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SALT LAKE CITY -- When the Utah Jazz greet the media at their practice facility in Salt Lake City, each player (and the head coach) stakes out a familiar spot in the gym where he addresses the scrum. Andrei Kirilenko, Kyle Korver and Wesley Matthews take questions in the middle of the court. Carlos Boozer fields questions along the far baseline beneath the basket. The peripatetic C.J. Miles roams freely, while Jerry Sloan stands stoically in front of the plastic purple bleachers. Once the camera crews from local affiliates are gathered, there will be a moment of deferential silence as the reporters make sure Sloan is ready, at which point he blurts out, "Whattaya got?"

Where can you find Deron Williams? The Jazz point guard is in the far corner of the gym, slouched on a training table leaning back against the wall. That's his spot, away from the busy flow of the gym. Williams had a reputation of being truculent with the media during his first couple of seasons, but now in his fifth year, he accepts the spotlight with a fairly polite tolerance, though he's still a somewhat reluctant participant. More than anything, he's still -- legs stretched out in front of him, head tilted back, a dozen voice recorders in his face. As he's peppered with questions, Williams barely moves from that position.

On the court, it's an entirely different story. Williams never stops moving. He's not hyperkinetic like Steve Nash or Chris Paul. It's a more orderly velocity, a good kind of reactive. Williams rarely lets the defense dictate where he's going, but he uses every piece of information to make snap decisions with an impressive change of speed. Where are the other nine guys on the floor? What does the system demand of my talents at this instant? Can I counter-program and get to the hole off the dribble?

The answer to each of these questions usually produces a foray into the paint, where the Jazz are getting anything they want against Denver thanks to Williams' orchestration of the offense. Williams is averaging 28.2 points and 11.6 assists in the series with a player efficiency rating (PER) of 28.19. He's the first player in NBA history to have five consecutive 20-point, 10-assist games within a single postseason series. Williams is both statistically and operatively the best player on the floor in this series, which prompts the question:

Despite the absence of Kirilenko and Mehmet Okur and the presence of an undrafted rookie and a project big man in the starting lineup, can a team with a supernova like Williams controlling the action truly be called an underdog?

When Okur went down, conventional wisdom deemed the Jazz a long shot, present company included. Even the Jazz's success in taking a 3-1 games lead headed back to Denver was framed as a triumph of discipline over combustion, the achievement of a cohesive team over a disparate collection of talent. After all, the Nuggets extended the Lakers to six games in a grueling conference finals last season, earning the mantel of the team most capable of dethroning the Lakers if the champs were to falter. Denver features Carmelo Anthony, one of the preeminent shot creators in the game. The Jazz? High I.Q. players, but no competition for the Nuggets' athletes.

Now that we've been living with this series for the better part of two weeks, the matchup has a different quality to it, in large part because of Williams' influence. Anthony has undoubtedly produced over the five games, but Williams has dominated. The execution of the Utah system held in such high regard isn't merely a product of whiteboard magic -- it's a direct result of Williams' leadership and court vision.

"He's as good as it gets,'' Nuggets point guard Chauncey Billups said at shootaround prior to Game 5 in Denver. "He can do everything. He really doesn't have any weaknesses. I think that's the ultimate compliment that you can pay to a player is to say that he doesn't have any weaknesses, and I think he's reached that point now.''

Williams doesn't merely ignite an effective transition or choreograph the Jazz's motion offense, he's also become a knockdown shooter from long distance, hitting at a 54.2 percent rate in the series from beyond the arc. He's also Utah's second-best option behind Carlos Boozer in the post, where he can score and wreak havoc with brilliant kickouts. In this series, he's doing stellar work off the ball and on the defensive end. But Williams' defining quality might be, more than any point guard in the league, his unwillingness to waste a possession.

Singling out Williams shouldn't discount the synchronicity carried out by each of the Jazz players in Sloan's offensive scheme, but the old construct of this series as a battle between a system and an individual talent is no longer relevant. The Jazz have their individual performer in Williams. They also have Boozer, the best big man in the series (something that was true before Nene went down with a sprained left knee), and reserve Paul Millsap, whose 24.08 PER ranks him 10th in the postseason among players who have logged more than 15 minutes per game.

