Boozer, Jazz found a way to get along this season

SALT LAKE CITY — So the 2009-10 Booze-a-thon is over. He and the Jazz actually made it through the regular season without disemboweling one another.

In that light, everything from here on should be frosting.

That's not to say the season will be a big success if the Jazz lose to Denver in the first round of the playoffs, which begins Saturday. Still, their therapy must have worked. Only last summer, the Jazz and Carlos Boozer were expecting Splitsville. It is still almost certain to happen, eventually.

Yet many people, including me, expected major awkwardness this year. Instead, this team has been as tame as a virgin colada. No major blowups, no angry threats. Boozer and the Jazz did the adult thing: They worked it out.

If only politicians could be so flexible.

Instead of a train wreck, the Jazz gave their fans an unexpected 53-win season. Rather than fireworks, they displayed mature acceptance. Whatever happens at free agent time is another matter, but navigating through an entire season without hitting an iceberg is remarkable. Boozer avoided publicly shopping himself to other teams — the antithesis of last summer's strategy — and the Jazz didn't badmouth him, or bench him as punishment.

Boozer even went so far as to say he hoped to stay in Utah, while Jerry Sloan said Boozer has been "terrific to work with."

The end result wasn't spectacular, but better than most experts expected. Fact is, the Jazz really are better with both Boozer and backup Paul Millsap playing power forward. Speaking of which, Millsap is a story, too. When he signed as a restricted free agent last summer, he and half the planet — including Boozer — thought Boozer would be gone at some point this season. Millsap couldn't have been blamed for grumbling. Instead, he kept on being Millsap, quietly and competently doing whatever the Jazz asked.

Meanwhile, Boozer actually had one of his better years. He averaged 19.7 points and 11.2 rebounds, a fine example of how athletes can compartmentalize. It's an amazing phenomenon. Look at Tiger Woods. He didn't win the Masters, but finished tied for fourth after a scandalous winter. In recent years, Boozer has dealt with an ill child, marital challenges and those never-ending free agent/trade rumors.

Rather than wilting, he stayed focused.

Now if he can only stay healthy. Due to a strained oblique muscle, he missed the season finale, but says he's "going to play this weekend, no matter what."