A few random thoughts.

Here are just a few things that ran through my head while trying to stomach last night's game:

-Matt Harpring must stop shooting the ball.

-Kobe really enjoys taking it to AK.

-I Hate Phil Jackson.

-Paul Millsap is the man.

-I don't care how much more the Lakers are the aggressor, almost 30 more FT attempts than the Jazz is insane.

-I can't wait to see the stuff the fans at ESA have ready for Kobe on Fri.

-I hate Phil Jackson.

-The Laker Girls looked especially whoreish tonight.

-I hate Phil Jackson.

-And Kobe.

And here's a thought...

I'm going to have to respectfully disagree with Brandon on his idea. Trade Boozer for who? If he's truly as terrible as he sounds, we're sure not going to get anything good in return...

Last night after the game, the frustrations with the Jazz's performance in the last two games led to a discussion between my JazzHype co-contributor and me. He (quite legitimately) very frustrated with Carlos Boozer, and venting those frustrations in a very direct manner. That got me to thinking, how much is Carlos to blame, and where is this slump coming from? The guy was an All-Star and average 21 and 10, so I personally haven't been sick of him all year. He's not the guy who is going to take over and carry the team on his back when they're in absolute need of it though... That's not Carlos, and I don't think anyone expects that to be Carlos, that duty belongs to Deron Williams. Which is why the person who I've been most disappointed with so far this post season is DWill.

Sure Carlos has struggled a great deal more, but I think you can see a more definitive reason why. He had a handful of the toughest defensive big men in the entire league plastered to him for the entire Houston series in Landry, Hayes and Mutombo. They out defensed his offense and how hard he took it was well documented. Now he's playing within himself in the Lakers series, and has drawn Lamar Odom defensively, a guy who plays far too well off the dribble for Carlos, as his early foul trouble has shown. Should he be bigger and better than this? Of course, but am I surprised? Not really...

Maybe it's just a case of me having low expectations for Carlos and astronomically high expectations for Deron this post season, but when I see what Chris Paul has been doing to Jason Kidd and Tony Parker, I wonder what happened to the Deron Williams we saw in last year's playoffs. This year, while Deron has certainly had his moments, I haven't seen him put together a sustained "I'm taking over this game, now" moment with the exception of a quarter of game 6 in Houston (when I thought he'd finally broken out) and when it was a little too late in last night's game. It does seem quite obvious now that the Paul Williams comparisons are a little unfair, but as I mentioned, Paul has dominated some of the best point guards in the league; Williams has faced Bobby Jackson/Rafer Alston, and has seemed tentative against his former backup Derek Fisher.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not putting all blame on Deron and giving Carlos a free pass here. Both players were scoreless in the first quarter yesterday, and that's simply unacceptable... I'm just saying I expected more out of Deron.

With this being said, I'm a fan, and as such I have blind hope and devotion that come game 3 Deron will come out with full intensity, and start to realize he can take it to Derek Fisher anytime, anywhere. I don't expect Booze to come out and take over the game, but I do hope he can stay out of early foul trouble this time and put up decent numbers.

The Jazz are up against the best team in the West, and it's showing. I'm not ready to push the panic button and blow up the team quite yet though. If come next season Carlos is as absent as this post season, then we might be looking at a different situation.

Here's an idea...

Let's trade Boozer. I have been sick of him this whole year. Let's get someone that actually has a heart and wants to win. Boozer is a sloppy, wimpy player that chokes in the playoffs and needs to be traded this summer. You can trade Harpring is well, I wouldn't care.

I don't have a ton to say about this game, but it comes down to everyone sucking and not realizing that YOU ARE IN THE PLAYOFFS! You can't decide to turn up your game late in third quarter.

Hope we make some serious changes coming back to Utah, cause this is ridiculous....

WHY ARE WE SO INTIMIDATED BY THE LAKERS??? I don't get it. No heart, no drive..... very sad.

Western Semis - Game 1 - Live Reactions

Final - Jazz 98 Lakers 109

The Jazz can come away from this game with the idea that they lost this game, LA didn't necessarily win it. If they can build on that idea, keep controlling the boards and cut down on the TOs and poor shot selection, game two could be very winnable.

