ESPN NBA

• Kyle Weidie of Truth About It offers up a multimedia presentation of how Deron Williams tied the Wizards in knots with ball screens.
• The Heat posted unsightly numbers against the Celtics' zone on Tuesday night but, as Zach Lowe of The Point Forward writes, the Heat had a coherent strategy to combat it: "A great example came with about 3:30 left in the game, when the Heat flashed a key potential zone antidote they used a lot: starting a possession with one of their wing stars (Dwyane Wade on this one) as the only person on one entire side of the floor (the left side in this case). That forced the Boston defense to tilt heavily to the right, where James handled the ball on the outside, near all his teammates except Wade. As LeBron dribbled, Chris Bosh flashed from the top of the three-point arc to below the foul line, drawing the man closest to Wade (Dooling) down into the paint, and forcing him to temporarily turn his back to Wade. At that exact moment, LeBron tossed a pass to Wade, who caught it on the move toward the middle of the floor, his momentum taking him the opposite direction as Boston’s defenders, including Dooling, now tilting madly from James’ side of the floor to Wade’s. Wade did not hestitate: With Dooling wrong-footed, Wade drove into the paint, where Dooling fouled him. Without a shot, the play almost vanishes from game logs everywhere, but it represents one key way the Heat can combat a zone; both James and Wade got layups against it out of action just like this."
• Historiographers have identified the origins of sports panic -- the phenomenon dates back to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the 17th Century. Is it time to panic in Boston?
• Tony Allen kindly asks that you set up your voicemail already.
• You should buy the full 2011-12 PDF from Basketball Prospectus, but if you want the crib notes from Kevin Pelton -- a single paragraph and projected record for each of the 30 teams -- click here.
• An interview with Clippers vice president of basketball operations Neil Olshey at Yahoo! Radio.
• Be Milwaukee!
• The Trail Blazers are 2-0 and when you take inventory of LaMarcus Aldridge's versatility as a big man and the smart pieces around them, they look primed for a pretty decent season. Tom Ziller of SB Nation: "[T]he way in which the Blazers have played, mixing the tough defense you know Gerald Wallace and Wesley Matthews will bring with the smooth scoring ability of LaMarcus Aldridge and deft shooting of Matthews and Nicolas Batum, mixed with able playmaking from Raymond Felton and Marcus Camby -- despite the caveats and despite the great misfortune of losing Brandon Roy forever and Greg Oden for a while longer, Portland looks like a real contender in the West."
• The Bucks led the Timberwolves 94-84 with under 4:00 remaining. Then Minnesota ripped off an 8-0 run to close the deficit to two points. The lineup on the floor for the Timberwolves? Ricky Rubio, Luke Ridnour, Michael Beasley, Kevin Love and Anthony Tolliver. Zach Harper describes the final play call of a frustrating night for Minnesota: "Finding themselves down three with seven seconds left, they devised a play without much action away from the ball to free up Kevin Love for the game-tying attempt. Love set a down screen for Luke which enabled Luke to catch the ball roughly 35 feet from the basket. Love then set a screen for Wes near the top of the arc and then ran to the other win. Luke took two dribbles passed it to Love and he took a contested 3-pointer with four seconds left. It was one of the most basic plays you would ever find coming out of a timeout and it resulted in Love taking a contested 26-footer to try to tie the game."
• Bret LaGree of Hoopinion on Joe Johnson: "Can still get anywhere he wants on the floor, presuming where he wants to get isn't within 15 feet of the basket."
• Want to talk Pacers-Raps after tonight's game? Visit with Jared Wade and Tim Donahue on Pacers Talk Live at Eight Points, Nine Seconds.
• Ricky Davis will start his NBA comeback as a Red Claw.
• NBA commentators put Google+ hangout to use.

