Round 1:

Well, the regular season is over, and the Jazz find themselves in the exact same situation as last year – Fourth seed (due to winning their division), no homecourt advantage, and opening the playoffs in Houston. (incidentally, my bracket prediction wasn’t even close… wishful thinking, I guess)

I’m hoping that the Jazz can do it in 5 or 6 games this time around. A seven game series is tiring. Not to mention that if the Jazz win in round 1, they’ll almost certainly face the Lakers in round 2. And I’m betting on a Lakers sweep of Denver, which would mean the Lakers would get plenty of rest if the Jazz / Rockets series goes long. Let’s hope that Denver’s dirty duo (Carmelo and K-Mart) do a little damage to the Lakers in that series. I’m kidding. Kind of.

In order for Utah to beat Houston, a few things will HAVE to happen. The keys to a Jazz victory (in my opinion) include, but are not limited to:

• Run your offense: In Monday’s game versus the Rockets, the Jazz started out a little shaky. Houston was forcing them into jump shots and taking them out of the paint. The Rockets defend very well against the 3 point shot, so the Jazz can’t fall back on that as a crutch. They must play through the paint. Pick and Roll.
  
  
• Contain McGrady: Tracy McGrady burned the Jazz badly in their home-opener this season, scoring 47 points. On Monday, he started off the game on pace to do it again scoring 10 in the first quarter. Brewer was in foul trouble early and McGrady was getting whatever shot he wanted. The Jazz were able to hold him scoreless in the second quarter, however, and he finished with 22 points on the night. McGrady IS the Houston Rockets, now that Yao is out, and he must be stopped.
  
  
• Rebounds: The Jazz out rebounded the Rockets 50-38 including 16 offensive boards. This gave the Jazz a huge advantage one second (or third… or fourth… or fifth) chance points. That said, they really had to battle for many of those. Scola is an animal on the glass, and they will have to work hard to keep him off the boards.
  
  
• Bench Production: The Utah Jazz have one of the most productive benches in the league. Harpring and Korver provide energy and physical play. It was Korver who iced the Jazz’s victory in Houston this season with some clutch 3-pointers in the fourth, yet he is a streak shooter. Let’s hope he’s on a hot streak. Harpring beats the crap out of people battling for position. He had 9 rebounds on Monday against the Rockets. Millsap blocked 3 shots and had some incredible plays. The one I’m worried about is Price. When Deron Williams leaves the game, there is a tangible drop in the teams energy. Price will really have to step up his play.

So there you have it. It will be a tough series, but I really believe the Jazz are the better team. They’ll have to steal a game on the road, but they’ve already won there once this season. Go Jazz!!

Season Finale

So much is still at stake tonight as the Jazz take on the San Antonio Spurs. With the Western playoff race ever tightening, a win tonight would guarantee the Jazz the number 3 seed in the West, along with homecourt advantage in the first round of the playoffs (not to mention, it would break a forever-long streak of consecutive losses @ San Antonio). A loss tonight would mean that the Jazz stay at the fourth seed minus homecourt advantage in the first round (unless by some miracle Houston and Phoenix both lose tonight).

Although a million different scenarios are still possible, here is how I think (and hope) it will all end up:

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In order for this to happen, tonights games must play out as follows:

• New Orleans beats Dallas
• Denver beats Memphis
• Utah beats San Antonio

None of those is a long shot, and I think that this bracket highly favors the Jazz. It puts us as far away from playing the Lakers as possible, and gives us a fairly easy road to the conference final, while making the Lakers' path much more difficult.

So it all comes down to tonight. Go Jazz!!

2 Down, 4 To Go!!

The Jazz have played excellent defense in their last two games. They held San Antonio to just 64 points on Friday, and last night they held New Orleans to 66. In these two games, the Jazz have completely validated what Sloan has been saying all year – if you want to win, you have to play defense. Especially last night against the Hornets, when the Jazz didn’t have a particularly good night offensively, they were still able to handle the Hornets without any trouble because of the caliber of defense they played. With the playoffs right around the corner, it’s definitely a good sign to see the Jazz stepping up their defensive game – especially on the road like last night.

The Jazz have 4 regular season games left:

• 4/10 @ Dallas
• 4/12 vs Denver
• 4/14 vs Houston
• 4/16 @ San Antonio

Every game is so important in this tight Western Conference race. The Jazz can’t afford to lose even one if they want to secure home-court advantage at least for the first round of the playoffs. Let’s hope they win them all!