Meet
Time To Send Denver Fishin'
Posted by: Earl-Stevens on April 15th, 2010
The author's views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of the Utah Jazz.
Northwest Division champions. . .Not
2nd seed. . .Nope
Home court advantage. . .Gone
Getting up for a game that really counts. . .Not this time
Are you feeling those losses against Minnesota, Indiana, Sacramento, and Houston yet? I am.
Are you questioning the toughness of the Jazz? You’re not alone. One more win would have given us the two seed and home court advantage in the first round. Two more wins would have given us the two seed and home court advantage in the first two rounds.
With the Northwest Division title on the line, it all came down to one game. . .AT HOME. . .and the Jazz choked. Big time.
With the exception of Memo, nobody showed up. Can I get a three, Korver? Nope. How ’bout some leadership, D-Will? Maybe next game.
Kobe can play half a season with a broken finger, but Kirilenko and Boozer can’t put some icy-hot on their “strains” and suck it up for a game? I guess not.
The good news: we’re in the playoffs, and we’re not playing the Lakers in the first round. I can also take pride in the fact that the Jazz exceeded my mid-season predictions by one game. At that time, I thought I was being a bit too optimistic predicting 52 wins because the Jazz would have to win 70% of their remaining games to hit that mark. Looking back on it, it was amazing that they were able to accomplish that, but in the end, the two seed was within their grasp. And they choked.
Winning a championship is never easy, but the two seed would have added some grease to the skids. With the five seed, the road is a bit longer.
Two minutes after the final buzzer has sounded on Game 82, I’m just getting used to the idea of playing underdog in Denver. It’ll be great to [hopefully] see Chuck Barkley hang the “gone fishin’” sign on Carmelo and Billups. It’ll also be fun to watch the Lakers-OKC series and hope for an upset.
But in the back of my mind, I can’t help but question the Jazz’ killer instinct. If they can’t win (let alone compete) in a must-win situation at the end of the regular season, will they suddenly be able to turn it around in the playoffs? I hope so.
Such is the life of a Jazz fan.
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This is what I see happening. We get on in Denver we come back to Salt Lake 1-1 then we bring it on our home court. we go up 3-1 then we go back to Denver we lose 3-2 then we come back home, and win in OT 4-1, and play LA in the second round after they beat the Thunder in 6 GO JAZZ!!
man we were missing Boozer and Kirilenko. There are not many teams that can win a must-win game against a really hot team w/o their second best player and their best defender. The game would have been realy close if the suns had been missing stoudemire. Just like that, Denver would have a real hard time winning such a game without, say, chauncey and nene. The Mavs would also have lost that game had they been in our situation without Kidd(2nd best on the team) and Hayood(best defender IMO). It’s true, the guys who did play didn’t do a good job, but that happens from time to time. Imagine we had a healthy Booz and they didn’t have stoudemire. We would have won. And I think Boozer and Kirilenko were smart to rest those injuries. The Suns are really good, and even if they played, we don’t know how effective they would have been, and they might have re-injured themselves and condemned the jazz to an early exit in the playoffs. THis game was really, really important, but the playoffs are even more. And we all know not everyone is Kobe. Not everyone can play well while injured. Not everyone has the same threshold for pain. If Boozer and Kirilenko can be as close to a 100% as possible in the playoffs, then that’s better than having Kirilenko unavailable with home court advantage.
I’ve had a abdominal oblique pull and a calf strain and you can’t just put some IcyHot on it and play!
I had a hard time moving and walking And, obivously I’m in much better condition than AK or Booz
Let’s hope they heal much faster than I did.
It’s time to look ahead and get into the real season.
Jazzaholci
gogogo jazz…4-2 JAZZ
Once again…100% agree with Isaac
I hope they get a 4-0!!!!!!!
wensday night loss against phoenix was worst for utah this game was key for third in west if utah won they would face blazers minus brendon roy and 2 centers presbila and greg oden i know wensday utah didn have boozer injured and kirilenko was out since february that helped suns win.i was hoping utah will get 3rd seed and face blazers they would beat blazers easy and advance to second round play mavericks maybe matchuup against denver is tough and plus you got lakers vaiting at the door in second round if utah jazz forward like carmelo scoring machine it would make it easy but what ever it is it is good luck jazz do the best you can and need kirilenko and boozer back i also thiink orlando will advance to finale again orlando cleveland in game 7 win orlando lakers and orlando in finales 4 3 lakers win good luck
i meant if utah jazz has forward similar like carmelo antony it would be much easier playing denver
i dont think they will pas denver carmelo antony is ready and hungry for lakers
Jazz are going fishin’ in 5 games… at best… Worthless effort anytime anywhere never sits well with me and should never be accepted or justified or what ever people like to say at all, of course I was taught that you should always work hard and give it your all… I’m not saying Boozer and Ak should have played, I’m saying that the ones who did should have put all their effort… In a game that important the Jazz shouldn’t have played that way… If you say the playoffs are more important that just means the Jazz will put up even less of an effort (if that is possible) because it is that much more important… If they miraculously beat Denver the Jazz will without a doubt lose to LA…. Of course much of what I say is in much frustration, but most of the frustration isn’t coming from how they play per say, but the fact that the organization seems to be content in leaving the playoffs early every year and no one wants to change anything… I love consistency. But I want consistency where the Jazz have a legitimate shot at winning a title every year instead of a chance only to make it to the second round or a game five series… Lets hope the Jazz learn how to pull of two HUGE upsets, because they have never learned how to do that yet in all the years I have watched them… They always seem to choke at the most crucial times of all…. here’s to hope, and hope its self…..
carmelo is the main guy for denver but don;t over look chancy or jr smith or we will go fishing.
jazz in 6 games
thunders over lakers in 7 games durant scores 30 plus a game and atleast one buzzer beater.
kobe out after two games due to injuries.
Good post, my feelings exactly. But for now I’m done with my anger of these simple games we should have won against the bottom feeders and just need to look forward and take these playoff games one at a time.
I’m with you guys – - keep going back and forth between anger at “what could have been” and excitement about “what could be”.
With AK now out for the first round, we’ll have our work cut out for us. Gotta get at least one in Denver.
I am so glad you called out Deron for his lack of leadership in that game! He was pathetic in that department. He’s gonna have to step up and be the glue if we are to go anywhere in these playoffs.