:48 left in 4th - Jezz 90 Lakers 98

It wasn't just Kobe to close this out, it was the 1-2 Kobe/Gasol combo that finished the Jazz today... That missed layup by Deron that seemed to just seemed to hang there forever pretty much summed up how this game went. With no margin for error they missed 12 straight field goals.
Definitely a much different team than Houston, and the Jazz had many chances to win this game. You can only hope that they come out on Wed without the mental lapses we saw today in the 2nd quarter and at the end of the 4th.

3:28 left in 4th - Jazz 87 Lakers 94

Kobe finally misses from the line, Lakers are looking like the aggressors right now, and Booze is out. No margin for error for Utah right now.

4:31 left in 4th - Jazz 87 Lakers 91

Jazz almost let it get away from there, but brought back the hustle and now they're right back in the game. Look for Kobe to come at them with everything he's got now. Have to weather that storm and keep executing.

8:18 left in 4th - Jazz 78 Lakers 85

I like this strategy right now, Lakers in the penalty, just send Korver flying everywhere and get him to the line...

9:06 left in 4th - Jazz 74 Lakers 83

4 team fouls on LA already, that's good... Too many shots for Harp, he shouldn't be the Jazz's main offensive option at this point.

Start of 4th

I hate Phil Jackson. One of our friends at dream shake made a comment about Phil Jackson being the king of whining about officiating, and the zenmaster backed that up with his ridiculous remark about officiating coming out of the break.

End of 3rd - Jazz 72 Lakers 79

Fantastic shot by DWill to end the quarter. If the Jazz don't relapse into the 2nd quarter version of themselves, we could be in for a great finish here.

4:40 left in 3rd - Jazz 58 Lakers 68

Let's hope the Jazz can keep this run going, Booze turning it up and Okur playing great. Still can't believe Kobe was called for a charge on Brewer, always great to see Kobe get called for an offensive...

8:02 left in 3rd - Jazz 49 Lakers 66

So much for coming out with intensity and focus to the offense... Still looking like the Jazz have no focus to their offense in the least bit, and just handing the ball to the Lakers to score in transition.
Side note - does anyone else hate any and all Axe commercials as I do?

End of 2nd - Jazz 41 Lakers 54

Great shot by CJ, horrible foul... Utah sucks chants briefly start, and the Lakers fans aren't that far off after that second quarter. Not really sure what changed after that bench run by Los Angeles, but on offense the Jazz just looked scrambled and confused. Jacking up ill-advised shots, dribbling around not looking like they have a purpose. This lead to lots of fast break points by LA, and we're now looking at a 13 point defecit. Deron must come out with more intensity in the second half, and the Jazz must start playing within their offense again, or this game will be over soon.

6:04 left in 2nd - Jazz 28 Lakers 41

Absolutely horrendous outside shooting for the Jazz, really playing right into the Lakers' hands right now. Big test coming out of this time out, look for Deron to take more control of the game.

8:41 left in 2nd - Jazz 26 Lakers 34

Vujacic just stepped in and absolutely killed the Jazz. The unexplained rush of hatred I felt when Sasha checked in, leads me to believe that he's given us these types of problems in the past. Lots of blocks going on thus far, from both teams.. Let's hope the Jazz stay patient through this little Sasha run and keep up the smart play they had going in the 1st.

End of 1st - Jazz 24 Lakers 25

Pretty pleased with this quarter... LA went on an early run, and I like the way the Jazz responded with smart passing and good shots in the paint. Poor free throw shooting is the only reason the Jazz aren't up right now.

Phew....

Okay, I'm finally ready to end my self-imposed vow of silence... I don't know whether it was the fact that I didn't really have anything nice to say about the Jazz at that point of the series, or whether I just felt there was some kind of connection between my blogging and the teams putrid performance the other night. In any case, I'm back now, and hopefully so are the Jazz.

With the conclusion of last night's game, and subsequently the first round series with the Rockets, it's time to hand out the first ever Post-Series Awards, First Round Edition.

Most Valuable Player of the Series
Deron Williams and Rafer Alston

-I couldn't help but come to this conclusion here...
Deron didn't always perform up to what we've come to expect from him, especially come playoff time; but as we were able to see in the third quarter of last night's game - Utah doesn't really have anyone else who can put the team on their back and will them to victory. They'd be truly lost without him.