• ESPN's Chris Broussard reports that the Clippers have intense interest in Dwight Howard. D.J. Foster of ClipperBlog on the Blake Griffin effect: "If there’s a testament to the power of Blake Griffin, this is it. The Clippers were never really in the running for LeBron ... Now that Blake Griffin is a real, dunking, dominating thing, it buys you more than that. It lends legitimacy to these types of discussions. It’s no longer a pipedream for Chris Paul or Dwight Howard to be a Clipper -- Blake Griffin has made even the wildest of dreams suddenly seem very tangible."
• The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel's editorial page sounds the bell for a new arena to replace the Bradley Center: "If there isn't a shovel in the ground for a new state-of-the art facility within the next five to eight years, the team's days in Milwaukee are numbered. Bucks owner Herb Kohl has paid big salaries in an effort to keep the team competitive, but he has been relatively quiet on the question of how to fund a new arena. If Kohl wants to keep the team in Milwaukee, he should have some skin in a new building. There will have to be other sources of funding as well. Kohl should be leading an effort to build a new home for the Bucks, and the business community should be backing him."
• How badly do the Heat need Mario Chalmers? The Indexiers discuss.
• HoopSpeak's Beckley Mason breaks down some tape of Tony Parker and discovers that he might be the best analog for the younger Russell Westbrook: "[W]hen he gets space in the open court, Westbrook is every bit as difficult to corral as Parker. But after witnessing James Harden’s emergence as pick and roll dynamo, the Thunder would be well served to take advantage of Westbrook’s excellent cutting instincts by giving him more regular opportunities to be a finisher from off the ball, rather than a creator on it."
• Similarly, Aaron M. of Gothic Ginobili sees a lot of Gerald Wallace in Spurs rookie Kawhi Leonard: "His game brings me the electric rush I get watching an older and wiser Gerald, grounded in a younger, more durable frame. The leaping athleticism I love watching in Gerald’s game is there, but in Kawhi’s game it’s completely unhinged from Gerald’s creeping tendency to dial his pure athletic plays back a slight bit -- Gerald knows he’s over 30, and he knows he needs to keep from killing himself just to make the super athletic move when he can do an efficient but not exactly as effective move that keeps him from injury."
• Danny Chau of Hardwood Paroxysm would like you to take a closer look at the Thaddeus Young. The Sixers' 23-year-old small forward might be the league's most valuable sixth man. Imagine him with a right hand.
• Team LeBron James vs. Team Kevin Durant in flag football at 8 p.m. Eastern Time.
• Quickish chooses the best sports book of 2011.
• When Wes Matthews chats with teammate Nic Batum on Twitter, he uses French -- and addresses Batum in the "vous" form.
• NBA nostalgia in the form of high-top fades, gold-capped teeth and standard-issue goggles.
• A securities analysts upgraded shares of Madison Square Garden on Monday from a "neutral" to a "buy." The stock jumped more than 10 percent during Monday's trading session.
• Macao Time Machine, as retired NBA players like Scottie Pippen, Clyde Drexler, Gary Payton and Dale Ellis tour Asia.
• Among the losers of the settlement: Sullivan Arena in Anchorage, which canceled Chalmers' charity game scheduled for Thursday night.
• The Top 40 most shared stories of 2011 on Facebook.

The basketball landscape is littered with symbols, but none more damning than the bad contract.

Rhetorically, there's a good reason for this. No matter how conscientiously you point out that bad contracts represent a small fraction of the whole, or that the volume of underpaid rookie-scale players and superstars far exceeds the number of bloated deals, the trump card is irrefutable:

"Jerome James," "Eddy Curry," "Gilbert Arenas," "Drew Gooden."

Bogeymen have always populated the political debate: the welfare recipient who drives a Cadillac. The failed CEO with his golden parachute. The undocumented immigrant who uses the emergency room and public school. The retailer who gouges a community after a natural disaster. The corporate jet owners who get tax breaks.

In that same spirit, basketball has James, Curry, Arenas, Gooden and the guy who slurped up your team's budget and then failed to live up to his contract. These players might be the far-reaching outliers, but they represent something fundamentally unfair to most fans:

Getting paid to do a job, then not doing it.

That transgression is particularly rotten when the job in question is playing a child's game, and this breach of public trust makes the overpaid player a very convenient talking point.

Of course, a bad contract doesn't birth itself. It starts off as an offer extended by a team soliciting the services of a player -- usually in free agency, sometimes as an extension of an existing deal. Either way, an NBA front office saw a vacant roster slot, thought enough of a player's potential to pursue him, then ultimately inked him to a lucrative deal. As much as we can fault the work ethic of someone who phones it in after signing such a deal, the job of vetting the character and projecting the performance of a player falls on team executives and the owners who employ them.

As much fun as it looks from the outside and the ranks of a fantasy league, general manager is a grueling, all-consuming, difficult position. The tenure of a general manager usually ends with a pink slip. Unless he's wearing a baseball cap in June standing alongside a star player who's lifting the Larry O'Brien Trophy, a GM's missteps always attract a brighter spotlight than the small victories. The chase for NBA talent is fraught with all kinds of hazards, and even the best human resource managers in the league are going to have an expensive blemish or two on their record.

