Utah puts together surprising run to make conference finals

[RonnieBrewer (Reverse Layup)]

Utah puts together surprising run to make conference finals
By Oscar Dixon, USA TODAY

No disrespect to the Utah Jazz, but when the NBA playoffs began, the
fourth-seeded Jazz were a long shot at best to be the first team to reach
the conference finals.

"I don't think anybody really knew, including ourselves, how good our team
could be," said Jazz guard Derek Fisher, who won three NBA championship rings
with the Los Angeles Lakers. "We got off to that start at the beginning of
the season, and we really started to believe that we could be good."

The Jazz ousted the Golden State Warriors in five games with a 100-87 victory
Tuesday night to advance to the Western Conference finals for the first time
since 1998. Utah opened the postseason seeded behind the Dallas Mavericks,
Phoenix Suns and San Antonio Spurs. The Jazz beat the Houston Rockets in the
first round.

"Right after we know who we're playing, we'll go watch some tape and get
ready for the next game," Utah forward Carlos Boozer said.

The Jazz will face the winner of the Spurs-Suns series, which won't end
before Friday night. San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich says whoever wins his
series will have a tough time against the Jazz.

"These are two good basketball teams, but neither one of us is playing any
better than Utah," Popovich said. "Utah is like San Antonio, boring like us.
People don't look at them the way they do faster-paced teams, I guess."

The Jazz lead all playoff teams in rebounding a game in the playoffs at 46.5
a contest; that's eight more than their opponents. On offense, Utah is 5-1
when scoring 100 or more points in the playoffs.

However, the Jazz lost six of their final nine games in the regular season
and continued that slide in the first round, losing their first two to
Houston before turning it around.

"I'm surprised, especially the way they finished the regular season," TNT
analyst Steve Kerr said of Utah's playoff run. "They collapsed down the
stretch, gave up home-court (advantage). Maybe momentum going into the
playoffs is overrated, but down 2-0 to Houston, they've just caught fire and
shown how versatile and deep they are.

They'll put up a good fight no matter who they play."

Contributing: Greg Boeck

Posted 2h 6m ago 


http://www.usatoday.com/sports/basketball/nba/
jazz/2007-05-16-surprise-run_N.htm 

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→ RonnieBrewer: Utah is like San Antonio, boring like us.
推 hardaway:老巴的預言快成真了...
→ hardaway:People are sleeping on Utah. That team is dangerous.
推 RonnieBrewer:睡夢羅漢 ?
推 shin770107:那句話不真吧...難道鹽湖城的球迷都可以邊睡覺邊說夢話
→ RonnieBrewer:..因為你誤會Barkley的意思了..
→ shin770107:邊看球= =?...而且睡著還比清醒時吵鬧...另外還站著睡
推 hardaway:不是這個意思吧
→ RonnieBrewer: = =
推 Actus:老巴：People are sleeping on Utah.
→ Actus:      Because the streets in Utah close at 10.
→ stenierkfrod:                                 老巴: We Believe
→ xjazz:rocket will finally win championship