Jazz win!

So the Jazz win and there is more evidence to support my Kobe Show theory. On an afternoon where Odom and Gasol were great, The Black Mamba jacked up 33 shots and hit only 13 of them (39%). That outstanding number includes a 1-10 performance from the 3-point line.

Gasol had his best game of the series, going for 23 and 10, while Odom was great, contributing 26 and 13.

But when it was crunch time, Kobe was throwing up airballs and getting blocked by Andrei. Maybe next time he should dump the ball inside, like he did with Shaq back in the day when the Lakers were winning championships.

Deron had his best game of the series, dishing 14 assists to go with his 29 points. Going 3-4 from the 3-point line and getting two steals helped make his performance extremely impressive. Part of this has to be attributed to his posting up Fisher early on and getting the Fish in foul trouble. For whatever reason, Deron doesn't seem to play well against Derek.

Okur did what he's done all series, giving the Jazz 18 and 11.

Boozer still hasn't figured out how to be consistent with his shot. I'm not happy with his 5-15 showing from the field. I can't decide if the length and quickness of Gasol and Odom are bothering him or if it's something else, like a bad back.

So GO JAZZ! It's a new series... best of three, Lakers have homecourt.

How frustrating is it that if the Jazz had just beaten Minnesota in March and Miami in December they would have the number one seed? The regular season does matter, apparently.

More BYU football hype

Sports Illustrated writer Stewart Mandel really likes the Cougars.

In the last four college football seasons we have seen three "mid-majors" crash the BCS party (Utah in 2004, Boise State in 2006 and Hawaii in 2007). Do you think another mid-major will rise up and earn a spot in a BCS game during the 2008 season? If so, which team has the best chance to make it? -- Brett Butler, Boise, Idaho

BYU has all the right ingredients. The Cougars have quietly posted consecutive 11-win seasons. They return practically their entire offense. They're most likely going to be ranked at the start of the season, so it wouldn't take that much to climb into the top 12. And they play a schedule not unlike the one Utah did during its dream season in 2004, with two games against "name" opponents -- UCLA and Washington -- that will add credibility, but whom the Cougars should be favored to beat.

I usually don't get too interested in college football until after the NBA playoffs are over, but all this talk about BYU is pretty awesome.

In my opinion, a lot is riding on quarterback Max Hall. Last season he was good, but not great. Though for a first-time starter with zero Div 1-A experience, he was positively fantastic.

But the jump from good to incredible is a hard one to make. It took Beck a good long while to be able to absolutely carve apart opposing defenses, and most quarterbacks never get there, in my opinion. I question Max's arm strength. We'll see.

AK47 of old makes an appearance last night

Just pretty. Maybe part of the reason Gasol only had 12 and six in Game 3?

Jazz beat the Kobe Show

Ever since Shaq left L.A., there has been one constant truth.

When Kobe tries to make the Lakers the Kobe Show, the Lakers lose more often than not.

The Kobe Show doesn't scare me.

What scares me is when Kobe is getting his team involved, teammates are cutting and making the extra pass, and guys like Odom go off for 25 points. When this happens, the Jazz are no match for L.A.

But the Jazz can beat the Kobe Show, and they did tonight.

Sure, Boozer is back in form, recording a supremely impressive 27 and 20, shooting 12-21 from the field and recording two blocks. Sure, Deron attacked the basket all night, racking up 18 and 12 with only two assists. Sure, Okur was on fire for most of the first half, hitting four of five 3-pointers on his way to 22 points.

But in my opinion, the biggest stat of the game was Kobe taking 20 shots and getting 17 free throw attempts, while the next highest scorers for L.A. took 10, seven and six shots from the field, respectively. No other Laker scored more than 13.

In other words, Kobe had the ball for most of the game.

Just what the Jazz need.

Again, this can backfire if Kobe is absolutely on fire, but outside of a few minutes early in the third quarter, The Black Mamba was average. His 50% field goal percentage is somewhat offset by his 0-6 3-point shooting.

As good as I feel about tonight's victory, it shows how slim the Jazz's chances are at winning this series. First, Utah played about as well as I can expect on offense. Second, Kobe tried to take over and couldn't.

And yet the Jazz only won by five. At home.

Bottom line, the Jazz could win this series, but they could easily lose in five.

Oh, and Fisher scored 13 points tonight. 3-6 from the field, 1-3 from the three with two assists.

That's the Fish I know. I don't want to see any more of the sharpshooter Fish who impersonates Peja Stojakovich.

Pregame Jazz/Lakers

I wish Fisher hadn't hit those shots against Golden State last season.

The Jazz still would have won the series, but then I wouldn't have to listen to every national broadcaster lambast Jazz fans for booing Fisher when he returned to Salt Lake as a Laker this season.

Because then all of the facts regarding his time in Utah would be based around his shooting 38% from the field and 30% from the 3-point line. Then "common knowledge" wouldn't be that Fisher was the reason the Jazz were so good last season.

In a related note, Carlos Boozer has a sick child. His family moved to L.A. to get him treatment and Boozer NEVER asked to let out of his contract. Never talked to the media about it. He showed up for work every day.