For this reason, a push for shorter contracts has been a central part of the "system issues" conversation since well before the expiration of the previous collective bargaining agreement. Whether you interpret this as a means for bad teams to seek protection from themselves, a smart way to keep spending in check, or a way to prevent deadbeats from profiting without performing, reduced contract length is almost certain to find its way into the next CBA, whenever the deal happens to be executed.

In the owners' Nov. 11 proposal to the players' union, the length in contract of the mid-level exception signees for both taxpaying and non-taxpaying teams was reduced from five years to either four or three years. Maximum contract length for players with Bird rights was reduced from six years to five, and from five years to four for non-Bird players. In addition, option years for players earning greater than the league average were eliminated (which would effectively shorten contracts vis-a-vis the last CBA), as were sign-and-trade deals for taxpaying teams after Year 2 of contracts (ditto).

What are the repercussions of shorter contracts?

Shorter contracts mean more turnover, which means more free agency. And free agency, lest we forget, has always been the vehicle for the creation of bad contracts.

On the surface, this change would provide a modicum of safety for front offices and ownerships. Never again will a player like Gooden earn a mid-level deal of five years and $32 million. In the new NBA, the maximum a mid-level player could be offered would be 4 years and $20 million. Curry's 6-year, $60 million contract would also be an impossibility.

In other words, execs' colossal mistakes will be trimmed in scale by about 20 percent and their medium-size stupid pills would be reduced by 35 to 40 percent. Curry would've merely been a 5-year, $50 million blunder, while Milwaukee would be on the hook for one year and $12 million less, assuming the Bucks would've opted to use the mid-level on Gooden -- and that Gooden wouldn't have had suitor willing to pay him more.

General managers would be inoculated from truly epic failures, but they'll also be filling more roster spots, more often in more feverish free agent markets. Execs will have more opportunities to make more mistakes of, albeit, slightly less detrimental consequences. That means bad judgment could potentially be compounded in an off-season when a league has dozens of more roster spots to fill with free agents.

On the flip side, shorter contracts would punish crafty executives capable of locking in talent to favorable long-term contracts. With more roster slots to fill more frequently, smart execs will have more shot attempts to work their magic. In 2002, Joe Dumars signed Chauncey Billups to a 6-year, $34 million deal, possibly the best mid-level deal in history. In today's NBA, Dumars would be denied full reward for his prescience. The jury is still out on Wes Matthews in Portland, but his $7.2 million contract in the final year of his 5-year deal might prove to be a bargain. Under the new system, the Trail Blazers wouldn't enjoy the benefits of Matthews' potentially cost-efficient services.

In a league with shorter contracts and greater turnover, navigating the free agent market will be more important than ever. But if making sound judgments on extending free agent contracts is a task front offices as a whole have mismanaged -- by the league's own admission -- is it reasonable to expect that to change with even more opportunities for mistakes?

• Even if Italian basketball club Vitrus Roma fails to land Andrea Bargnani, it's safe to say that more people than ever know about AshleyMadison.com, the company that was reportedly set to underwrite the cost of Bargnani's salary. AshleyMadison's corporate mission is to help spouses find potential partners for extracurricular affairs ... or just coffee. Bargnani denies he's talking with Roma.
• The props in Blake Griffin's most recent dunk? Roller blades, an antique phonograph, a ramp, a cannon and a white jumpsuit.
• Dave of Blazers Edge on Sam Bowie: "[A]n iconic representative of disappointment, crossing time and space."
• Mavs head coach Rick Carlisle distinguished himself in the NBA Finals with his lineup management. Ian Levy of Two Man Game looks at Carlisle's overall performance in that area. I like this general point from Levy, as he explains how he examined the data: "As the advanced statistics movement trudges forward, there will continue to be a vocal segment searching for a one-size, fits all, comprehensive measure, a number which says definitively that one player is better than another. To be honest, I find that search to be counter-productive. A visual observation can usually tell us who the best players are. For me, the benefit of advanced statistics is the increased ability to delve into details. I don’t want one number to explain everything. I want all the numbers."
• Dwight Howard contemplates an old school Magic vs. new school Magic game in Orlando.
• Barry Petchesky of Deadspin on Bryant Gumbel's comments and the lockout: "The lockout is all about who has to give up the money to close the gap between what the system was and what it has to be. But both sides will have to give something up in the end, and both will agree on the eventual solution. Believe it or not, they're all in this together. Partners! There’s a novel way to look at the NBA. The owners wouldn’t be able to get rich without the draw of the actual players’ play, and the players wouldn’t be able to get rich without the organizational infrastructure and marketing put in place by the league. This, I think, is what Gumbel was hitting at before the baggage that comes with his plantation metaphor dragged his point down, out of the discussion."
• On his morning run, Wesley Matthews learns that dogs, in fact, love fire hydrants -- not just in children's books.
• Team USA will feature a number of D-League standouts in the 2011 Pan-Am Games.
• The Escapist's review of 2K12 evokes memories of the 2010-11 Timberwolves offense: "The simulation isn't perfect, however. The play calling interface makes it easy to get your team in motion, but I wish there was more visual feedback on how the players were going to move. Cutting through the lane is tough; getting too close to a defender will tie you up for a few beats. That may be physically realistic, but when it results in the whistle-happy refs calling a three-second violation, it's just damn frustrating -- not to mention illegal."
• Would two additional rebounds a game from a power forward be a game-changer? Andrew Lynch looks at Amare Stoudemire as a case study.
• Noam Schiller of Hardwood Paroxysm on Chris Paul: "The great thing about Chris Paul is that if indeed you try to play basketball vicariously through him, you will vicariously be really awesome at basketball."

