this is one of my favorite post from jazz fans: "... If they just lose out and end the season on a 9-game losing streak it could move us down in the overall standings and improve our draft position (possibly up to the 23 or 24 pick) ... "
Dallas rested Dirk last game, but all indications are he will play against the Jazz. I think Dallas will still do enough to beat the reeling jazz on the 13th and give us a 2 game lead. Then we both play on the 14th and Phoenix should still be playing for the 2 seed (if they win and San Antonio loses to Dallas then they will clinch the 2 seed with a win over utah and they can rest against us.) So there is now a decent chance we can clinch before the final season showdown and it turns into the Vspan Novak Show!
The Hornets will be tough enough to beat, much less a 60+ win juggernaut in Phoenix eager to clinch the 2nd seed. San Antonio has the tiebreaker against Phoenix. Therefore, in order for the Suns to wrap up 2nd seed and rest against Hou next week, we want Phoenix to win both games this weekend, and have SA lose either @ Minn or @ Dallas (or both). The timing is perfect. Phoenix cannot rest their starters before the Houston game. If we knew for sure Dallas would beat SA, then it would be better for Suns to lose to LA or for SA to beat Minny, in order to make Phoenix very motivated against Utah. But that's taking a big chance as SA will be hungrier and less depleted than Dallas.
That's correct. The magic number is 3. Any combination of Rockets wins and Jazz losses equaling 3 gives us homecourt. And how sweet would that be to be able to rest our starters against both Phoenix and Utah to close out the season? I hope Van Gundy reminds them of this when they suit up for the Hornets on Saturday.
Gonna be at the game on Sat. so hopefully it'll be a W and the Jazz losing later that nite giving up HC!
I'd SO much rather face SA down the line than Phoenix. We can take care of business without the help. Let SA steal HCA on the Suns. Dallas should be motivated to play Utah since they're a potential 2nd round opponent. Our biggest concern needs to be NOK, and then crushing Utah on the 18th to send a message. Evan
The board is split about whether SA or PHX is a better WCF opponent, though I tend to agree SA is a more favorable matchup. Hey, if the Rox pull a huge upset against Dallas, which can play well at any style, they truly have elevated their play to where they should beat anyone. Anyhow, PHX is two up in the loss column so it's unlikely they will fall to 3rd, esp. as one of the games is against us and if they're so tough for us to beat, then you'd think they won't lose to us next week either. So though it might be nice to have PHX drop, hoping for it is bound to disappoint. I'd rather pull for them and reap a little immediate benefit from it in the process, and rest our starters as much as possible next week (definitely against Utah). We absolutely must win a playoff series this year. I can't wait until the talking heads on TV have to stop the nonsense that Yao/T-Mac are good players but they can't win a playoff series.
AZZ TO NOT EVEN BOTHER TRYING UNTIL PLAYOFFS SALT LAKE CITY--The Utah Jazz announced today that they will not even put forth on effort until the playoffs start later in the month. The announcement came amidst speculation that the Jazz weren't putting forth much effort during their current losing streak. The Jazz have won the Northwest Division and feel they can pretty much cruise into the postseason without even breaking a sweat. “I’m not trying anymore. That’s it. I’m done,” said forward Carlos Boozer. “What’s the point anyway? We can’t suck even if we try. We can sleepwalk into the playoffs. Ooooh, so Houston is now the fourth seed. What’s the worst that can happen, they get home court advantage? Ok fine, so we’ll be the fifth seed then we’ll steamroll everyone until we get to the finals. Then we’ll play the Pistons. That’ll be a good time to start trying.” In their first 73 games, the Jazz put forth an honest effort a staggering 48 times. Exhausted and banged up, the players are ready to take the rest of the season off. “Whew, it has been one hell of a tough season so far,” said veteran Memo Okur. “I haven’t tried this much since my first year with Detroit. Do you know how hard it is to play the frigging Nuggets on a Wednesday night during cold weather when you’ve won the Division? We could put four guys on the court and still win. And if we don’t? Who cares! We’re still going to be the class of the league, and they’re going to be the Nuggets. Nothing against those guys. ” Coach Jerry Sloan gave the OK for the extended vacation after several players approached him about it last week’s win against the Rockets. He hopes the time off will get them completely healthy for the playoffs. “Obviously it’s beneficial to everybody,” said Sloan. “After the Houston game the guys were pretty spent. It was then that they decided to stop going through all that trouble during the regular season. I figured ‘why not?’ No matter how mediocre we are in the regular season we’ll kick the crap out of people in the playoffs. Who are we playing next? Dallas? Boring! Start the playoffs already.” Other teams in the Jazz’s division were surprised by their decision to stop trying. They were even more surprised at their decision to declare it publicly. “That’s strange. I’ve never seen anything like that,” said Timberwolves forward Kevin Garnett. “I guess they have a right not to try if they want, but I would never have said that publicly. I mean, at least pretend to try. That’s what I would do. Boy I wish I was on a team that didn’t have to try. It’s every player’s dream. That and winning a championship, of course.” The Jazz will continue not trying Friday night against the Dallas Mavericks. The Mavericks are the leagues best team, but that isn’t fazing Utah one bit. “Dallas has a good little team this year,” said Deron Williams. “I’m very impressed with the group of players they’ve assembled. If this were the playoffs, we would be totally pumped up about playing them. Yes! We would be so pumped up! But it’s only the regular season. It’s totally inconsequential. And since coach Sloan is always saying that anyone who doesn’t want to bring his ‘A’ game shouldn’t even bother showing up, I might not bother showing up.” Found this at jazz fans forum http://www.jazzfanz.com/boards/viewtopic.php?t=22018&start=0
