[deseret news] The Jazz embark on their first postseason journey since '03

http://www.deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,660213393,00.html

Road to the Rings: The Jazz embark on their first postseason journey since '03

By Tim Buckley
Deseret Morning News

Jazz rookie Paul Millsap leaned back in his EnergySolutions Arena locker stall chair, head cocked, eyes — presumably closed but covered by a jersey or warmup of some sort — pointed toward the ceiling.

He held that position not for mere moments but instead multiple minutes.

His team had just been booed off its own home floor, perhaps deservedly so, their pitiful showing in a 126-98 blowout loss to Phoenix last Saturday night one of its least-inspired of the season.

Utah was deep in the process of allowing home-court advantage in its 4-5 seed first-round Western Conference playoff series with Houston that starts this Saturday night slip away, and Millsap was pondering just how improbable to traverse the Jazz were making the already long road leading to an NBA championship ring.

Perhaps even more so than that, he was contemplating a grander issuer.

"When you lose games like that, you lose them by a lot of points," he said, "it makes you wonder about your team."

Many wonder — and some even doubt — the Jazz as they prepare to embark on their first postseason series since 2003.

Utah has won two straight and three of its last four games, but the truth is that the Jazz — seen as a series underdog by many among the national media — are limping into the playoffs.

A win at Dallas last Friday snapped a five-game losing streak but came against an NBA-leading Mavericks team that was prepping for the postseason by resting two lineup regulars. A victory over Portland on Monday was over a Trail Blazers club that had largely quit long ago and whose top two scorers — plus a few other regulars — were out with injuries. And Wednesday's win over Houston came in a regular-season finale for both teams that amounted to nothing more than a scrimmage, with the Jazz playing their subs more than their starters and the Rockets not even bothering to play resting All-Stars Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming.

"We had an opportunity, and it got away from us," veteran guard Derek Fisher said. "(But) I don't think you waste too much time worrying about the fact that we have to go on the road initially."

Fisher instead opts to dwell on the positives, and relish the fact that a 51-victory campaign that included a runaway Northwest Division championship win is the Jazz's best since 2000-01.

"When the season started, the excitement and the hope was that this time we would get back to the playoffs — get back to being a Jazz team that's expected to win a good number of games in the regular season," he said. "So, I think if you go back to Oct. 2 or 3 or whatever, and you say, 'Look, if you guys win a division and you win 50 games and you'll be the fourth seed, will you take that right now and just skip to the end?' I guarantee you we would have said, 'Sure, we'll take it."'

So they do.

Yet reality suggests what Utah squandered is meaningful indeed.
Not since 1996 — one year before their two runs to the NBA Finals — have the Jazz won a postseason series without having owned home-court advantage.

The last five times they've started a series on the road — dating to '96 — the Jazz have lost.

Moreover, the home-edge team has won 15 of the 16 opening Western Conference playoff series played since the NBA expanded first-round meetings to a best-of-seven format in 2003.

"You can beat yourself up with that," said Jazz coach Jerry Sloan, who will be coaching his 159th NBA playoff game Saturday — and seeking his 79th postseason victory.

"The most important thing, I try to tell guys, is, 'Forget what happened yesterday, because nobody cares."' he added. "The thing you have to be worried about today is, 'Am I ready?"'

Are they?

Even Sloan, whose club jumped to a 12-1 start to open his 19th season in charge of the Jazz, seems to wonder.

It wasn't long ago, after all, that he said what he chiefly wants to see is "if we can put ourselves back together to be a little more competitive, like we were at one time."

He is not alone in wondering if they can.

"The Jazz had a great start to the season but really started sliding a bit after the All-Star break," ESPN.com NBA writer Chad Ford said during a recent online chat. "Injuries have played a role, but the truth is, with a healthy Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady, the Rockets just have more firepower . ... I say Rockets in 6."

In fact, 5-of-5 other ESPN.com analysts and writers surveyed by the Web site favored the Rockets.

Four others also had the series going six games, and one, Chris Broussard, said a full seven games, but all agreed Houston was the safe choice.

"The pick here would have been Houston even if the Rockets didn't have home-court advantage, because this is a better team than the one that extended Dallas to seven games in the first round of the (2005) playoffs," ESPN.com's Marc Stein wrote. "Yet once they snatched home court from the Jazz — and once Utah lost any semblance of rim protection without the ailing Andrei Kirilenko and started sliding at the finish — Houston's status as the favorite was cemented.

"It's true that Tracy McGrady is 0-for-5 lifetime in the first round and that Kirilenko is back in Utah's lineup now to harass him, but it's also true that none of T-Mac's previous teams has ever been as deep or feared as this one," Stein added. "I'm betting it winds up even more true, by series' end, that the Jazz have more trouble trying to guard Yao Ming than the Rockets have with Carlos Boozer and Mehmet Okur."

Whether the Jazz have an answer to that — or whether they'll end the series with eyes covered, and questions abound — remains to be seen.

Until it is, ring fingers — or at least first-round win digits — await with hope.

"The mentality now is basically you've got to steal one," said veteran forward Matt Harpring, who — despite the Jazz's late-season slide — thinks Utah can indeed overcome the naysaying of its doubters.

"I think the playoffs are gonna be a different type of game. I really do. I really believe that. I think our style of play helps us in the playoffs," he added, "because we've kind of played the same style all year, and we run an offense. We don't run-and-gun, we don't play a pick-up style game. We work the clock.

"I wouldn't call us 'a great team,' but we have the potential to be a good team, and we've shown we can beat Houston (winning the regular-season series 2-1), so we're looking forward to it."