April « 2010 « Salt City Hoops

NBA Playoffs – Round 1: Jazz vs Nuggets Game 6 Preview

April 30th, 2010 by Salt City Hoops

(It never gets old)

Game Details:
8:00 PM MDT, Friday, April 30, 2010
EnergySolutions Arena, Salt Lake City, UT
TV: ESPN2 / FSN

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It’s time to put the Nuggets out of their misery and move on. Nene won’t be playing, the Birdman was noticeably hobbled at the end of Game 5, and recent history has shown that this Denver team folds when the energy in the building isn’t going their way. I predict a good effort for the first half and then the Jazz start to pull away, the ESA starts rocking, and the Jazz coast to victory.

In the meantime, the real tragedy is the news today that Wesley Matthews wasn’t included on the All-Rookie first or second team. After being left out of the Rookie-Sophomore game during All-Star weekend, I didn’t think there was any way the coaches would leave out a guy who is not only starting on strong playoff team, he’s putting in big minutes and making crucial contributions.

Clearly this year’s rookie class is strong, with the likes of Tyreke Evans, Brandon Jennings, Stephen Curry, Darren Collison, and Taj Gibson clearly deserving to make the First Team. James Harden and DeJuan Blair were beasts in OKC and San Antonio, so they definitely earned their spots. But come on, did New Orleans really need two players (Collison and Marcus Thornton) on the team? I enjoyed the work of the Swedish gentleman Jonas Jerebko, but the Pistons were terrible. I’d also dismiss Jonny Flynn if the Timberwolves hadn’t picked up 13% of their wins against the Jazz.

All told, what is it going to take for young Wesley Matthews to get some recognition? I’m sure he’d take starting-on-a-playoff-team over everybody-talking-about-me-while-I-play-5-minutes-per-night, but still, it seems like an egregious slight for a guy who has done nothing but play like a season pro the entire year. Ross Siler had a great suggestion that the Jazz send Matthews as their rep to the NBA Draft Lottery. If there ever was a good luck charm, it has to be Matthews. Besides, he deserves it.

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NBA Playoffs: Jazz vs Nuggets Round 1 Game 5 Preview

April 28th, 2010 by Salt City Hoops

Game Details:

8:30 PM MDT, April 28, 2010
Pepsi Center, Denver, CO
TV: TNT / FSN
ESPN Preview

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Just some quick links to get you ready for tonight’s game:

ESPN’s Kevin Arnovitz has been doing work covering the series.
Ross Siler on GR8NESS
AllThatAmar breaks down Sloan’s Xs and Os
Google News with all the stories
Not Jazz-related, but I support footage of last-second shots that win championships

Morris Almond joins Real Madrid

April 27th, 2010 by Salt City Hoops

Somehow I missed the news that former Jazz first round draft pick Morris Almond recently signed with Real Madrid. While undrafted rookie Wesley Matthews is fresh off starting and playing 42 minutes of a playoff game, Almond takes his impressive D-League resume to Europe to team up with former BYU star and Atlanta Hawk Travis Hansen. It must be frustrating for Almond to watch guys get the chance he never really got, but I’m happy to see him continuing to make progress. Congratulations to Mo for the Euro call-up. I’ll be watching.

NBA Playoffs: Links for Game 5

April 27th, 2010 by Salt City Hoops

After Game 2 I started believing the Jazz could close things out in six games. After Sunday’s strong Game 4, however, I’m going all in. I think the Jazz close it out in Denver in Game 5. The Nugget meltdown (smeltering?) was just too devastating. Nene getting pushed around. Birdman ignoring the coach and asking out of the game. JR Smith venting on Twitter. Carmelo throwing teammates under the bus. Adrian Dantley inexplicably laying the blame on Carmelo. The disarray just seems too strong and the Jazz just seem to be clicking on all cylinders.

(Speaking of Dantley in the post game, was anyone else a little uncomfortable with the extended face AD pulled? He’s always had a few tics, so I don’t want this to sound like I’m making fun of something like that, but it was just a bizarre look. Someone send me a screenshot if you have it. The NBA.com clip edited it out.)

Here are some stories to keep the momentum leading up to Wednesday’s Game 5:

Story Roundup:

NBA Playoffs: Jazz-Nuggets Round 1 Game 4 Preview

April 25th, 2010 by Salt City Hoops

Karl Malone by Garry Bryant, Deseret News.

