The Melo Backpedal

When the NBA Playoffs started nearly three weeks ago, absolutely nobody besides their fans actually believed the Utah Jazz would make it to the Western Conference Finals. However, after Game 4’s 115-101 victory at Oakland’s Oracle Arena, the Jazz are now just one win away from doing just that.

Though the Golden State Warriors wanted to try a similar pace that took them to a convincing Game 3 victory just two nights ago, the Jazz continually slowed the tempo of the game. The slow pace played to the favor of the Jazz, and helped silence the usually ruckus crowd at Oracle Arena for the first time during these playoffs. Dubbed “the loudest arena in the NBA” by ESPN’s Chris Sheridan just the other day, the seats were already half empty by the time the buzzer sounded in this one. In the end it was Derek Fisher, Carlos Boozer, and Jazz who kept their composure and outclassed the darlings of the 2007 Playoffs.

Boozer had 34 points and 12 rebounds and the Jazz handed the eighth-seeded Warriors their first home loss of the postseason, to put Utah up 3-1 in their second-round playoff series.

Fisher scored 14 of his 21 points in the fourth quarter for the Jazz, who hadn’t been to the playoffs since the Stockton-to-Malone era ended in 2003. Utah won the Northwest Division title this season, but is clearly learning the playoff game on the fly.

“That was a big step in the growth process for us as a team,” said Fisher, who missed the series opener and dramatically returned during Game 2 after tending to his daughter’s serious health issues.

“It was like we knew what to expect. It was a great atmosphere to play in, but we handled it like pros.”

With a poised, gritty performance that would make the former Jazz greats proud, Utah earned the chance to clinch its first trip to the conference finals since 1998 with a victory at home in Game 5 on Tuesday night, ending the Warriors’ improbable run of playoff excitement.

Deron Williams had 20 points and 13 assists as the Jazz finally solved the riddle of Oracle Arena, where the underdog Warriors won their first four playoff home games with up-tempo offense and fan support that dazzled the nation.

Al Harrington scored 24 points for the Warriors before fouling out, Stephen Jackson scored 24 points but committed six turnovers, while Jason Richardson went nearly 42 minutes between baskets on the way to only seven points. Baron Davis had just 15 points and seven assists. Davis, arguably the playoff MVP before tonights game, seemed to have run out of pixie-dust, going 6-for-16 from the field, including 2-of-8 on 3-pointers.

Davis seemed fatigued, though there were no such stories this time of a “bum hamstring”, a “head cold”, or “stomach flu” like we’ve heard in the last week about Davis. Instead, it was likely the faced-paced offensive of the Warriors, coupled with the fact that they’ve played each game this series with only 48 hours rest inbetween, and only a slim 8-man Warrior rotation. Golden State was a complete mess through most of their first home since the regular season — yet they still held a lead in the final minutes before Utah’s superior poise won it again.

Poor free-throw shooting – another sign of fatigue — hurt them in Game 4 as well. Golden State was 21-of-34 from the line, including back-to-back misses by Davis with 4:39 to play.

“I just didn’t find it,” Davis said. “It’s all on me. It’s not on my teammates. It starts on me and ends on me. I have to assume the responsibility for this. … It’s my job to get that motor running and get us to playing the right basketball we need to be playing.”

“This is an environment a lot of our guys hadn’t been in before, and I’m glad I was able to use some of my experience to help us tonight,” Fisher said.

Fisher dropped to the floor in a heap after a scary collision with Davis’ elbow that looked intentional, but eventually got up to finish the game.

Jason Richardson then was ejected for a Flagrant Foul on Mehmet Okur on a drive to the basket with 37 seconds left, prompting angry shouts by both players. Okur got back at the Warriors, by adding salt in an open wound, when he hit a 3-pointer when Utah had a 13-point lead and 10 seconds to play.

Afterward, both Fisher and Okur said the incidents were no cause for anger or concern. Okur said he “overreacted.”

Other tidbits about Game 4 --

I’ve got to hand it to Jay Mariotti from the Chicago Sun Times and Bill Plaschke of the Los Angeles Times, who were on the ESPN show “Around the Horn” on Friday saying that the Jazz would claim victory at one of the two games in Oakland this weekend. I’m not even sure I would have made that call, even though I did pick the Jazz in six when the series started.

I’d be shocked if the NBA Office in New York doesn’t at least review the “incidental” elbow Baron Davis landed on Derek Fisher. They laid down the law on Kobe Bryant during the regular season and are doing a similar investigation on Bruce Bowen’s contact on Steve Nash, so what looked like an intentional elbow from my view, should at least be reviewed, and possibly even followed by a stiff fine.

After tonight’s Game 4, Henry Abbott of the TrueHoop Blog had this to say: “I’m not buying that this [series]is over. Not for a second. Anything can happen when one of the teams on the court is the 2007 Golden State Warriors”. Henry and I have been at odds for a while now. While he said the Houston Rockets were “the most dangerous team” in the playoffs just three weeks ago, I predicted the Jazz would win that series in seven games. After it happened, I called him on it, and all he had to say was, “Playoff predictions are a crapshoot.” I totally disagree; either you know what you’re talking about or you don’t. Every year, there’s maybe one team that isn’t considered the “better” team that actually wins a series. This year it was Golden State beating Dallas, so everybody lost on that one. Then there’s all the rest of the matchups, where you have to actually watch the sport during the regular season in order to make an educated prediction. Henry went on to pick the Warriors in six against the Jazz, and now we all know that isn’t going to happen.

Anybody who claims the Jazz are “surprising” everybody is fooling themselves and hasn’t watched much NBA basketball this season. The Jazz started the season by going 12-4 in the opening month of the season, including wins against Detroit, Houston, Golden State, San Antonio, Phoenix (twice), and the LA Lakers. We knew from the first month of the season that this team could play, and they finished the regular season 2-0 against Detroit, 3-1 against Phoenix, 3-1 against Houston, 3-1 against Dallas, and 2-2 against San Antonio. As Charles Barkley would say, “Now that’s impressive.” The Jazz also boasted two All-Stars, and another in Deron Williams, who could have easily been an All-Star replacement for an injured player. Not to mention Andrei Kirilenko, who was an All-Star just three seasons ago, and Derek Fisher, a veteran with championship experience. So I don’t want to hear how this team came out of nowhere and how this is so shocking. The writing was on the wall, all you had to do is read it.

Here are some of my favorite quotes from some fans after last night’s game –

“Remember when the NBA said they wouldn’t tolerate complaining after calls? Is that policy still in place?”

“Doesn’t GS give away tickets?…because you know most of the fans are the homeless filling up the seats. How do you get all the homeless to miss dinner at the shelter? Nice going Oakland. That is a true sports organization reaching out to the community. I can see the United Way commercials now”

“I distinctly remember quite a few posts about how dirty the Jazz are. What do you call Baron Davis’ elbow to the face, or the two flagrant. That’s clean?”

“Just watched the Baron Davis cheap shot again. It was definitely pre-meditated. If the league is looking in to Bruce Bowen’s antics this has to be considered as well. Usually when one of my friends is going through one of the toughest things in his life, I like to give him a forearm shiver to the head”

“All these analysts are saying Dirk shouldn’t have gotten the MVP because he didn’t perform in the playoffs. However, in that case Utah’s Jerry Sloan deserves the Coach of the Year award instead of Sam Mitchell”