Denver notched a much-needed victory at the Pepsi Center on Wednesday night, a feat it accomplished by moving the basketball and running a coherent offense for the first time this postseason. But in reassessing this series headed into Game 6 -- a possible clincher for Utah on its home court -- it's time to bury the idea that the Nuggets have considerably more talent than the Jazz. Denver might have a decisive edge in athleticism (less so now that Nene is out), but Williams' repertoire of skills should give us pause about the long odds originally assigned to Utah after Game 1.

It might spoil the storybook narrative, but we're now learning that Deron Williams is simply too good to be an underdog.

DENVER -- A beleaguered Utah Jazz team entered Game 2 in Denver with a litany of worries. In Game 1, they lost their starting center, Mehmet Okur, for the season with a torn left achilles tendon. That void thrust the very green Kyrylo Fesenko into the starting lineup for Monday night’s Game 2. Meanwhile, the Jazz were already without their best defender, Andrei Kirilenko, whose absence put excessive pressure on his understudies, C.J. Miles and Wesley Matthews. Carmelo Anthony torched the young tandem for 42 points in Game 1, and arrived on Monday night hungry for more.

Undermanned on both the offensive and defensive ends of the floor, the Jazz had only one saving grace -- their lethal screen-and-roll combination of Deron Williams and Carlos Boozer. The pair orchestrated a clinic on Monday night, baffling the Nuggets’ defense with their two-man waltz, with Deron Williams as the lead. Williams finished with 33 points and 14 assists, vaulting the Jazz to an improbable and frenetic 114-111 win over the Nuggets at the Pepsi Center, tying the series at one game apiece.

"This is a big win for us," Williams said. "Nobody was really giving us a shot. We just wanted to come out here and put that to rest. We feel like we still have a great team that can compete and we're really proud of how we played and battled tonight."

Williams had a series of offensive imperatives on Monday night, and he succeeded at every one of them. First, he attacked Denver off the dribble every chance he got, looking for either a seam to the basket, or contact against a collapsing Nugget defender. Williams made his way to the stripe for 18 attempts, draining 16. Second, Williams engaged Boozer -- and occasionally Paul Millsap -- with their patented pick-and-roll. Finally, if Williams was unable to find a path to the rim or his post option was covered, he empowered weak side threats like Kyle Korver and C.J. Miles by executing the Jazz’s offensive system to perfection. Korver scored 13 points, while Miles had another solid offensive performance with 17 points.

"[Williams] set the tone from the beginning," Boozer said. "He came out aggressive, got to the basket, hit shots -- jumper after jumper -- then got to the free throw line ... It made the job easier on the rest of us because he was playing so well offensively."

Williams’ most exquisite play came out of a timeout with 1:43 remaining in the game and the Jazz trailing 106-105. At the top of the circle, Williams broke down Chauncey Billups off the bounce. When the Nuggets’ wing defenders collapsed on him in the paint, Williams threw a dart to Korver in the right corner, where the sharpshooter drained a 3-pointer to put Utah on top 108-106, a lead that they would never relinquish.

"I was kind of open a lot in the fourth quarter," Korver said. "Never wide open, but kind of open and I kept telling myself, 'Be ready.'"

Utah was open a lot in the first half. The Jazz shot a blistering 73.3 percent in the first quarter, and 67.7 percent overall before halftime. In addition to Williams' proficiency from the outside, Boozer killed Denver both rolling to the basket and by flashing to the top of the circle, where he drained a series of high-arching shots during a 17-3 Utah run to close the first half. Boozer scored 20 points on the night.

Leading 63-51 at intermission, the Jazz had to sustain a furious 14-0 rally by the Nuggets in the third quarter. The Nuggets combined a sequence of strong stands on the defensive end and aggressive ball pressure to fuel their comeback. The Jazz gave the Nuggets a hand by putting them in the penalty at the 9:18 mark of the period.

