The Utah Jazz - Golden State Warriors series is a contrast of styles and philosophy that makes for interesting viewing (despite the fact that the NBA schedules the games poorly for East and Central Time Zone audiences). Golden State is the ultimate run-and-gun, loosey-goosey, helter-skelter team that’s playing with the house’s money. They barely made the playoffs, and yet beat Dallas, the NBA’s best regular season team, in the first round. Anything they achieve now is icing on the cake.
The Utah Jazz, in the mold of their coach Jerry Sloan, are a tough, methodical team who led the league in fouls. Don’t mistake them for a bunch of stiffs though - the Jazz are talented. Boozer is bona-fide star, and Okur, Kirlinko, Harpring, Williams, Fisher and the gang can play half-court or get up and down the court. This Jazz team is not your average fifth seed - they won 51 regular season games in the ultra-competitive Western Conference.
Back to the series…It comes down to offensive philosophy (as defense is having little impact on the series): shooting twos and rebounding versus shooting threes. Golden State has launched 30 or more three pointers in each of the last six playoff games. Luckily for them they shoot threes well but there has yet to be a team that shot itself to an NBA championship.
Golden State clearly dominated game 3, their first home game this series, shooting 53% from the field including 47% from three point range. Those numbers are clearly not sustainable, as in their three losses Golden State shot 43% from the field, including 36% from three. These are very respectable numbers until you observe what Utah is doing.
While the Warriors are launching threes, the Jazz are running their offense and creating easy shots as well as open three point attempts. For the series, Utah is shooting an astounding 50% from the field and 41% from three point range. To make matter worse, Utah is hammering Golden State on the boards. In their wins, Utah is out-rebounding Golden State 55-35, and even in their one loss, Utah out-rebounded Golden State 44-32.
The Utah Jazz, in the mold of their coach Jerry Sloan, are a tough, methodical team who led the league in fouls. Don’t mistake them for a bunch of stiffs though - the Jazz are talented. Boozer is bona-fide star, and Okur, Kirlinko, Harpring, Williams, Fisher and the gang can play half-court or get up and down the court. This Jazz team is not your average fifth seed - they won 51 regular season games in the ultra-competitive Western Conference.
Back to the series…It comes down to offensive philosophy (as defense is having little impact on the series): shooting twos and rebounding versus shooting threes. Golden State has launched 30 or more three pointers in each of the last six playoff games. Luckily for them they shoot threes well but there has yet to be a team that shot itself to an NBA championship.
Golden State clearly dominated game 3, their first home game this series, shooting 53% from the field including 47% from three point range. Those numbers are clearly not sustainable, as in their three losses Golden State shot 43% from the field, including 36% from three. These are very respectable numbers until you observe what Utah is doing.
While the Warriors are launching threes, the Jazz are running their offense and creating easy shots as well as open three point attempts. For the series, Utah is shooting an astounding 50% from the field and 41% from three point range. To make matter worse, Utah is hammering Golden State on the boards. In their wins, Utah is out-rebounding Golden State 55-35, and even in their one loss, Utah out-rebounded Golden State 44-32.
It is nearly impossible to give up these numbers and still win, though Golden State has been competitive in all games. It may very well be that this is Golden State’s only style of play and they don’t have any other options, but over the long run history prefers the team with the efficient two pointers and rebounding to team that consistently launches threes.
2 comments:
Utah is a solid team. They'll give San Antonio a good series. Jerry Sloan can coach and never seems to get the respect he deserves.
Hey Tal, I think it's almost time for your monthly blog update, you lazy bastard. Hahaha.
So anyway, it appears that you're right about the trading Kobe thing. Every team that's traded a superstar screwed themselves over for years. Bill Simmons has a good rundown:
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/blog/index?name=simmons&entryDate=20070530
BUT I'd still rather pull for a bunch of young overacheivers than a phony self-centered douchebag, no matter how good he is, or how hot of a wife he has.
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