I hope this doesn't jinx the Jazz.

Over the last two-and-a-half weeks, the Jazz have become a completely different team. Everybody knows that, but do they realized that this is the best the team has played since the Malone-from-Stockton days?

What changed? Well, it was Carlos Boozer.

Now, this blog has been on Team BoozBooz since we started, but we can't say, "We told you so." See, as much as I have thought Boozer is the best player on the team--or at least the most irreplaceable--I never envisioned he would play like this.

Remember that weird loss to the Hornets on 4 January? It seemed like an extremely low point. Deron Williams sat out the next game vs. Memphis, and the Jazz straight rolled the Grizzlies in the ESA. (I usually don't like abbreviations, but I heard that Energy Solutions doesn't like when The Arena is called "ESA". I don't like stupid stadium/arena/ballpark names, and therefor I am going to write it ESA. Verbally I think I will switch to "The Arena" since "The Larry" has never caught on.)

After the huge win, Boozer made reference to the Jazz playing better when the ball moves around on offense. He said it was more fun or something.

Jazz fans recalled the win at the 76ers and the near win at Cleveland when Williams was out, and added the Grizzlies game. They started to wonder, "Are the Jazz better without Deron Williams?"

Boozer must have heard this, or at least heard tell of it. Two days after the huge Grizzlies win at ESA, the Jazz next played the Grizzlies in Memphis, again without Williams. They lost, and fans backed away from the better-without-Williams dialogue. Our one reader (besides this new pizza guy) commented here, "I've worried if Williams might qualify for Bill Simmons' Ewing Theory, but then there was last night's game... I'm not sure if I feel better about life or not."

But there was beauty in that game. First, the Jazz slowly came back from a 33-14 1st-quarter deficit. Second, they did it playing physical. So physical, that Boozer got in a bit of a fight after he knocked a Grizzlies player down hard. Then, he kept fouling them hard. I think he was the one who made Marc Gasol cry.

Boozer and Williams seem to have too much respect for certain well-known players (ex. Williams' terrible performances against Derek Fisher in the playoffs). They tend to be too nice, not wanting to become controversial. Plus, Williams worries that nobody will spaz over dunks at the Dunk Contest with him should he ever make it to an All-Star game*.

Bu no more. That Grizzlies loss becamse known as Boozer's Rampage. Look at B's Twits after the game:

-Boozer is on a rampage! He's dismantling the Grizzlies. #utahjazz
8:34 PM
Jan 8th from Twitterrific

-Carlos Boozer has fouled out and is trashing
the locker room. #utahjazz
8:39 PM Jan 8th from Twitterrific

-Boozer
has been escorted out of the building and is in the parking lot eating tires.
#utahjazz
8:41 PM Jan 8th from Twitterrific

-Boozer has broken the
hot wing record at D'Bo's. Forty-nine wings in forty-nine seconds. With the
hottest sauce. #utahjazz
8:51 PM Jan 8th from Twitterrific

-Carlos
Boozer just stole Elvis's gold Rolls Royce and crashed it into the Pink Palace.
#utahjazz
9:08 PM Jan 8th from Twitterrific

-Carlos Boozer has
kicked down Marc Gasol's door, is trying on all his shirts and stretching out
the collars. #utahjazz
9:48 PM Jan 8th from Twitterrific

(by the way, if you do a search for #Boozer, you get a lot of Twits from this gal. I should have known. [The cat is keeping her ass warm])
He was just getting started. Now, the rest of the team was going to join him. The next game they played was against the Heat at ESA. Dizzwaynye Wade got knocked around in the first quarter, and had to go the the locker room for a few minutes. Coming back offered him no respite. Almost every time he drove the lane, and Jazz or two would bump him.

Then there was Boozer's dunk on Haslem. Instead of screaming and heading back downcourt, Boozer was kind of a jerk and stood over Haslem. I usually hate this, but it showed the new Boozer.



A few days later was a game against the Cavaliers. Williams got into the act of playing hardcore. He had a run-in with LeBron James, and seemed legitimately pissed at LeBron, not just this-game-is-so-intense-and-I-am-so-intense-case-in-point-I-just-made-an-awesome-play-but-I-am-scowling pissed. (I call this kind of look "Happiness by LeBron James"). We all know how that game finished.

The Jazz are different. Yes they lost to Denver, but they kept coming back from deficits. Then they beat the Spurs. Then they killed the already dead Nets. Which was maybe taking things too far, but don't worry, the Nets couldn't feel it.

It all seems like Boozer stepped up and took on a different role. Maybe it was because he heard Jazz fans talking bad about what appeared to be a golden cow (D. Williams), or maybe he believed it himself that the Jazz don't really need Williams. Whatever it is, this has become Boozer's Team. Watch the way he plays and the way he kind of encourages teammates. Then take notes of the comments he made about how he wouldn't trade himself, or anybody, if he were the Jazz.

Yep, Boozer is finally becoming a Power Forward/man. Either that, or Sundiata Gaines' arrival is what has made all the difference. It does coincide with all of this.