"We know who they are," Jazz head coach Jerry Sloan said when asked about Denver's rally. "It's not a secret. They're a terrific team -- and they can score. They can really score easily."

Both Denver and Utah are notoriously foul-prone and that held true Monday night, as the teams combined for 91 free throw attempts. In total, there were 73 successful free throws converted to 71 made shots from the floor.

Utah regained control of the game for a stretch at the end of the third quarter behind three Korver jumpers and three pairs of free throws, but would have to withstand another run by Denver in the fourth quarter. A turnover and a blocked shot on consecutive Utah possessions ignited the Nuggets' break in the opening minutes of the period. Billups lobbed a pass on the break over the Utah transition defense to Nene for an easy slam. Then Smith collected his block of Williams' layup attempt and found Billups downcourt for a spot-up 3-pointer to give Denver its first lead of the second half at 92-91.

The game's final nine minutes were a back-and-forth affair. Each team pounded the ball inside as the interior defenses disintegrated on both ends. Utah spread the wealth as Williams compiled five assists over the final stretch, while Denver put the ball into Anthony's hands and let him attack the Jazz inside. In the run-up to Monday night’s game, Utah vowed to match Denver’s prolific offense with a more rugged brand of physicality. Anthony, in particular, was able to roam around the floor relatively untouched in Game 1. Utah’s defenders clearly adjusted their strategy on Anthony. As advertised, Miles and Matthews bodied up on him, invading Anthony's space by playing right on his hip.

"They tried to force me more to go to the basket," Anthony said. "They tried to jam me a little bit."

That strategy can be seen if you examine Anthony's shot chart. He finished the night with 32 points, but he converted only 9 of his 25 attempts from the field – every one of those nine in the immediate basket area. Like Williams, Anthony took advantage of a tightly-officiated contest, earning 15 free throw attempts of his own. For Jazz's part, they were relatively satisfied. Utah appreciates that stopping Anthony from scoring is an impossibility. The goal for Miles and Matthews coming into Monday night's game was to frustrate Anthony and take him out of his comfort zone. Mission accomplished on both counts.

"They did great" Boozer said of Miles and Matthews. "They set the tone by being a little more physical with [Anthony] when he crossed over half court."

The Nuggets were whistled for 37 fouls -- a new record for a Jazz playoff opponent. Throughout the game, Denver was demonstratively upset with the officiating, though the free throw disparity favored Utah by only a 47-44 margin. The Nuggets' frustration was palpable and the excess emotion might have been detrimental to their cause.

"We talked about trying to get under their skin a little bit," Williams said. "We wanted to be physical with them from the start of the game, make guys have to work a little harder for their points. I think we did a good job of that tonight."

Denver will have a hard time erasing the memory of the game's closing minutes, when they led the Jazz by three points inside of three minutes. In addition to a missed Billups free throw with 53 second left, there were two offensive fouls -- one each by Billups and Anthony -- along with two additional miscues by Anthony. The first occurred when he brought the ball low on a drive to the basket, ultimately getting stripped and turning it over to Utah. The second mistake came with 25 seconds left with the Nuggets trailing by a single point. Anthony decided to pressure Miles aggressively in the backcourt, and picked up his sixth foul in the process.

"We'll take all those," Williams said of Denver's blunders.

The Jazz's resilience stems from the confidence that if they implement their program with intelligence and poise, they can succeed, even with key personnel in street clothes. Utah's belief in that system is a primary reason why the Jazz have tallied only one losing season in Sloan's 22-year tenure. Even with Okur and Kirilenko sidelined, Utah's offensive schemes hummed with a familiar precision on Monday night. If anything, the injuries seemed to strengthen the Jazz's resolve.

"Their team is a wounded team," Billups said. "They came out and took care of business."

Cornered and bloodied, the Jazz mimicked the Trail Blazers and wrested home court advantage from an ostensibly superior opponent with more firepower. The wounded animal bit back.

