Well, before this game the Jazz pretty much owned the Spurs too. Their last game in Utah, the Jazz beat down the Spurs 90-64.
I am willing to bet money that Sloan justifies himself to his players by comparing basketball to war. In war there are no rules, the only thing that matters is who is alive at the end. In basketball he has shown he will do anything that gives his team an edge so as long as the league doesn't intercede to stop him. Hence the fouling at every opportunity, the flopping, the all-around ugly play that reduces itself to thuggery in the absence of superior talent. He is the easiest villain to hate in the entire NBA, easier than Kobe. He wouldn't have thought twice about tanking this game if it all but assured him of playing the Rockets over the Spurs in the playoffs.
Yup. If you were the Jazz and you had a chance to play the Rockets in the first round, you'd do it too.
I know you didn't ask me this question but I don't think Sloan would ever tell his players to dog it. I hate the guy and his team because of their rotten cheating habits but he wants to win either by hook or by crook.
There are two schools of thought from what I have read so far. 1)Sloan will do whatever it takes to win in the postseason. Somebody mentioned a war analogy: He will be willing to lose the battle tonight if it means he can win the war 2) He wants to win period.
Guys...they aren't tanking this game..what you gotta understand is to tank you dont just score 45 points with 5 to go in the 3rd and manhandled this bad...
Do you know how hard it would be to get 12 competitive athletes to just stop competing? The Jazz are a mediocre road team and are genuinely getting trounced by the Spurs. Still, the reason Williams' is out is probably that they accepted their fate after the first half and didn't want Deron to risk pulling a Rafer and missing playoff games.
Bull****. They tanked. They are the Jazz. They have done worse things (Ask Sir Charles). You don't play the starters 20 minutes each if you seriously want to win. The starters themselves were playing horribly. Don't fall for their half-ass acting job. They tanked and I hope we punish them severely for it.
