Typically, you have to be in an All-Star game before you can be called an All-Star. I can understand you throwing Deron in there because he has had to compete with Nash and Paul for a spot but Okur is not an All-Star caliber player. He's not bad but he's no All-Star. I never said Utah totally sucked on the road, but if mediocre is around .500 then they are less than mediocre, subpar if you will, on the road. Combine that with the fact that with or without Yao, we are 20-1 at home in our last 21 games at the Toyota Center and I'd say that we have more than a fair shot at holding serve in the series. At home, the Jazz are almost invincible. On the road, they've lost to the likes of the Knicks, Heat, Hawks, Bobcats, Clippers, TWolves (twice), Bulls, Nets, and Pacers. Add the Kings and Blazers and that's every single non-playoff team except for the Bucks, Sonics, Grizzlies, and Warriors. I mean, if the Rockets are the vastly inferior team, then how did we manage to have 24-17 road record while the vastly superior Jazz only managed to go 17-24? How did these two teams, with large talent differentials, manage to have the same 33-19 record against the rest of the stacked Western Conference?
I worry about Okur's outside shot. he didn't really have it last year against us, but he does have some Robert Horry moments should be another long series as usual with the Jazz
I dont wanna see Tmac take anymore jumpshots, since he's been struggling with his shot lately,all he should be doing is layups and dunks.Tmac's mindset should be attack the basket and dont settle for the jumpshot.
If Boozer>>Scola than Tmac >>> x Jazz. I think the two most overwhelming match-ups are Tmac and Deron vs opponents. If Deron is less than 100% the 1st two games that helps (and Deron has not looked at all close to that), what we want is to get to 2-2 and at least get Rafer back. Nobody can control Deron, but Rafer is better than most at making him work. I would not say AK > SB, at best dead even. What AK occassionally does in more flash, SB is more consistent and the better shooter. Also, remember last year Hayes was out #1 guy on Boozer. This year he will be third choice.
i hope we as fans have all learned our lesson last year ... even if we somehow start 2-0, it aint over till its over. i remember ppl celebrating how we'd already won it, when we were up 2-0 and saying things like "sweep!" ... let's take it one game at a time. I'm real concerned for our Rox right now, but this is simply the best matchup of the 3 we could have had, so I'll take it. We're going to need tmac to really step up offensively ... and keep kirilenko and okur from being the x-factors in beating us ... actually, the jazz last year had a lot of x-factors ... hmm, hopefully we can finally match theirs. im curious as to how all our rookies respond ... we need landry to get back to his explosive self ... will aaron brooks get any min? how many? ... hmm.
Probably Kirilenko. TMAC will take Ronnie Brewer and I doubt they're going to match him up on Boozer or Okur.
you know the j*zz feel like they will do the same thing to the rox as last year......points in paint, rebounding......and winning a 7th game on the road. I'm counting on our role players and rookies to make a name for themselves in this series. Book it. This game will come down to which team leaves the most sweat on the court.......which team is fighting for every possession, every board, every free throw.........period. I think tmac will get his shot, and the role players will get theirs too. I'm also looking on mutombo playing like he's 31 and not 41....dunking and blocking shots in extended minutes go rox.....get revenge. tmac needs to watch last yrs post-game press conference tape.<object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/9S2Fgu8RtXY&hl=en"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/9S2Fgu8RtXY&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>
I'm really proud of the run these guys made this year, and I'll be at the game cheering my head off on saturday, but I don't see it. utah in 5, maybe 6.
actually a better indicator is which team scores the fewest points in the game, THAT team usually loses.
I hope we can learn a thing or two from SAS in dealing with Jazz. They seemed to have no problem beating Jazz.
See i wish they switched this. Put T-mac on Kirilenko. AK is a decent shooter and can finish sometimes but he is not too fluid on offense. T-mac can strip him and even lay off him sometimes, as AK has a tendency to disappear on offense. Battier then goes on Brewer and Harpring when then sub. Both players are good mid-range shooter who work well off picks, making cuts and all. Battier would be better to force them away from their spots, mess with their timing, and force them to shoot over him. Together they score way more than Kirlenko. If the Jazz win cuz Kirilenko scores 15+ pts every game, good for them, but I would rather he beat us than Brewer or Harpring
Let's see, the Spurs have 1) a PG who can atleast somewhat keep Williams close to a push all things considered; 2) have a big who creates more problems for Boozer than vice versa; 3) have a swingman the Jazz have no hope to cover, and 4) because of 1-3 they are better able to get their role players in good spots and can expose the Jazz's role players limitations. Right now we have the swingman component, that is it, so there is little we can follow from the Spurs model. In the end we have to play great team defense + either Tmac plays spectacular or we get huge (and efficient) contributions elsewhere--pretty much how the 20 game streak happened. I think our best hope for "elsewhere" is Scolandry, the Jazz' offensive bigs (Boozer, Okur) can be exploited on the other end.
Well they might just do that. I was just guessing and to tell the truth, I can't remember how they matched up on Monday.
I agree. Keep AK47 from dunking/lay ups and he has no high-efficiency, bread and butter, spots. Tmac could rest more playing him and let Shane disrupt more bread and butter things. Harping is odd though. Last year he gave Shane way more trouble than I ever thought he would.
I hope you're right. I really want to see McGrady get out of the first round, and shutting up the Utah trolls would be icing on the cake. I want to point out, though, that Yao didn't get abused last post season as badly as most believe (myself included, until I decided to look more closely). I'm not going to pretend that he played well, because it was clear he had a bad series. But if you crunch the numbers... Yao: 25.1 PTS on .56 TS% (true shooting percentage, which accounts for FTs) 10.3 REB (3.3 offensive) 4.7 TO ~1 AST, ~1 BLK Boozer: 24.6 PTS on .54 TS% 11.0 REB (2.4 offensive) 2.6 TO ~ 3 AST, ~0 BLK Boozer looked so much better for a few reasons: 1. He had a couple monster games, which made you forget the off games. 2. He shot a high FG%. Yao actually did a good job of not fouling, though, hence Boozer's TS% wasn't much better than his FG%. 3. Yao shot a low FG% against Okur. He only shot 44% from the field. Utah fouled him so much and he was so good from the FT line (88%), though, that he actually scored pretty efficiently -- even more efficiently than Boozer. Yao's real problem in the series was turnovers... he gave as well as he got in all other aspects.