DENVER -- The Utah Jazz have lost Mehmet Okur for the remainder of the playoffs. The veteran starting center tore his left Achilles tendon Saturday night when he slipped on a drive to the hole in the second quarter of the Jazz's loss last night to Denver. Okur underwent an MRI on Sunday morning, which revealed the tear. Utah general manager Kevin O'Connor addressed the media and Okur's timetable for recovery.

"The cookie cutter answer is anywhere from three months to start back on the court to four to six months," O'Connor said.

Okur had been suffering from Achilles tendinitis, and prior to Saturday night's game, he received a numbing injection in the Achilles area. O'Connor made a repeated point of saying that the shot had nothing to do with Okur's injury.

"We would never put a player in a compromising position," O'Connor said. "If there was any indication that the shot would've masked anything or done anything like that, we would have never done that. We've never put a game ahead of a player."

The mood at the Jazz's practice Sunday afternoon at the Pepsi Center was glum. Teammates, staff and those who cover the team regard Okur as an accessible, kind player.

The basketball ramifications are also devastating to the squad. How is Utah able to move so fluidly in the half court? It has a lot to do with Okur's shooting prowess from the perimeter. As a threat from beyond the arc, Okur is able to drag opposing bigs out of the paint, where so much of Utah's flex action occurs. Those cuts, back screens and slips will be a lot tougher for Utah to execute with a front line of, say, Carlos Boozer and Paul Millsap, or Boozer and Kyrylo Fesenko, none of whom demand attention 23 feet away from the basket.

Posted by Kevin Arnovitz

The Hoop Doctors have unearthed 10 interesting facts while poring over data from the 2008-09 season. Among the findings:

Troy Murphy was assisted on 100% of his 3-pointers made finishing with 161, which was 12th best in the NBA. That helps explain how he finished 3rd in 3-point shooting percentage at 45.0%, even though he is a 6-11 forward/center.

Troy Murphy: On the receiving end 100 percent of the time. (Photo by Allen Einstein/NBAE via Getty Images)

This raised some eyebrows. As Celtics Hub's Zach Lowe e-mailed, "Every single one of Troy Murphy's 161 threes had an assist attached to it? Every one? There wasn't one instance when an assist wasn't deserved?" 

In the service of truth-squadding, I cued up Murphy's oeuvre of 3-pointers from last season.

You know what? 

Among the dozens of 3s, there isn't a single shot that doesn't warrant a dime, even if you subscribe to the strictest definition of assist.

Murphy gets his 3-point attempts in a variety of ways -- almost always near the top of the arc. He's particularly lethal in transition, which makes sense when you consider that the Pacers were the third-ranked squad last season in pace. Murphy is especially adept at trailing the ball handler on the break. As T.J. Ford or Jarrett Jack penetrates into the lane against the backpedaling defense, Murphy will fill the void in their tracks. Ford or Jack will then kick it out to the trailing Murphy, who hits. At other times in transition, he merely spots up where his teammates know to find him. 

In the half court, Murphy knows how to position himself for a clean pass from the post player.  As the defense collapses down low on the big man, Murphy will shift along the arc to create the easiest possible pass out of the post. Also in the half court, Murphy gets a bundle of 3-point attempts on the simple pick-and-pop out on the perimeter. Teams who trap Ford or Jack on that action repeatedly pay, as Murphy launches before the defensive rotation arrives.

Murphy wasn't the only sniper to be assisted on 100 percent of his 3-pointers. According to 82games.com, the list includes Matt Bonner, Mehmet Okur, Kyle Korver and Antawn Jamison.

Players on the other end of the spectrum? Dwyane Wade (29 percent of 3-pointers assisted), LeBron James (36 percent) and Steve Nash (42 percent) -- each of whom can be characterized as a guy who doesn't need a permission slip to shoot the ball. 

