| 24 April 2009
I did a brief Q&A with fellow Bloguinite, True Blue Jazz's Scrum, leading into today's game 3... here 'tis!
Behind Enemy Lines - Utah Jazz
With Malice (Don) : Utah have actually been in touch in games 1 & 2... how confident are you
about winning both of games 3 & 4?
True Blue Jazz (Scrum) : Winning BOTH games will be tough, but not impossible. The last 2 home losses were inexcusable, BUT, they were both on the second half of back-to-backs, when the Jazz are horrendous. The ESA should be explosive and borderline violent, we really, REALLY hate losing to the Lakers. If the Jazz can't get fired up for a home playoff game against the Lakers, then there's no hope at all.
WM: What adjustments do the Jazz have to make to stop LA?
TBJ: How much space do you have? *sigh* well, first and foremost the Jazz need to take defense 101 all over again. The Jazz have allowed 0ver 110 points per game over the last 10 games. There is really no excuse for that from a Sloan coached team. So defense is item 1-10 on the adjustment list, and #11 is interior defense. Without Okur, the Jazz have been "forced" to start Collins against Gasol. To say that this is a mismatch is a GROSS understatement. Fesenko and Kofous are the teams other 7 footers, but Sloan has refused to give them any significant playing time. I don't know how Sloan expects two 6'9 guys (Boozer and Millsap, for the most part) to guard two guys 7 foot+.
WM: What's the single most difficult thing that the Lakers present the Jazz?
TBJ: Size, size, size (see above). Gasol is shooting over 72% for the series while being guarded by either Collins or Boozer. Bynum really hasn't done much at all, but having both he and Gasol in the game pretty much eliminates any Jazz offensive rebounding (Jazz had 20 offensive boards in game 1, but Bynum was in foul trouble; only 9 offensive boards for Jazz in game 2). Shannon Brown and Trevor Ariza have been absolutely destroying the Jazz. They have both been hitting clutch threes and are shooting a very high percentage. Laker's role players have been stepping up, not so much for the Jazz. Then there's that Kobe Bryant guy, I hear he's pretty good.
WM: On your blog, there's been a lot of talk about Boozer not doing enough. 20/10's not enough? Do you want him next season, or would you prefer he opt out?
TBJ: I'm in the minority here, I think he has been great the last 2 weeks. He has averaged 21.6 ppg and 10.6 rpg over the last 5, which tells me that he is as close to 100% as he's going to be. He is constantly criticized for his lack of defense, but at this point I think people are going to say it regardless of how he plays, especially since he's been guarding Gasol a lot (again, see above). He's giving up 3 inches to begin with and he's not much of a shot blocker so his goal is really to keep Gasol as far from the hoop as possible. Despite that, he has averaged 2 steals and 9.5 boards this series. In all honesty, I think there's a 50/50 chance that he opts out, and even if he does, I think it's a safe bet that he re-signs with the Jazz. Teams are not going to want to spend 75-80 million with the free agency summer coming up in 2010. There will be some teams that strike out next summer that will have some cash saved up, they might be willing to throw that cash at Boozer, but the contenders will have already spent their FA money.
WM: Prediction for the rest of the series:
TBJ: If the Jazz win game 3, which I think they will, game 4 is a toss-up. But if the Jazz fall flat tonight, then expect the Lakers to go for the jugular on Saturday. The first quarter should be telling of how motivated the Jazz are, they have given up 30 and 41 points to the Lakers in the first quarter so far. I fully expect Deron to be a crazy man, look for a 10 point, 6 assist first quarter from him and 25+ and 13+ for the game. The Jazz won't win the series, but LA will have to earn it.
*****
Thanks Scrum, good luck to the Jazz 'n' all... but not TOO much luck!