With a 101 to 89 win over the Portland Trail Blazers in Game 2, the Dallas Mavericks are now 3-and-16 in playoff games officiated by Dan Crawford since 2001.

Taking a closer look at the game footage, Crawford called eight personal fouls against the Blazers on Tuesday, not including two three-second calls (one offensive and one defensive) and called just four fouls against the Mavericks. The Mavs had a net gain of six points off of the free throws on Crawford’s calls.

All six of the shooting fouls Crawford called against the Blazers, including the defensive three second, sent Dirk Nowitzki to the line for the Mavericks. Nowitzki was 7-for-8 on those free throws.

In fact it appeared Wesley Matthews drew the ire of Crawford in Game 2. Matthews picked up half of the eight fouls Crawford called against the Blazers, with the other four coming from a different player each time.

When he called fouls against the Mavericks, Crawford hit Brendan Haywood with two and Jose Juan Barea and Shawn Marion with one apiece.

If Mavericks have any complaints about the officiating, they should be directed to Ed Malloy, who hit the Mavs with 11 personal fouls and one technical to Tyson Chandler. The Mavericks had a net loss of eight points on Malloy’s calls.

LOS ANGELES -- If you saw Utah dismantle Denver during the first round of the postseason then you have a good idea of how efficient the Jazz’s offensive system is when it’s running on all cylinders. Against the Nuggets, the ball breezed around the court. Every pass, screen and cut seemed to produce a high-percentage shot for the Jazz against a Nuggets defense that spent two weeks with its head on a swivel.

Utah’s execution-oriented offense should be able to withstand just about any defense it confronts, at least theoretically. But in each of the past two postseasons, the Los Angeles Lakers have quickly dispatched the Jazz. In both instances, the Lakers’ “length” was cited as a key factor. Needless to say, the Lakers’ roster isn’t any longer when playing the Jazz versus any other team, so what is it about the Lakers’ length that specifically gives the Jazz fits?

To start, Jerry Sloan’s system is predicated on continuity. For many NBA teams, scoring is a matter of finding the best one-and-one mismatch on the floor, then exploiting it, but that’s not the case for the Jazz. They flow into their offense by moving the ball in a pattern. The system relies on crisp passes to players who dart off screens away from the ball, and often on entry passes into Carlos Boozer or Paul Millsap from the wings. Against an undisciplined, average-sized team like Denver, swinging the ball around the court is child’s play. But the Lakers make that task extremely difficult.

“Those passes you usually see Wes [Matthews], Kyle [Korver] and I make from the wings? It’s hard to zip those passes because you have three 7-footers with their arms out,” Jazz forward C.J. Miles said.

The success of Utah’s scheme depends on fluid motion, which means the Jazz can’t afford any hesitation or else the offense stalls. Since the Jazz don’t have many shot-creators who can burn the defense in isolation, the ball must keep moving, something that doesn’t come without risk against the Lakers’ battalion of big men.

“Even if you could’ve gotten [the pass] to the post, you’re timid just because they have their hands up,” Miles said. “You don’t want to turn it over and they make it tough.”

For players who thrive on knowing that a good shot will materialize if they execute properly, that’s a serious adjustment. A simple baseline pass to a cutter, a kickout from the low block or an entry pass into the post becomes a lot more complicated. Take the possession at the 4:12 mark of the first quarter. Rookie guard Wesley Matthews held the rock on the left wing with Boozer calling for the ball on the left block a few feet away.