It's gut check time in the Association. The Mavs step up with confidence, while the Suns step out of the playoff picture. The Cavs reverse their fortunes against the Spurs. And the Hornets can't seem to build any momentum heading in the postseason:

Rob Mahoney of Two Man Game: "The Mavs could have allowed the Suns to create a bit too much significance out of the final five games of the season.  Hell, they could have at least let Phoenix make a game out this singular contest, dubbed by Grant Hill as the team's 'World Cup.'  But for whatever reason, the Mavs weren't in a generous mood.  They stabbed the Suns right in the heart, twisted it, and twisted it some more.  This wasn't a demonstration of killer instinct, but rather, a will to annihilate.  It wasn't just a destruction of the Suns' playoff chances, it was a complete eradication of hope and confidence.  Behold, ladies and gentlemen, the puddle of disappointment that lays where the mighty Suns once stood.  The Mavs didn't start Phoenix's downfall, but they have likely dealt the finishing blow and inked the death certificate."

Graydon Gordian of 48 Minutes of Hell: "Both the Cavs and the Spurs play stodgy, spatially sophisticated defense. They both surround key offensive players, adept at collapsing the defense, with highly effective outside shooters. They both dominate the defensive boards. The Spurs average 90.5 possessions per game. The Cavs average 91.3. Both teams, although thoroughly conceived, have enough flexibility to counter opposing teams' varying styles.

This has been true for a few years now. Then what is different than past seasons? Well, in pretty much every category the Cavs are now slightly superior. Rather than playing Cleveland tightly, this means every tactical advantage the Spurs typically enjoy is negated."

Ryan Schwan of Hornets247: "The Jazz are a premier team at exposing soft interior defense since they launch cuts through the middle on every play.  If the big men aren't willing to body up, rotate, and contest shots, it's all over at that point.  Armstrong rarely left Okur, West usually left late, and Marks just isn't fast enough.

The thing that probably stuck with me the most throughout the game, however, was the first quarter.  The Hornets played very strong defense through the first five possessions, giving up only one good look.  Ronnie Brewer, however, tossed in some really tough shots anyways, and the Hornets rotations came slower, the focus was softer, and the Jazz got more open shots -- and knocked them down.  It was over then, no matter what happened the rest of the way. Paul wanted the game bad, and did what he could on both ends of the floor.  The rest of the guys?  I can't say the same."

THE FINAL WORD
Forum Blue & Gold: A review of Seth Davis' When March Went Mad.
Raptors Republic: The Quincy Douby era begins in Toronto.
Daily Thunder: OKC regresses.

(Photos by Tim Heitman, David Liam Kyle, Layne Murdoch/NBAE via Getty Images)

Posted by Kevin Arnovitz

• Mehmet Okur will take leave from the Jazz to attend to a family medical emergency in Turkey. Will Kosta Koufos get the nod at center?
  
• With Devin Harris on the shelf, the Nets are suddenly very thin at the point.  Dave D'Alessandro: "It seems short-sighted to carry only three point guards nowadays - regardless of what you think of Carter's ability to handle point chores. Especially since a guy like Eddie Gill is sitting at home in Indianapolis: Do the Nets really believe that the $790,000 they'll have to invest is going to break them? Especially if these games somehow turn out to be important? Especially since Mo Ager is really doing nothing but acting as a practice body?"
• According to Britt Robson at The Rake, the Wolves' interior defense has two settings -- bad, and worse.
  
• It's a long season, Dwight Howard.  "The Magic superstar came to shoot-around today dressed up like Tyrone Biggums, the squeaky voiced crack addict portrayed by comedian Dave Chappelle on Chappelle's Show...Howard imitated the character, standing in front of Sun Sports cameras and the local media. Just like Biggums, Howard wore a tan suit that he might have bought at Goodwill, a blue-colored hooded sweatshirt under the suit coat and a red stocking cap."
  
