We've Got Ourselves a Series.

Well, I think I've finally recovered from Game 4. Wow. All I can say, is wow. That was easily one of the greatest games in Jazz history. It basically had it all.

To start, I'm going to have to reiterate my school pride biased comment from my last post. Ronnie Price is the freaking man. The stitches (for the record, I don't think that was a flagrant 2), that incredible twisting reverse, and of course, that block on Walton. I can't really decide what was the best part of that play. The fact that everyone (but Ronnie) thought that was an automatic 2 points for the Lakers, the fact that it was Ronnie Price skying for the block, the fact it was on Bill's son, or the image of Ronnie standing there staring down a prostrated Luke Walton.

I really don't have a ton to say about the game other than once the final horn sounded, that was a rush of relief the likes of which I hadn't felt in quite some time. Once Derek Fisher went on his one-man spree, my nerves were all across the board as it looked like yet another Jazz collapse. In a game that they had no business losing, they were letting the Lakers climb right back into it. So when they sucked it up in OT, I finally breathed again.


Deron was amazing. This is the type of play I'd been looking for from him, every time he had the ball in his hands, you just felt like something good was going to happen. I still can't figure how he let Fish block that potential game winner like that, but in light of the final score, I'll give him a pass on that one. Dancing the half court line, the alley-oops, still dominating from behind the 3 point line, the fade away at the end of the fourth, the free throws in OT... Sore back or not, he outplayed the MVP. Even as I was watching the game, his performance felt, for lack of a better word, timeless.

Carlos went missing again. He played slightly better in the second half, but after his "reemergence" in game 3 I really expected him to come out with much more fire than we saw. The Jazz really need him to play better than he did in game 4 if they hope to steal a game in LA.

The bench was fantastic. I think a lot of us are looking for Korver to hit the 3 with the same consistency as we saw in the regular season, but he sure made a couple great plays (that diving save being chief among them), and he's got my personal favorite quote of the playoffs thus far (this is from today's shoot-around, feel free to skip to a little over the half-way point to get to the best part of the interview. Korver's hatred for Sasha Vujacic has him on my "awesome list" - the very last thing he says is the actual "quote of the day" of which I spoke)

Game 5 is going to be very interesting. I could see a fired up Jazz team coming out and sticking close through the whole game, at which point it could be anyone's game in the end - and that is the scenario I fully expect.... However, I wouldn't be shocked if the Jazz continued their Staples Center struggles. In either case, we've now got ourselves a real exciting series on our hands here.