From Deseret News archives:

Jazz enjoy luxury of relaxing, waiting

Published: Wednesday, May 16, 2007 8:52 a.m. MDT
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After defeating Golden State on Tuesday night at EnergySolutions Arena, the Utah Jazz can take at least one day off and relax a bit while Phoenix and San Antonio beat each other up in the other Western Conference semifinal.

By knocking off the Warriors in five games, the Jazz earned their first trip to the Western Conference finals since 1998, the year they lost to Chicago in the Finals. Now the Jazz may get as much as a week off before they play again.

With the Suns and Spurs locked in a 2-2 series that could very well go seven games and end Sunday in Phoenix, the Jazz may not play until Tuesday. If one of the two teams wins two straight, then the conference finals would begin Sunday on the road for the Jazz.

"I don't really care (who we play), we're just going to take the day off tomorrow and watch the game and see who's going to come out from the other (matchup)," said Mehmet Okur, who had a quiet double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds. "It feels great right now — I think we earned it and we deserve it. Everybody stepped up and did a great job."

"We have no preference," added Derek Fisher, who came up huge for the Jazz with 21 points, including four 3-pointers. "They're two of the best teams in the NBA. We believe we're a good team right now."

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Dee Brown, who played in his first game since injuring his neck last week when Okur fell on him, scored two points in nine minutes. He is excited to be moving on.

"It's great — all year long a lot of people doubted us, but coach (Jerry Sloan) said we could be a very good team and here we are," Brown said.

Of course no one is saying who they want to play, but you'd have to think that Phoenix would be preferred.

Not only are the Suns an easier matchup for the Jazz, during the regular season, the Jazz defeated the Suns three times, including twice in Phoenix. Their only loss came during the final week of the season when the Suns blew them out at EnergySolutions Arena.

However, the Jazz split with the Spurs, winning two at home and losing both in San Antonio. And the fact that the Jazz have lost 16 straight to the Spurs in San Antonio makes that a daunting task with no homecourt advantage.

But for now the Jazz don't want to think about that possibility.

"We're going to celebrate right now and worry about the rest of the stuff later," said Carlos Boozer.


E-mail: sor@desnews.com

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Mehmet Okur blocks out Golden State's Stephen Jackson as they battle for a loose ball Tuesday.

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