• Not that you need an excuse to visit Blazers Edge, but you'll find this gem inside Dave's preview of tonight's Blazers v. Magic contest: "The very first thing to know about the Magic is that Dwight Howard is destroying everything in his path like a tornado full of bazookas stuffed with pop rocks and diet coke." (Hat Tip: TQC) 
• Forum Blue & Gold has been studying the Lakers' shot charts from the last couple of games, and noticed this: "Kobe is getting his shots in spots that Michael Jordan used to get a lot of his. He can still shoot and hit from anywhere, but he is into the middle of the paint for shots, either off post plays or cutting off a screen, and he is getting a lot of looks from the free throw area."
• Pickaxe & Roll will take the heat for the Denver's less aesthetically pleasing brand of basketball: "I called on the Nuggets to shift from a run and gun score board melting style to a more deliberate defensive oriented system that relies on stops and efficient offense.  They just have to work on the efficient offense aspect of the equation.  They still played at a relatively fast pace, but not anywhere near the pace they played with at home last season."
• Tim Thomas digs yoga.  Favorite pose?  Downward Dog, presumably. 

Here's a fun little NBA thing you can do while watching NBA basketball with friends and a Tivo: After any rebound in traffic, announce loudly "That was a FOUL!"

Somebody -- a fan of the team that ended up with the ball -- will disagree.

Then rewind the Tivo, and play the scene again, in slow motion.

At that speed, somewhere in that play, you will see someone doing something that could easily be called a foul. I can almost guarantee it.

And when that happens, you will look like a genius.

Good little party trick, but also evidence that referees have almost total discretion. They allow enough contact that they can, essentially, call fouls whenever they want.

Similarly, I used to commute on a straight, flat road with unbelievably good visibility, no side streets, not even any buildings around. Everybody traveled at least 45 or 50 for that stretch of a mile or so, and even that didn't feel remotely dangerous. But the speed limit was posted at 25 -- a speed literally nobody ever traveled.

Which meant the police could stop ... absolutely whomever they wanted.

That's a lot of power!

ESPN's J.A. Adande suggests that last night that kind of power, in the hands of Steve Javie, Tom Washington, and Bob Delaney, was used to favor the home team:

The benefits of home were more apparent on the stat sheet: The Lakers enjoyed a 42-28 advantage in free-throw attempts (and that includes the four free throws Bryant shot in the final 10.7 seconds, when the Jazz fouled to stop the clock).

When the Jazz got close to the basket, there was more contact than in a rush-hour crowd shoving into the subway, but rarely a blown whistle. Meanwhile, at the other end, Lamar Odom breezed past Carlos Boozer for a layup and got a gift and-one. And Utah players and coaches are still wondering how Mehmet Okur could wind up sprawling toward the baseline, leaving Pau Gasol alone under the basket for an easy offensive rebound and dunk to put the Lakers ahead by five points with 20.5 seconds remaining.

I suspected as much watching the game on TV. There was a lot going on under the Jazz hoop without a lot of free throws resulting. Carlos Boozer really wanted a foul that I think he probably should have gotten, for instance.

But nothing was quite like that moment when Pau Gasol hammered Mehmet Okur.

That's the play when we all learned the Jazz were unlikely to win this series. They had been hanging around with a puncher's chance. They got the key miss. But when it came time for the all-important rebound, their guy started the play with Pau Gasol all over his back, and ended it with Okur stumbling forward out of the play entirely as Gasol dunked the de facto game-winner.

It's in these highlights, near the very end. (UPDATE: And here.)

In fact, that Tivo trick I just told you about? I acted that out pretty well. "Are you kidding me?" I barked at the screen.

Rewind. Slow motion. I watched several times. Hard to tell. By any measure, Gasol was more intimate with Okur than the rules would strictly allow, but welcome to the playoffs, you know? What I wanted to see was the moment when Gasol shoved Okur out of the way. With all the contact, that moment was tough to isolate.

I assumed I had been correct, however.

A few minutes later, though, TNT showed another view, as Doug Collins announced that Okur tried to pretend he had been shoved, but in fact wasn't.

This made me even angrier. There had been a terrible no-call, and now the announcer was going to add insult to injury by accusing Okur, essentially, of being a dramatic baby?

Let us not forget, all this is going on with a shot at the Western Conference Finals likely on the line. It was 105-102. Deron Williams had been hitting threes. There were twenty seconds left.

Let us also not forget that the Utah Jazz are generally considered to be one of the roughest and toughest teams in the NBA.

I hit the rewind button on that second angle, followed by the slow-motion button. I watched it again and again.

