My brain is completely fried at how completely and utterly frustrated I am about the game tonight. It was horrible on so many levels I'm still trying to figure it all out.
First off, the Jazz played like girls over the last five or six minutes. Boozer and Okur were absolutely horrendous on both ends of the floor. The Lakers' final few buckets were eeeeeasssy dunks or layups. I've come to accept that Okur and Boozer are quite possibly the worst defensive frontcourt in the NBA. Please convince me I'm wrong.
But when you combine that with no offense from either of those guys in the fourth quarter, and you might as well play Michael Jackson at the four and Shia LaBeouf at the five. Why Sloan didn't insert Millsap or even Collins I'll never know. I've been hard on Jarron for a long time, but at least he tries on defense.
Watching our two All-Star big guys in the final quarter was torture.
And while I'm complaining about who gets playing time, why can't Brewer see the floor late in games? Korver has been beyond bad this postseason, hitting somewhere around 28% of his 3-pointers. Tonight he was 1-3, so he improved, but still. He didn't do a thing for Utah in the fourth quarter. Put Brewer in and see if he can do any better.
The other half of my frustration was the officiating. I'll freely admit the Jazz didn't deserve the win tonight, but the refereeing was the worst I have seen in a long, long time.
The play where Gasol bowled Matt Harpring over for a layup in the fourth quarter? That was as clear a charge as you'll ever see on any level of basketball. Harpring was there, and set well outside the circle, for a good second and a half to two seconds before Gasol got there. It is one of the few legitimate charges Harp has ever taken, and he didn't get the whistle. That was so bad, it was "send the tape the NBA and the ref gets suspended" bad.
Then you have the phantom whistle against Boozer as Odom got free off a screen for the dunk (see: horrible defense in the fourth quarter). Boozer was trailing Odom, beaten in every sense of the word, and had essentially given up on the play. And then the refs called a foul. Are you kidding me? Boozer was close enough to maybe nick Odom with his fingernail.
Then there's the series where Deron took the ball down the lane for a layup and got whacked on the arm. No call. Farmar does the same thing going the other way, foul on Deron.
Then there's the play where Vujacic dribbled the ball off his own foot while being pressured by AK. The ref right on top of the play called it out of bounds, Jazz ball. The ref clear across the court overrules him and calls Andrei for the foul. How is that ever okay in the NBA?
I've been resisting the "Stern wants a Lakers/Celtics Finals" conspiracy stuff. But when we are watching the gold versus the green in June, I'll be sure to throw a brick through Commissioner Stern's front window.
Because it's coming.
Oh, and the Trade Boozer Parade is back on schedule. Non-existent defense + 5 of 15 shooting when it mattered = trade the man.
5 comments:
Somebody I know wrote this big thing about sticking with a team, and it's incomprehensible to me how he applies this to teams and not players, since the comparisons he tries to draw are all about individuals. He wants to trade a guy who's had a bad week, even though the player has had several excellent seasons:
"But that's like choosing to only adopt children who are straight-A students, captain of the football team, head cheerleader, and never talk back.
But heaven forbid they flunk their chemistry test or take the car without asking. Then they're back on the street.
There's something very rewarding about supporting a team through bad times, as well as the good.
It's more akin to raising a child from birth, through the terrible twos and that time they set the curtains on fire to late nights worrying where they are and hoping they're not doing drugs.
Why do parents do it? They do it for the times their kid wins the spelling bee, for the time she gets an A on her science project. They do it for the day he graduates from college and she gets a great job.
I'd argue the bad times make the good ones that much sweeter.
That's what it is to be a fan, in my opinion. No one respects the guy wearing a newly-purchased Hawks jersey over the white shirt and tie on the front row of Celtics/Hawks Game 6 last week. But watching the die-hard New Orleans fan who has followed the team since the Charlotte days enjoy a playoff series win for the first time in decades brings a smile to your face.
It's not easy to watch the team you love stink. BYU football in 2003-2005 was not a good program. Quarterback John Beck played poorly at times, and losses came pretty frequently.
That said, I saw a lot of potential in Beck. Enough so that I defended him against the many BYU fans who were calling for his head.
And you know what? In 2006 he led the team to an 11-2 record, while posting huge numbers. After being drafted by the Miami Dolphins in the 2007 NFL draft, he looks to be the starter at quarterback this fall.
That is awesome.
So don't stop supporting your team just because things don't look good right now. Their fortune will turn around. Maybe not this season, and maybe not for ten seasons, but someday.
And then you'll be glad you stuck around."
I hope you read through that carefully.
Amen
I agree with putting Michael at the 4. Or maybe Mike Tyson at the 5. And yes, the officiating was quite questionable but the Jazz also missed huge shots when they had chances to go up or tie the game.
Matt said that the officiating sucked, and it has been in so many games in the playoffs.
The NBA should get new refs and watch them closely so they don't gamble
I still love you Brandon, and I'll join the Trade Boozer Parade. My siblings and my dad were getting mad at me because I was yelling at Boozer so much during this game.
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