? we would have been royally screwed if we went into utah with only mike james and aaron brooks. . .
D-Will is too quick for Battier, esp on the pick and roll that they run. Battier would have a difficult time going through it, giving Williams too much free space. B-Jax and AB did a decent job on him on Monday, and Alston has played him well this year.
The Jazz probably wanted to kill two birds with one stone with that tank job last night. Phoenix knocks San Antonio out (the team that took them out last year) and they get to play us who they are confident playing against. I hope karma bits them in the butt.
http://jazzfanz.com/boards/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=29196 Look at that........Man i hope tracy kills them..........
but cmon...we gotta believe rite?? at one point or another...every person on our team has performed to their fullest this year w/ the rockets (except loren woods)...now if they have that mentality, im pretty sure that each of these players will take on that role!
I hope the Rocket players are reading all of the and getting as fired up as some of the posters on this board. I think it is insane that nobody, even a great deal of Houston fans, are not giving the Rockets a chance. As many have said, they said the same thing about the streak and the playoffs when Yao went down. Let's hope they prove them all wrong here again!
It doesn't matter what the Jazz fans or Jazz want. We're still up from the one time we stuck it to them to reach and win the NBA finals. That will never change...unless Utah beats us and advances to/wins the NBA finals. Even if we lose...we win.