Simple, right?

Not with Pau Gasol harassing Boozer. Matthews tried to lob the ball into Boozer, but Gasol got in front of the pass and knocked it away, resulting in an easy two for the Lakers on the other end.

“It’s length -- those extra inches that they take up on the court,” Matthews said. “They get their hands on the ball. It makes things difficult. We have to be crisper and we have to be more sure.”

That length isn’t just about clogging passing lanes. There are ancillary benefits that come with having big guys who can deflect passes and block shots. For instance, the Lakers’ guards have the luxury of defending with more freedom.

“Fish, Kobe and Ron do a great job pressuring the ball because they know there are three 7-footers waiting back there,” Miles said, referring to Derek Fisher, Kobe Bryant and Ron Artest.

In other words, playing a lethal guard like Deron Williams more aggressively is less risky because if he beats you, there’s a back line that can clean up the mess. After averaging 11.3 assists per game in six games against Denver, Williams managed only eight assists in Game 1 against the Lakers. Meanwhile, Gasol recorded five blocked shots and Lamar Odom swatted away a pair.

“Gasol is a tremendous player," Sloan said. "He’s very long, and they’re very long for us to deal with. He’s so big and long and that’s where he hurt us. Obviously, his ability to block shots keeps us off the basket.”

Then, of course, there are the offensive benefits that come with that length, illustrated by Gasol’s 25-point afternoon on 9-for-15 shooting from the field. The Lakers’ big man had his way in the post against both Boozer and Millsap, the latter of whom gives up four inches to Gasol. Eight of Gasol’s nine field goals came inside of eight feet, some of those buckets against active double-teams down low by Utah.

Gasol’s offensive exhibition aside, there was no better demonstration of the Lakers' advantage than Odom's rebound of a Kobe Bryant miss in the game's final minute -- one of five offensive boards for Odom on the day. Odom squeezed his way inside the tangle of bodies beneath the Lakers' basket and elevated above the scrum for the putback to give the Lakers a 3-point lead with 48 seconds to play.

How do the Jazz combat this length? They must move the ball briskly East to West and inside out to keep the Lakers' defenders from smothering the strong side. Apart from that, there are no easy solutions, save a delivery of Magic Grow to the Jazz's hotel tonight.

"Unless I grow another three inches before tomorrow, there’s nothing we can do about it," Williams said.

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.

SALT LAKE CITY -- A few themes that emerged Saturday as the Jazz and Nuggets practiced for Game 4:

System vs. Soloists
The Jazz play a very programmatic brand of basketball. "We run a great system that Coach Sloan and Coach Johnson put in…uhhh…30 years ago?" Carlos Boozer said. That date is debatable (there were cave drawings of "auto" sets dating back to the 7th century found in caves near Zion National Park), but it's indisputable that the Jazz have taken a 2-1 series lead by applying their system against a team of superior, but less efficient, athletes. "[The Nuggets] run plays, but most of their stuff is one-on-one isolations," Deron Williams said. "They only had 12 assists, so there’s not much ball movement going on." For the Jazz, necessity is the mother of invention. Denver would like to turn this series into a YMCA-style romp that would maximize their strengths. "They have a great team," Williams said. "Talent-wise, there aren’t many teams better. But what I think we have is a bunch of guys who have bought into a system, who understand what we have to do to win. We’re not a one-on-one team. We go one-on-one every now and then, but for the most part, we’re a team that relies on our passing and our system and playing defense.”

Nuggets acting head coach Adrian Dantley readily acknowledged that the Nuggets' DNA renders them a one-on-one team not suited to playing in a more structured offense. "Coach Karl always said we can't play that type of system," Dantley said. "We're more random basketball." For Chauncey Billups, the fact that the Nuggets play a lot of one-on-one ball isn't an issue, per se. After all, the Nuggets finished the season ranked fifth in offensive efficiency. "The problem with the isolation is not the actual isolation," Billups said. "It's the lack of movement." According to Billups, the Nuggets need to do a better job off the ball to help maximize the one-on-one advantages they have against Utah. "A lack of [movement] just lets one guy play against three or four."