Which brings me to Rafer... I was one of those guys who scoffed when analysts made a big deal about Alston missing the first couple of games. I mean, it's Rafer Alston, how big a difference could it make? Yeah, the guy can hit the three, but he's nowhere near the same class as Deron Williams, so it doesn't really matter if he's there or not... As we saw from games 1 & 2, and in game 6 once Alston went down, when Jackson and Brooks were all Houston had to throw at Williams and the Jazz, the tone of the game was much MUCH different.

6th Man of the Series
Jazz Fans

-Yeah, I'm biased on this one, and I don't care. Houston fans brought it too, I'm not going to discredit that in the least bit. In fact, I'm going to miss the intensity you could see, hear and feel coming from the crowd in Houston or Utah; something I can't help but feel we won't be experiencing in the LA series. Edge goes to Utah on this one due to the fact the Jazz won twice in Houston.

Surprise Performance of the Series
Andrei Kirilenko - Game 1

-Booze and D-Will both put in good numbers for game 1, but it was AK that really jumped out at me. 21 points, 8-12 from the field, 1-2 from behind the arc, 4-5 from the free-throw line; when he's shooting that well, the Jazz are hard to beat.

Surprise Player of the Series
Carl Landry

-So maybe this is isn't quite the "surprise" to Houston fans, but this guy was someone not on my radar before the series started, and he's played out of his mind once it started. His game saving block in game 3 helped prevent what could've probably been a sweep by the Jazz, and he was part of the three headed monster along with Hayes and Mutombo that helped make this series a nightmare for Carlos Boozer. Glad the Lakers won't have anyone even close to that come next round.

The "Better Luck Next Time" Award
T-Mac

-I don't feel as much animosity towards McGrady as my co-contributer here at JazzHype. I'm certainly not a fan or anything, but I do feel for the guy. You can't deny he's a talented player, and that 10 years of this type of failure in the post season has just got to be eating away at him, and for that I am sympathetic... However, when he pulls stuff out like his "DER-on" comments, and his throwing of teammates under the bus it sure makes it easier to throw him under the bus. Better luck next year Tracy, let's hope you face off against someone other than the Jazz in the first round.

Well, I guess that'll wrap our first ever "awards ceremony" - congrats to the Jazz, hats off to the Rockets for one hard fought series, and let's bring on the Lakers.

Final Farewell to Tracy McGrady (We Promise!)

If you would like a few laughs, and you are a Tracy McGrady hater like me, watch this video the whole way through. Man is it funny.

Bye Bye McGrady! We will miss your stupid comments. NOT!!

(look at how people just "baby" this guy that thinks he is a superstar)

Well now that the Rockets are on vacation and Tracy is 0-7 in the first round in the playoffs, one thing is for certain, we are NOT going to miss his stupid comments. Just for fun, we are going to leave you with some dumb Tracy McGrady comments the girl has made over the years. Tracy is a girl name.

Oh and just a little f.y.i. for you Tracy, Superstars don't make these types of comments.

Here we go....

“It offends me, ... I've been in this league nine years. I come to the game sometimes in jeans and a T-shirt, and I don't think people look at that as me being a thug. I get endorsement deals because of the way I carry myself. The way that I dress doesn't have anything to do with the type of person I am.”

“I don't have a problem wearing suits, but that's not who I am, ... You had one of the greatest power forwards of all time, Karl Malone, and he came to the games in jeans, a T-shirt, cowboy boots and a cowboy hat. It's going to be hard for me to change.”

"[My] career was sputtering until [i] did a 360 and got headed in the right direction."
NBA star Tracy McGrady, after signing with the Orlando Magic.

“I'm not just a basketball player. I've got other talents.”

“You should have seen me when I put on my uniform. I felt like a kid all over again.”

“I actually felt like all of them were going in, especially the one when I got fouled. As soon as that shot went up, I was thinking San Antonio, I swear I was.”

“It’s my fault,” McGrady said. “It’s my fault we missed free throws. It’s my fault we lost both games. Blame me. It’s my fault we fouled to tie the game up. That’s my fault. It’s my fault they get easy layups. It’s my fault we’re not executing well on the offensive end. It’s my fault a couple people in the stands ordered Heinekens and they got Budweiser. It’s my fault. I’m sorry.”

“Everybody’s blaming me. The Suns (for being down 2-0 to the Spurs). I mean, everybody. That’s what it seems like. It’s my fault. I’m out there by myself.”

HAHA! I bet you remember his name now Tracy! DERON WILLIAMS