Come on Coach... Man up...

I want to preface this post by saying that I really respect Rick Adelman as a coach. He's given the Jazz fits ever since he coached the Trailblazers way back when Dikembe Mutombo was mere 38 years old. With that being said, I was pretty disappointed to hear some of his comments after game 4, basically nearing what could only be described as pure whining when it came to questions about physical play. I was further disappointed to read an article in the Salt Lake Tribune reporting that Adelman is sending some tapes to the NBA hoping to "resolve" the physical play on Tracy McGrady. (read the full article here: http://www.sltrib.com/jazz/ci_9085695)

Now let's get one thing straight here, I'm not one of those fans who walks around pretending like my team does no wrong, while the opposing team is nothing but a bunch Tysonesque baby eaters. I fully realize that the Jazz have a tendency to play hard and foul... a lot... I also realize that they probably get away with some bumps and shoves that could be called as fouls, but aren't; but let's get one thing straight, it's not like the Rocketeers are out there defending the Jazz with nothing but foul-less defense and the patented "Tracy Scowl" -- In fact, I would submit that the only thing that's kept the Rockets hanging as close as they have in this series is their own scrappy and physical play. With the exception of the Shooting Guard, the Jazz have the talent advantage over Houston in every position, as well as the bench as a whole. As Jazz fans should recognize, the best way to compete against a more talented team is to get out there and "Matt Harpring" your opponent.

Matt Harpring - verb - To out-hustle, out-muscle, and drive your opponent literally insane with physical play until they "Ron Artestify" and become less effective in the game at hand.

Ron Artestify - verb - See "Rasheed Wallaceticate"

Anyways, back to my point. Just watch the play of Carl Landry, Old Man Mutombo, or any other non-McGrady on Houston's squad, and you'll see them hanging in the games at hand by out-hustling and out-muscling the Jazz. The Jazz aren't the only ones playing physical, they aren't the only ones fouling, and they aren't the only ones getting away with calls. Officiating is no exact science, and both teams are going to be on the good and bad end of calls throughout the course of a game. Now sure, the Jazz are zeroing in on Tracy with as many players as possible, but I can guarantee you that Kobe isn't going to melt down and drop a total of 12 combined points in all 4th quarters of first 4 games of the series come next round. Yeah, he'd probably be just as likely as McGrady to throw every member of his team under the bus before shouldering the responsibility himself, but I just have a feeling that now Coach Adelman is subscribing to the McGrady philosophy of "I know it can't be my fault I've folded like a bad hand in the 4th quarter all series long, so I just have to figure out who I can blame so I don't cry at the press conference this year."

We expect that kind of thought process out of Tracy, but Coach, we didn't expect this out of you...