Effort Deficiency
Carmelo Anthony vocally called out the Nuggets' effort following Game 3, and conversation continued today. "That was the main thing we talked about this morning in the locker room," Anthony said. "We've got to get out of our own heads. Last night I didn't see it in us. The body language wasn't there. People didn't seem focused throughout the game. As far as X's and O's, we know what they're going to do and they know what we're going to do. We just have to want it more than them." This line of reasoning was less persuasive to Dantley, who shrugged when asked about the Nuggets' effort Friday night. "Whenever you lose, you're always going to say 'lack of effort,'" Dantley said. "You just have to come with better effort and match their energy." Dantley joked that to amp his guys up, he was going to find an old clip of a Woody Paige story that characterized Dantley as a dog when Dantley's Jazz team trailed the Nuggets in a postseason series. "We came back and won the series," Dantley said. "Maybe I'll bring that to them."

Be Physical ... But Don't Foul Carmelo
Playing aggressive defense without putting your opponent on the foul stripe is a difficult balance to achieve. Against Anthony, it's the finest of lines. In Game 1 of the series, Anthony went off for 42 points against a Jazz defense that made things far too easy. Anthony was able to roam freely and control the game from the foul-line extended. The Jazz responded with a more physical presence on Anthony. They were able to get 42 points down to 32, but Anthony notched 14 points at the line in 15 free throw attempts. "Most of the fouls come in isolation situations, one-on-ones, and transition," Matthews said. In Game 3, Utah's wing defenders might have found their equilibrium -- relatively speaking. Anthony still had 25 points on 21 shots from the field in Game 3, but only got to the line for four attempts. Anthony acknowledges that racking up points at the line is vital for being successful. "That's a big part of my game," Anthony said. "For me to go out there and shoot three free throws in 40 minutes is tough, especially when I'm not trying to settle for a jump shot. My game is to get to the hole and get to the line. Three free throws is not going to do it."

Matthews believes that a defender has to take stock of the game when formulating a defensive strategy against Anthony. "You have to be smart," Matthews said. "You have to know when to be physical and you also have to know how the refs are calling the game. If they’re calling a tight game, then you can’t be as physical at times. But if they’re kind of letting the game go, then you can be a little bit more physical." Miles, who has carried the bulk of the assignment against Anthony, feels that a defender has to show Anthony a variety of looks. "I try to play him different ways the whole game," Miles said. "One time he comes down, I’ll just crowd him. Maybe the next time, he tries to post and I crowd him, but when he turns around to face me, I’ll back up – maybe give him a step, jump back and fake at him ... If he’s making a lot of jump shots, then I can’t play off him as much as I’d like to. If he’s getting to the basket or getting fouled, then maybe I give him a step."

Energy is a Solution for the Jazz
Asked about his first home playoff game, rookie Wes Matthews eyes lit up. "It was amazing," Matthews said with a big smile. "I can’t wait for tomorrow.” Naturally, Sloan dismisses any notion that playing at home should give a team a lift. Prior to Game 3, he performed his best Gene Hackman imitation when asked if his team would benefit from returning to their home court at Energy Solutions Arena. “I don’t know,” Sloan responded. “It’s the same length as the one over in Denver. It’s 94 feet. If you have to rely on that to get you going, you’re really in bad shape.” Court dimensions aside, playing in Salt Lake City made a difference for Matthews. "We were feeding off the crowd," Matthews said. "We were doing some of the same stuff in Denver, but you don’t get that same effect because, of course, they’re boos rather than cheers."

DENVER -- Saturday night should've been a coming out party for Jazz forward C.J. Miles. The former second-round pick, who was drafted straight out of high school, has had a tumultuous five-year journey to the Jazz's starting lineup in this series. During that stint, Miles has spent time in Jerry Sloan's doghouse (kennel?), been shuttled back and forth from the D-League to the big club and fought mightily for playing time.

The first half of the seesaw Game 1 affair between Denver and Utah was the culmination of Miles' long path. The lanky southpaw matched Carmelo Anthony shot for shot. Miles attacked Denver off the dribble, and got to the stripe five times in the game's first five minutes. He followed that series with a smooth 3-point bomb in transition. Miles tallied 13 points in the first quarter, and 17 for the half -- two more than Anthony.

Miles was smoking hot, but about a minute into the second half, he collided with Chauncey Billups and left the game with a woozy case of nausea. At that point, Wes Matthews took over the assignment of guarding Anthony. Matthews' trip to this moment was every bit as improbable as Miles'. Ten months ago, Matthews, undrafted in 2009, was toiling in Summer League, trying to claw his way on Utah's roster. He succeeded. With the departure of 2-guard Ronnie Brewer to Memphis at the trade deadline, Matthews inherited Brewer's starting slot in the Jazz lineup and played a key role in the Jazz's torrid March.

