Guards:
Baron Davis, when healthy, is an MVP-caliber player. He’s a bit gimpy at the moment with a pulled hamstring, but he can still take over games with his shooting and penetration. Deron Williams has blossomed all season, and the Houston series (especially a sublime Game 7) has shown that the playoffs don’t faze him. But the rest of the Warrior backcourt is far better than their Jazz counterparts. Derek Fisher and Gordan Giricek will be hard pressed to keep up with Jason Richardson and Monta Ellis. Everyone knows that, after Williams, the Jazz weakness is its guard play. Golden State will exploit this to the fullest.

Edge: Warriors

Forwards:
Carlos Boozer will destroy the Warriors. There’s no two ways about it. If he could drop 25/10 per game against Yao Ming and Chuck Hayes, how will he do against Mickael Pietrus, Stephen Jackson and Al Harrington? Forget about it. Jackson creates matchup problems, however. Sticking Kirilenko on him might help, but he will inevitably get open for 3s as a result of J-Rich and Baron’s dribble penetration. That’s going to be trouble. Same for Matt Barnes. But the onslaught of Boozer, Kirilenko, Harpring (a notorious Warrior-killer) and Millsap should outplay the Golden State frontcourt.

Edge: Jazz

Centers:
Utah: All-Star Mehmet Okur, who just held Yao Ming to a pedestrian performance and nailed clutch 3s in the later part of the series. Warriors: Adonal Foyle. Enough said. Okay, seriously: Andris Biedrins played very well in the Dallas series and will get his share of rebounds. But Memo will pull him away from the basket and hopefully let Boozer dominate those boards.

Edge: Jazz

Coaches:
Couldn’t be more different. Nellie is all about pushing the tempo and trickeration and novelty; Jerry Sloan would rather die than ditch the pick-and-roll. Both coaches are going to stick to their guns — it will be more up to the execution of the players to determine whose system is more effective.

Edge: Even

Intangibles:
The Warriors’ confidence is sky-high, having just knocked off the best regular-season team in the league when few people gave them a chance. They have played extremely well since Baron Davis returned from injury in mid-March. The Jazz have been streaking in the opposite direction to close the season, but showed their true spirit and gumption by winning Game 7 in Houston (and outplaying the Rockets through most of the series). It will be ridiculously difficult to win on the road in this series, but the Warriors’ momentum fuels them.

Edge: Warriors.

The Jazz should win this series. They are a better team down the whole roster (much like they were with Houston). But after seeing Dallas fall, anything can happen. I’m excited to see the result.