And I was shocked.

Look, maybe there's something I missed. But that angle sure seemed telling. And the more times I watched it, the more clear it was: Okur did flop.

He had been shoved in the back moments before with a Gasol forearm that was still planted in his back. It was the kind of thing that is never called. Just battling for position. But Okur had been pushed a little deeper into the lane than he probably wanted to go. Sasha Vujacic's 3 from the corner bounced off the back of the rim, and took a perfect carom almost directly to the spot Gasol had freshly stolen from Okur.

Even though the Jazz had boxed out all the way around the rim, this ball was even money or better to make its way over Okur's head and into the waiting hands of Gasol.

My best interpretation of the video is that Okur tried to get his team possession another way -- by dramatizing a foul that had actually occurred seconds earlier.

He did a pretty good job of it too. But in the end, it was a rebound, dunk, game, and likely series to the Lakers.

And so I stopped being mad at the no call. And I started getting mad at the flopping.

UPDATE: Love this Matt Harpring quote, from the Salt Lake Tribune: "Sometimes when you come down the stretch like that, it's who wants the ball more. We've got to get the ball. Those are just hustle plays. They're not going to call fouls like that. You've just got to find a way to come up with the ball."

(AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian)

Utah not only wins at Golden State, but takes a 3-1 lead. I'm not buying that this is over. Not for a second. Anything can happen when one of the teams on the court is the 2007 Golden State Warriors. But for this night at least, Utah looked pretty tough. Observations:

• In Game 3, Deron Williams was out for the last play of the first quarter. Andrei Kirilenko was the fill-in point guard, which is a tall order in a clock management situation like that. Utah had the ball with about seven seconds left. They ended up not only not scoring, but they also gave up a Golden State three. Tonight they also had the ball to close the first quarter, but this time Deron Williams was not in foul trouble. Utah scores, Golden State doesn't.
  
• Every team has players that get hot shooting threes. Only Golden State and Phoenix have teams that get hot shooting threes -- and only Golden State and Phoenix have coaches who drill it into their team that they are good shooters who should shoot without hesitation. Confidence is a huge factor in shooting accuracy.
• You don't need me to tell you that Paul Millsap is sent straight from basketball heaven. He has some skill and some size, sure, but mostly he has a perfect basketball motor. He just wants it like he wants oxygen. And he doesn't rush or panic when he has the ball.
• I have no confidence in Gordan Giricek. I suspect he feels the same way.
• Why didn't Deron Williams launch a shot inbounding with 0.3 left on the clock? Decorum? Shooting stats? All I'm saying is ... no shot = zero percent chance at points. Shot = free chance at points. Shoot the ball.
• Golden State commonly drives and then kicks to the corner where someone is usually pretty open, with a defender closing fast. That guy often kicks back along the perimeter to someone who is WIDE open for the three. However Utah's (and every team's) defensive rotations are working, it's clearly really tough to get to that guy with Golden State's fast ball movement.
• There were periods of this game when the Golden State crowd was not deafening. I'm not remembering that ever happening in the first round.
• Remember when the NBA said they wouldn't tolerate complaining after calls? Is that policy still in place?
• That referee bias study did find predominantly black crews were slightly more likely to call fouls against white players. Utah has got to be one of the whitest teams in the league, and tonight the referee crew is 2/3 black. At the rate the research identified that trend, I suspect it would have have zero effect on such a small sample size as one game. But still, if ever you hoped to see that study in action, this series could be your opportunity.
• Giricek essentially melted.
  
• Jazz junkyard dogs: Boozer, Harpring, Fisher, and Millsap.
• Mehmet Okur, on defense, is not great at meeting the penetrator. He does the whole "but I'm just standing here!" thing, which is too passive for the playoffs. You have to draw the charge or stop the shot.
• Holding a lead on Golden State is like holding a lid on a boiling pot.
  
• Weird deal by Baron Davis nailing Derek Fisher. Then Jason Richardson nailed Okur. You see Derek Fisher playing ambassador after that event? Does anyone in the league have more poise?