Anthony, however, finished Game 1 with 42 points, most of them at the expense of Miles and Matthews. When a scorer as lethal as Anthony goes off to the extent he did, it's unfair to lay the entire blame on his defenders. But with Mehmet Okur now done for the series with a torn left Achilles tendon, the Jazz simply can't afford to give up points at the rate they did in Game 1 and have a chance to take the series. It will now be up to Miles and Matthews to check Anthony. They don't have to shut him down -- there is only so much mere mortals can do to combat certain forces of nature -- but the young tandem must make some adjustments.

Anthony will inevitably bury a few contested 18-footers from the right side of the floor, but he was able to post-up then face up on the right block far too easily on Saturday. When Anthony got an early pick-and-roll from Nene, the Jazz defenders were helpless to fight over or around the screen. And when Anthony was roaming off the ball, Miles and Matthews were far too passive.

In Jerry Sloan's perfect universe, veteran defensive ace Matt Harpring would be the man charged with challenging Anthony -- and Sloan said as much prior to Game 1 (Andrei Kirilenko -- out with a strained calf -- would be choice No. 2). Harpring is a perimeter scorer's worst nightmare, but chronic knee and ankle injuries have forced the veteran into semi-retirement.

When you see Harpring at practice playing the role of onlooker, you can't help but wonder how things might have played out differently had he been on the Pepsi Center floor Saturday night. "When you guard a player like Carmelo who has size and strength that he’s got, you have to get him outside of his game," Harpring says. "When he crosses the 3-point line, you start bodying him up right away.”

Harpring's point is dead on.

Take a possession in the third quarter, with the game tied 73-73. Billups works up top before he swings the ball left to Arron Afflalo on the left side. Where's Anthony? He's lurking on the weak side along the 3-point line. As Anthony begins to cut toward the paint, Matthews is a good 10 feet off him. Afflalo returns the ball to Billups as Anthony darts to the stripe unimpeded. Billups feeds him at a spot inside the foul line (Anthony still hasn't been touched by a Jazz defender).

A single dribble, then a lay-in. That's all it takes.

"Off the ball, my goal is to constantly touch him, constantly put my body on him, wear him down throughout the game," Harpring says. "As a bonus, you get him frustrated, or talking to the refs, or worrying about you rather than worrying about his game. [Saturday] night, he was just in rhythm all game. There was no disruption to his rhythm -- open jump shots -- it was just too easy for him.”

Miles acknowledges the ease with which Anthony was burying jumpers and smiling on the return trip down the court, although Miles still concedes that Anthony was going to get his, irrespective of the defense.

"We’re definitely going to make some adjustments, but he’s going to score," Miles says. "He’s too good and will get too many looks at the basket not to score. We just want to limit some of the easy baskets.”

Doing that means denying Anthony ownership of the floor, something he took for granted in Game 1. He set up wherever he wanted to, whenever he wanted to.

"We can’t just let him walk to the spots he wants to be in and spots he’s comfortable in," Miles says. "We need to take away some of those easy 14- and 15-foot jump shots. He made shots everywhere [Saturday] night, but we have to try to make it harder on him."

Are Miles and Matthews too youthful, too green and too nice? When asked what he saw in Anthony's eyes on Saturday night, Nuggets acting head coach Adrian Dantley chuckles.

"He probably didn't see Kirilenko, that helps," Dantley says. "When you have a rookie on you, a guy like Matthews ... it’s difficult, his first game ... and CJ Miles, that makes [Anthony’s] job easier."

Dantley is no Phil Jackson. His intention isn't to get inside the heads of Miles or Matthews, but his honest assessment of the matchup can't be dismissed. Dantley is essentially saying that neither Miles nor Matthews fully grasp the craft of defending a beast like Anthony, and that cuts Anthony a break. Dantley adds the same disclaimer that Miles expresses.

"But the bottom line was that Melo was hitting the shots," Dantley says.

Harpring doesn't deny that Anthony will fill up the box score, but he also maintains that disrupting a guy like Anthony requires more vigilantism than most young players realize.

"When a guy gets going like that, you got to make a hard foul, you’ve got to do something to get him out of his rhythm," Harpring says. "If you want Carmelo smiling in the fourth quarter after he makes a couple of shots, then that’s on you. That’s a pride thing, when you’re guarding someone. If it’s me, I’m fouling out before that happens. You don’t go out without fighthing.”

Matthews has been watching film of Anthony's exploits in Game 1. While examining the way he played Anthony, he noticed something about his performance that he plans to take into Game 2 on Monday night.

