Just a thought or two on tonight’s destruction of the Rockets in Game 4:

1) We were the aggressors in the paint tonight, hence the added free throws (although I’m not completely blinded by my fandom — we did get the benefit of the doubt a few times on calls). D-Will led the charge in getting to the rim, as did Matt Harpring. It definitely had an impact.

2) We took care of the basketball, especially after a slightly sloppy first quarter. Conversely, we again forced Yao into five turnovers and caused tons of deflections that won’t show up in the box score, but are just as significant. Then there was Fisher’s sublime 2-on-1 steal and dish to Gira, who nailed that 3-pointer to end the third quarter. I think “joy” pretty much describes my feeling when that shot went in.

3) Welcome back, Mehmet Okur. 16 points, 7-12 shooting, another solid defensive game (arguably a better one than Game 3, because Yao scored fewer points). If he shoots like that in Houston, we’re going to be wrapping this thing up in six.

I’ll post some thoughts about how to keep the momentum going in Game 5 tomorrow. For now, enjoy this, Jazz fans. But not too much. We’re out of the hole. Now it’s time to get on top.

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Layton Shumway is the copy chief for Brigham Young University’s Daily Universe. You can reach him at lss83@byu.net.

It’s just one game.

We’re still down in the series. McGrady didn’t have a good shooting night. Luther Head couldn’t hit a shot to save his life. No Rockets bench player scored. Clearly, we received more benefit from calls than we did in Houston (although we still shot far fewer free throws). There are mitigating factors here. We can’t ease up, can’t relax. We have a huge Game 4 this weekend.

……Okay, who am I kidding? I’m ecstatic. I’m euphoric. I’m going to savor this, at least until Saturday morning.

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After watching the lose game two, I felt sick. Like most of you, the Jazz have consumed a lot of my time this season. Considering I watched roughly 75 games on TV, and read just about every article I could find on the team, I estimate that I spent at least 250 hours on being a Jazz fan, the equivalent of over 10 full days, or 31 work days. This does not include my time posting on this blog.
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Nothing more need be said, really. (This kid is actually playing a computer game of some kind — kudos to whoever overlaid the text.)

The votes are in, and Toronto’s Sam Mitchell has walked away with the 2006-2007 Coach of the Yeah Award. Jerry Sloan finished second in the voting, a good 90 points behind Mitchell. I suppose Mitchell deserves it for his team’s worst-to-first turnaround (though I think he owes a lot more to Chris Bosh, T.J. Ford and the Leastern Conference), but it’s unfortunate that after a 50-win season when most national media-types thought the Jazz wouldn’t even make the playoffs, Sloan STILL can’t get the award he deserves. Although, considering the recent play of the Jazz, and Sloan’s reluctance to make certain personnel changes, like playing Ronnie Brewer more and not playing Derek Fisher quite so much (see also: IJSPD), maybe there’s a reason he ended up second again.
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Layton Shumway is the copy chief for Brigham Young University’s Daily Universe. You can reach him at lss83@byu.net.