And yet no one writes sappy pieces like this one about him.

The hero-worship of Fish, the demonizing of Jazz fans, the sanctimonious tone people like Michael Wilbon and John Barry are using about Fisher getting booed... I'm getting very sick of it.

How easy is it to be a Lakers fan?

Founded in 1944, the Minneapolis Lakers got off to a great start, winning five championships in six years from 1949-1954. Such Hall of Fame players as George Mikan and Jimm Pollard starred for the team during this time.

The Lakers moved to Los Angeles in 1960. Not much changed in regards to getting Hall of Fame talent. Elgin Baylor, Jerry West, Wilt Chamberlain... the list goes on. The championship well they had enjoyed back east dried up, however, and L.A. was only able to go to the NBA Finals six times in the next ten years.

The cursed Boston Celtics and Bill Russell kept thwarting Wilt and Company.

Finally, a whole sixteen years after their last championship, the Lakers won in 1972.

But the 80's were really the glory years for L.A. They won it all in '80, '82, '85, '87, '88 and '90. Boy, those teams were good. Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, James Worthy, Bob McAdoo, Michael Cooper, Byron Scott, A.C. Green... the list goes on.

If you were a kid in the 80's, the Lakers were the team to cheer for.

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end, and gradually, these Lakers greats retired or moved on, one at a time.

Thankfully, in 1996, the organization was able to pay a young Shaq to come to L.A. for a seven-year, $122 million contract. And then they were able to trade Vlade Divac for the rights to rookie Kobe Bryant in 1997.

It took a couple years, but once the organization was able to sign Hall of Fame coach Phil Jackson, the Kobe and Shaq Lakers won three consecutive championships from 2000 to 2002. Times were good.

But tragically, Shaq and Kobe couldn't get along, and Shaq ended up going to Miami to win a championship with Dwayne Wade, a moment that must have pained Lakers fans everywhere.

L.A. has not won a championship since then, but having "The Black Mamba" Kobe Bryant breaking records and being the class of the NBA must have soothed the souls of troubled middle-aged men wearing yellow Lakers jerseys everywhere.

But once again, things threatened to fall apart, as last summer, Kobe said he wanted to be traded. This move had a big chance to sink the franchise for a long, long time.

Thankfully, Lakers third-year player Andrew Bynum suddenly bloomed into the second coming of Wilt. Kobe quickly changed his story, and everyone was happy in Lakers-land again.

But the ol' Lakers-style good fortune really smiled on Los Angeles last Februrary, when ex-Lakers great Jerry West, now managing the Memphis Grizzlies, traded his star forward Pau Gasol to them at virtually no cost.

And now the Lakers look all the world like they're the favorites to win their fifteenth NBA championship this June.

Wow. Even during the down years, Lakers fans still had Kobe Bryant to cheer for. Any Hawks or Knicks fan would kill for that.

The Lakers are a team of short-term, relatively painless downs and long-lasting, extremely high ups.

It's easy to root for a team that always wins. That's why the Red Sox, Yankees, Spurs, Lakers, Red Wings, Celtics, Patriots and Colts lead their respective leagues in jersey and ticket sales.

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.

Game thoughts, continued

Upon reviewing my post from last night, I realized I need to give credit where credit is due.

Kobe was incredible. 34 points, eight rebounds, six assists on 11 of 18 shooting is a great performance. Some of the shots he hit were just mind-boggling. And he did it without alienating his team by trying to do it all himself. My knock of Kobe has never been that he doesn't have the skills... in the past, I've criticized him for taking bad shots and not playing smart.

Seems he's fixed that.

Other thoughts:

Deron was 5-5 from the 3-point line on the night. Three of them came in the last 30 seconds of the game. Uh, Deron? Maybe you could have shown some of that when it mattered.

If the Lakers win another NBA championship this season, they should be required to ship the trophy to Memphis. The Gasol for Kwame trade would have been vetoed in every fantasy league in the country if someone had tried to pull it off. I know Pau isn't exactly dominating this series (20 and 5 last night), but he does a lot for the team.

1. Now Lamar Odom is the third option on the team and not the second one. He's MUCH more comfortable in that role, as evidenced by him going off for 19 and 16 on 7-10 shooting.

2. The Lakers can now effectively play an inside-out game where if Kobe is double-teamed, he can kick it in to Gasol for an easy bucket, and vice versa. Before the trade, L.A. couldn't do that.

3. Gasol's post presence also allows the Lakers' shooters to get more wide-open looks, ie. Fisher, Vujacic, Walton, Radmanovich.

It was the trade of the decade, in my opinion. I was discussing it with a friend of mine, and he suggested that maybe there needs to be some kind of veto system for trades in the league. Maybe a rule where if 80% of the owners are against a trade, David Stern doesn't let it go through.

Problem is, Stern's ecstatic that the Lakers and Celtics are back on top (through questionable trades). He just about said as much on TNT last night before the game.

So I don't ever see it happening. I'll just add it to the list of ideas that would be good for the league that Stern will never consider. He's too busy fixing broken replay rules, I guess.