San Francisco writer thinks Jazz are tedious

HOUSTON — Under a Saturday column headlined "For a good time, root for Rockets over dreary Jazz," San Francisco columnist Bruce Jenkins practically begged for Houston to beat Utah and become Golden State's second-round NBA playoff opponent.

Sorry, Bruce.

The Jazz beat the Rockets 103-99 in Game 7 of their first-round series Saturday, and will open their next best-of-seven series against the Warriors on Monday night.

Jenkins' reasoning for wanting the Rockets?

"I can tell you my choice, based strictly on entertainment value: Houston all the way," he wrote. "The Jazz are as dull as Salt Lake City, and baby, that's dull.

"Efficient? Absolutely. You can always count on coach Jerry Sloan for a textbook offense, full of screens and cutters, and he has a number of weapons in Carlos Boozer, Matt Harpring, impressive point guard Deron Williams and the mysterious Andrei Kirilenko, who has alternated this season between being a wondrous all-court demon and a lost, self-pitying afterthought.

"Still," Jenkins continued, "you wouldn't say the nation pines for a closer look at Derek Fisher or Mehmet Okur. We've all seen Sloan's teams in the past — better known as John Stockton and Karl Malone — and in terms of fan appeal, this current group hardly measures up against Don Nelson, Baron Davis and the Warriors' charming eccentricity."

Not every outside-of-Utah media member, by the way, has the Jazz painted as a boring team.

"When (the Jazz) used to play they had Stockton and Malone and they would play half court and run. ... The new Utah Jazz do it differently, but with the same type of effort," said TNT commentator and former NBA player Kenny Smith, who spent six seasons with the Rockets. "The ball moves and the bodies move with hustle plays.

"A lot of people think the Jazz like to slow the game down," Smith added, "but they have the athletes to get the game up-tempo."