*=Players should be banned from watching the Dunk Contest from the front row. They try to steal camera time from the actual dunkers by straight freaking after everything. You know, they put their clenched fist to their mouth as they smile, as if to say, "No he didn't." But he did, doofus. Not only did he, but almost anyone can do that dunk. Are you drunk? Stoned? LeBron James took this to the next level last year when he vowed to compete with Dwight Howard in the next dunk contest (this year's). To no one's surprise, he isn't in this year's contest.

Don't hurry back, Deron Williams

As shown in his never-ending quest to be an All-Star this year, Deron Williams loves to play in his hometown of Dallas. He does not seem to love to win there, though.

Dallas has perhaps been the most impossible place for the Jazz to win since Deron Williams became the starting PG for the Utah Jazz. They've lost their last five, and the losses always seem to come at crucial points in the season.

Williams loves to do well in Dallas, and he has led the Jazz in scoring the last few times Utah has played there. Could this be more evidence that Williams has a long way to go in learn that him playing what he considers awesome and the Jazz winning aren't necessarily exclusive. Or maybe a motivated Deron is a Deron that tries to hard to win the game himself, and forgets that he isn't good enough to beat good teams when he does that?

Anyway, he has, as predicted, become healthy enough to play in tonight's game.
Big whoop.

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Also, caption contest over at Sloan Hands.

The Jazz seem to play better without Deron Williams, but DDP was at his best when Karl Malone was his tag-team partner

Williams needs to learn to make his teammates better, something Malone displayed his mastery of in this video:

You're better than this, Gilbert Arenas

The nerds are mad at you, Agent Zero.

"Arenas is a friend of rapper The Game and was listed in the booklet for The Game's second album The Doctor's Advocate. He collects a synthetic basketball from each team played, as well as players' jerseys, of which he has more than 200, most of which are autographed.[24] Arenas is an avid Halo player—his Gamertag is Agent Arenas—and officially sponsors Team Final Boss, a professional Halo 3 team.[25][26] However, to the chagrin of many gamers, he exploits a glitch in Xbox Live to cheat, artificially boosting his Halo 3 rank through dummy accounts."


The Jazz need to find such a glitch for not being so weak on the road.

Jazz shouldn't wait for other teams to determine their future

It seems like the Jazz almost always play their first-round playoff opponent in the last game of the season. On it's own, a season's last game always brings an onslaught of questions: Should the team give players a rest? Should it play its stars the entire game? How much effort should the team extend to grab an extra win? Should ailing players leave their uniforms in their locker, and instead wear a suit and sit on the second row?

When two eventual upcoming 1st-round opponents meet in the last game, even more questions arise. For instance, the Jazz and Lakers seem on track to meet for a session starting this weekend. Would it be better for the Jazz to lose, so as not to motivate the Lakers, thus hoping Utah can catch LA off-guard in game one? Would a win be better, because it could anger Kobe Bryant, and an angry Kobe is a selfish Kobe? Would a close win by Utah even anger the Lakers?

What about a blow-out loss by the Jazz? That might get the LA feeling casual and increase give the Jazz's motivation a much-needed jump-start. Could a blow-out actually be better?

Even more questions can be raised when you take into account that the Lakers possibly have control over which team they will see in the first round. If they would rather not play the Jazz in the first round, they could ease up and increase Utah's chances of winning tonight, then hope that either Dallas or New Orleans lose, averting an opening-round series with the Jazz.

All these questions can have more than one plausible answer before the final game, and the truthfulness of the answers are rarely known, even over time. It is impossible to say whether the way the final game of the season played out had any impact on the what eventually happened in the playoffs. It is all speculation. Which is why the best thing for a team to do, trite as it sounds, is to expend the capacity of their energy every single game of the season, whether the game is in November, April, or one of the four months in between.

Winning comes down to some combination of three things: being better, being smarter, or working harder. If both teams play fairly even in those three capacities, then a game be decided by which team did the three things best at the end of a game or which team got a fortunate bounce at a fortunate time (over-simplified, it is called luck).

In John Stockton's last or second-to-last season, the Jazz were about to be matched up with the Sacramento Kings, one of the Western Conference's best teams that year, in the first round. The Kings had some injury problems that might be detrimental, which would increase Utah's chances of prevailing. When Jerry Sloan was asked about this, he said something along the lines of, "We want each team's best effort every single game."

He's absolutely correct. Rather than trying to wrap their heads around which scenario could potentially provide a team with it's best chance to advance a round, that team is better served to instead just take care of matters themselves and win, because the time will come when they will need to beat a team on their own. A squad that relies on others for their own playoff successes can only go so far (see: Utah Jazz, 2007 Playoffs). Within the bounds of the rules, it is physically and scientifically impossible for one team to win a championship for another team. Winners have their own merits.

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The thing to watch for tonight is how Ronnie Brewer plays on offense. He has started to play confident when the Jazz face the Lakers at The Larry, but he is more-than-tentative whenever Utah matches up with Bryant at Staples. A confident Brewer makes more plays on defense.