You won't be needing THIS anymore!

Thanks for tearing my heart out, Jazz. I would have preferred the 20-point blowout loss it looked like the game was going to be than this "show up with three minutes left and get tantalizingly close that's not enough to win." You can score 35 points in the fourth quarter but only 20 in the first? This is an elimination home playoff game! In a building where you have lost five times in 90+ games! Did I mention if you lose your season is over? And yet the Jazz came out flatter than a skunk th'just got run over by a steamroller.

So let's get this over with.

Here's how I did with my predictions for Game 6.

Obviously I was wrong about the outcome.

I nailed Boozer's performance. I said he'd get 13 points on 5 of 16 shooting and 11 rebounds. He ended with 12 points on 5 of 16 shooting with 14 rebounds. Where are you, Booz?

Surprisingly, I didn't hear much at all about the Jazz's fouls committed per game stat. We also heard nothing about the Jazz opponents' fouls committed per game stat, so I got that one.

Kobe's back came up around eight times, not 16. Okur's Achilles was not mentioned, as far as I heard.

Phil Jackson's complaints about the noise in the ESA weren't mentioned, but the telecast didn't start on ESPN until about five minutes into the game, so maybe the announcers talked about it before then.

Re: the calls... I'll save that for tomorrow.

Number of time the Jazz go Horry on Kobe: 0. Right on the money. I can't quite decide if I'm glad the Jazz showed some class or if I'm disgusted the Jazz didn't put Kobe on his back once the entire night.

Deron's line wasn't as good as I thought it'd be: 21 points and 14 assists with only two 3-pointers. Still, for much of the night it was he, Millsap and Brewer who gave a care. Deron's got the killer instinct no one on the Jazz but maybe Millsap has.

Kobe's final line: I said 35 points and seven assists on 11-32 shooting. What he got was 34 points and six assists on 9-19 shooting. In short, he did what I thought he would, though much more effectively.

BONUS: I said Millsap would get 29 minutes, he played 24.

More thoughts:

The Lakers shot 50% from the field, 63% from the 3-point line and 82% from the line. The Jazz? 38% from the field, 37% from the 3 and 88% from the line. Yet the Lakers only won by three points?

Why?

Because the Jazz attempted 27 more field goals than L.A. TWENTY-SEVEN. That was mostly thanks to 20 offensive boards by the Jazz and 14 turnovers by the Lakers. Why can Okur and Boozer rebound but not play defense?

Millsap had a great game, going six of seven from the field for 15 points, grabbed eight rebounds and blocked three shots. Four of his rebounds were offensive. We have got to keep this kid when his rookie contract is up.

An interesting point is that for much of the game, it wasn't Kobe beating the Jazz. He was content to pass the ball or sit on the bench while guys like Gasol, Vujacic and Odom did the damage. But when the Jazz were threatening, he took over. The Jazz were down only seven with five minutes left, but then The Black Mamba went to work. He hit a three over Korver and then got a 3-point play the next Laker possession... suddenly the lead was 13. All in all, he scored the Lakers' next ten points after the Jazz got within seven.

Then the Jazz decided that maybe they didn't want their season to be done after all, and hit five 3-pointers in the space of three minutes. Andrei hit two of them, after going 0-9 in the series up to that point.

In the end, it wasn't enough, and now I have to pray the Hornets beat the Spurs on Monday.

Because if the Western Conference Finals are Spurs/Lakers, my best bet is to hope for a 747 to crash into the Staples Center during Game 1.

So go Jazz. I still think we need to trade Boozer. More thoughts on what the Jazz should do in this offseason in the coming days.