When the Jazz lost to Phoenix at home on the last day of the season, I thought the season was essentially over. There was no passion, the fans seemed to be the only ones in the arena who cared, and the injuries to key players seemed to be the death knell for a previously promising year.

But here we are 10 days later with the Jazz carrying all the momentum heading into tonight’s Game 4 against the Nuggets in SLC. Since I think the Nuggets have one more good game left in them, I’m going to give them Game 5 back in Denver, but tonight I predict the Jazz roll.

Here’s a roundup of what’s being said:

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Here’s a clip to get you warmed up:

Dynamic Duo- ABC’s PM MAGAZINE from Skip Clark on Vimeo.

We are all, especially Kirilenko, witnesses

April 24th, 2010 by Salt City Hoops

Image via the excellent @shegotgame and @allthatamar

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Nothing to do with anything, but a beautiful Saturday afternoon watching the NBA Playoffs and following the conversation on Twitter led to the image above and the nonsense below.

Andrei Kirilenko was sidelined for Game 3 last night between the Jazz and Nuggets, but he made his presence known with a dapper dark blue suit and white shirt. A sharp look anywhere, but being in Utah it definitely looked Elder Kirilenko-esque.

NBA fashion maven @shegotgame was nice enough to provide the screenshot and Jazz fan @allthatamar noticed the uncanny resemblance to Viggo Mortensen in Witness.

As a little side note, several international translations of the movie mistranslate “Amish” as “Mormon,” so any LDS missionary who serves in non-English speaking countries has to explain repeatedly that Mormons actually use electricity.

In similar fashion, one of my companions was from Detroit and had a difficult time convincing people he didn’t know Robocop.

NBA Playoffs – Game 3: Jazz 105 – Nuggets 93

April 24th, 2010 by Salt City Hoops

A few thoughts after the game:

Everyone was making the same comment during Game 3: Fesenko just earned himself several million dollars. He’s not in the Ostertag-after-playing-Shaq-strong mode, but maybe in the Marcin Gortat range. As many have mentioned, his 3 assists tied him with Chauncey Billups.
How about Millsap? He carried the Jazz in the second quarter while Carlos Boozer and I scored the same amount of points. Millsap’s footwork on the baseline is spectacular. He’s even picked up a bit of a nasty shake-and-bake move from the top of the key. At one point he even put on a reasonable Deron Williams impersonation to get loose, only to lose the ball. Still, it’s was man’s work for Millsap.
Boozer wasn’t scoring and was generally making me crazy, but he did end up playing strong and helping keep Denver’s bigs to only 13 points. I’ll chalk it up to his strained oblique, but it’s always fun to watch him watch a loose ball like a spectator. Meanwhile, Kyle Korver came from about 6 feet behind to dive for the loose ball and solidify his future as governor of Utah, especially after hitting a big 3 on the other end.

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Game Links:

AP Recap

ESPN / Kevin Arnovitz

SL Trib / Ross Siler

Deseret News / Tim Buckley

(Might I suggest a quick trip to Readability before you get too deep in the Trib’s pages. Much more enjoyable with a little page styling.)

NBA Playoffs: Game 3 – Jazz vs Nuggets

April 23rd, 2010 by Salt City Hoops

Game 2 seems like it happened a month ago. I’ll be the first to admit I didn’t expect the Jazz to be tied heading into tonight’s game. But the plot thickened, and tonight the Arena Formerly Known as the Delta Center is going to be rocking like old times.

I’ll be taking Jazz comments and posting what I see from the arena in the ESPN Dime Live chat during the game. Stop in and bring all your witty and insightful observations.

Synergy Sports breakdown of Jazz-Nuggets

April 21st, 2010 by Salt City Hoops

The very cool Synergy Sports tool is now available for everyone with $30. For those not familiar, the service is based on a tagged video archive that can be sorted with very specific filters to create a video playlist of specific events. So if you want to see every time Deron Williams uses his crossover to get loose for an uncontested jump shot, you can do that here. The enterprise version of the software is used by most NBA teams and now a consumer version is available — to wreck any hope you had to maintain your relationships with friends and family during the playoffs.

Also, check out their statistical breakdown of the Jazz and Nuggets and let me know what you find.