"When you think you’re playing physically, you’re not as much as you could be," Matthews says.

For the Jazz to get out of Denver with a win, they must ratchet up their instincts. And though nobody will say it aloud, they might even have to play Anthony a little -- gasp -- dirty.

Melissa Majchrzak/NBAE/Getty Images
Meet the starting shooting guard for the 38-22 Utah Jazz -- an undrafted rookie.

LOS ANGELES -- There’s Wesley Matthews, alone on the Jazz’s side of the court an hour before tip-off, working with assistant coach Scott Layden.

The assistant often directs the warm-up regimen for a young player, but that's not the case with Matthews. The rookie guard is calling the shots. First, he'll take a bevy of 3-pointers, then a series of shots from the foul line. After that, Matthews moves over to the right block.

“Give me four,” Matthews says. “Two with my right, then two with my left.”

Layden feeds the ball to Matthews, who sinks four consecutive turnaround hook shots -- two with his right and two with his left, as advertised. Then, Matthews and Layden move over to the left side of the lane where the 23 year old repeats his success. Matthews finishes with a few higher degree of difficulty turnaround fadeaway jumpers from the post.

When the Jazz traded starting shooting guard Ronnie Brewer in February -- raising the ire of Deron Williams and other members of the Jazz roster -- Matthews was the primary beneficiary. Since Brewer was dealt, Matthews has started all seven games for the Jazz at the 2, averaging 10.3 points in 28.4 minutes with a field goal percentage of 47. 5 percent.

The Brewer trade couldn't have been an easy spot for Matthews. Though nobody dismissed Matthews' ability to succeed as the team's starting off-guard, it would've be easy to interpret that outrage as a tacit suggestion that he couldn't possibly fill the shoes of the departing vet. Matthews dismisses that notion.

"Everybody was mad," Matthews says. "I was mad and I benefited the most out of it. Brewer was like my older brother. We still talk every day. He took me under his wing as soon as I stepped foot here in Utah."

To recap ... in six months time, Matthews goes from an undrafted rookie trying to claw his way onto an NBA roster, to an understudy receiving on-the-job training by a hall-of-fame coach and a collection of crafty teammates, to a capable starter for one of the top 4 teams in the Western Conference.

“It’s nuts, but it’s a blessing at the same time,” Matthews says. “It’s something I can’t say I didn’t prepare for or dream for, but for it to be happening this quickly, and the way that it has, it’s unreal.”

A four-year player at Marquette and the son of former pro Wesley Matthews, Sr., the younger Matthews was passed over in the 2009 draft, tagged as one of those guys with only average athleticism and without a proficient enough outside shot to excel in the NBA as a 6-foot-5 wing man. He nabbed a spot on the Jazz's Summer League team in Orlando, then traveled to Las Vegas a week later to play with the Kings.

Both at Summer League and in training camp, Matthews impressed the Jazz with his instincts, defense and off-ball play. The latter is of particular importance for a team that runs as much action off the ball as the Jazz do in their flex offense. Above all, Matthews’ versatility appeals to a Jazz team that, in recent years, has been thin at the wings.

“I’m whatever you need me to do,” Matthews says.

After he finishes up with Layden, Mathews strolls over to a former Marquette teammate and gives him a playful shove in the back. The two played together on the 2005-06 Marquette team that won 20 games and earned a berth in the NCAA Tournament. Steve Novak was a senior when Matthews was a freshman. These days, the two go out for dinner whenever the Jazz and Clippers cross paths.

“He’s a great kid,” Novak says. “Smart, works his tail off, knows the game.” Novak speculates that there were probably teams willing to draft Matthews in the second round last June, so long as he was willing to stash himself overseas.

“He was a guy who had enough confidence to know that if he got into a training camp and played on a team, he’d be able to make his way and he did exactly that.”

When you watch the Jazz, Matthews seems to understand where he’s most useful on a given possession. He moves from side to side with purpose, knows how free up the Jazz’s big men with a steady cross-screen and understands how to draw contact driving against a slower opponent on a mismatch. His rebounding needs work -- he ranks a Crawfordian 57th out of 75 among shooting guards -- but his true shooting percentage is a very respectable 56.9 percent, good for 12th in that category.

The backdrop for Matthews' improvement will be Utah's drive to secure home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs. That's a big stage, but Matthews is excited -- not only for the challenge, but for what these next couple of months will reveal about his game.

"There’s a lot to my game that I don’t even know yet," Matthews says. "I’ve unveiled some of it, but I’m still young. I’m still going to keep getting better.”