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Utah Jazz: The power of 3 — Jazz cut L.A.'s series lead in half

This team is sure fun too watch when they are playing their game. I still pick the Lakers, but in 7 now.

if the jazz can still game 5 in la la land, and the hornets beat the spurs the jazz will have rings.

The Jazz did a great job tonight holding off a very good Lakers team and the continuing effort by the Refs to help them... It's time the refs starting giving the Jazz (e.g., Williams) some of the same "touch" fouls granted Kobe. The foul where Kobe fell down and put Kirilenko out the game was awful...

Go jazz, even the series on Sunday!

Alright JAZZ!! Great game!! But, I also think that David Archuleta is a good luck charm for the UTAH JAZZ! Hope you do as well on Sunday!

please, NBA needs the money....this was a show. the lakers own the JAZZ. NEXT YEAR, can we please try it without JERRY.

I'll be the first to admit that this guy is amazing as far as his basketball skills go. He's by far the best player in the series and deserving of the MVP.... However, I couldn't help to grin inside when near the end of the fourth quarter Kobe started to misfire.

He threw up a couple Tracy McGrady like bricks and then with 14 seconds left publicly scolded Luke Walton for fumbling a jump ball tip. As far as the scolding goes, all I can say is, I'm glad to see that the old Kobe is still in there.

Clearly no one on the Jazz roster, and maybe no one in the NBA can STOP Kobe. However, I've been surprised at how well Harpring has been able to slow him down.

Kirelinko tends to try to smother Kobe too much. By not giving Kobe enough room, he blows right past him. Although Harpring also plays tight he tends to move his feet better. Also, Harprings strength helps keep Kobe from getting inside position.

Now I'm not suggesting Harpring play Kobe the whole game, or even at all time that Harpring and Kobe are on the floor together. I think the main reason that Harpring is having some success against Kobe is that he's only on him sporadically and usually Kobe has been worn down some.

On a side note, I definitely think Brewer's aggressivenss near the end of the game helped take out Kobe's legs somewhat. Brewer needs to driver more on Kobe during the entirety of the game. The only real way to slow down a superstar is to make him work on both sides of the court.

If anyone was on this board yesterday, they would have seen a dozen posts about how terrible Boozer is and how we should trade him in the off season. Needless to say I was disgusted with the Boozer bashing and attributed the comments to fair weather fans. So where are those Boozer bashers now?

To all those Boozer bashers, I will give you one thing: Boozers defense needs a lot of work. I don't think it's because he's lazy, I just think his defensive IQ needs educating. Although fatigue may play a role. I know in my own limited basketball experience it is very difficult to be aggressive on both the offensive and defensive end of the courts ON EVERY PLAY. You see players take advantage of that by back dooring him a lot. But Boozer isn't the only one who has a hard time being aggressive both offensively and defensively. Take a close look at our best player D-Will and you'll notice hime get burned on D occassionally as well.

Go Jazz!

Good for you Boozer!! To all the people who kept wanting a trade for Boozer eat your shirt! Everyone has a slump and we knew he would pull out of it, now keep up the good work! All you Laker Fans, where are you now in these chat rooms!

When it counted most, Boozer delivered (intentional reference) and Kobe didn't.
I thought it was funny to see the Laker players' and coaches' reaction when they didn't get the calls that they are used to getting. Still, there were far too many "star treatment" calls going Bryant's way.

The only ring Gasol will ever get has already been destroyed in Moridor. The Jazz will send Gasol back to the Shire were he can hug and frolic with Bilbo Baggins and the rest of his family. GO JAZZ!!!!

Great win by the Jazz last night, another one on Sunday should give us the momemntum we need to steal a game in Los Angeles!

On a side note - I wish the fans in the ESA would focus on cheering for the Jazz rather than focusing on berating the opposing team's players in an attempt to get them to lose their focus. If anything such actions are bad karma, but more importantly it may cause the Jazz players to lose focus as well.

For example, last night when Boozer missed to straight free throws at the end of the game, someone could be heard on ESPN's air verbally berating Kobe Bryant (I assume it was the now famous Dr. Anderson). If it was loud enought to be heard on air, don't you think that it may have effected Boozer's attempts?

Jazz fans, lets be positive with our own players, not waste our energy yelling negative crap at the opposing teams.

Go JAZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Way to go Jazz! Let's get game 4 tomorrow. Good game Boozer!

One of two things will happen Sunday: 1) the Jazz play as well or better, having gained confidence in beating the Lakers when they got no respect from the refs, or 2) the Laksers will pour it on, knowing they could have won that last game when Boozer finally showed up.

The problem with Boozer finally showing up is that he won't follow up with another great game. Very few players are capable of repeating top-notch performances from one game to the next. And, with Deron's shooting hand injury, you can expect his outside shot to be off.

To win on Sunday, the Jazz are going to need someone else to step up and have their best game. And, the whole team will need to be into it, or it's all over. The Jazz can't win a series against the Lakers if they lose a home game--no chance of beating the Lakers twice in their place.

Let's just hope Deron's injury isn't debilitating.

first of all, its 'steal' not 'still'. Second of all, it's only one game, lets not get our hopes up yet. I'm about as big a jazz fan as they come, but lets be realistic here.

Like I've been saying. These two quality teams are evenly matched. That's why I predicted home wins will split this series: game one and two went to the Lakers, Jazz will win the next one to even this up. It will just be hard for the Jazz to win in L.A., just as it will be hard for the Lakers to win in Utah. I still think that homecourt will ultimately be the difference in the series (Refs), but with the Jazz gaining confidence they could steal game 5 in L.A.

The away game factor: so far the Lakers have shown me that when needed they still resort almost exclusively to their star (Not enough, even with his special mvp treatment from refs on an away court). And the Jazz have shown that their stars have lacked confidence to take advantage of the reserves keeping it close (Could change).

With the Jazz gaining confidence it's more likely that the Jazz stars will come alive than it is that the Laker reserves will close out a game. This is getting interesting, but again the L.A. homecourt/ref edge is still the biggest factor to overcome. Got your game 7 tickets L.A.?

Like another great player who kept beating the Jazz, Kobe cheats and has the refs on his side. No denying his talent, but it is not basketball when one team and one player can go to the stripe anytime they have defense played on em.

For those of us who watched the game on TV, could you believe the comment the announcers made about the officiating? I don�t even know if they released what they said.

One of them made the comment that �the officiating was very fair in the game, I know the fans wanted a foul on that play but if they are not going to call it on one end of the court they can�t call it on the other end�. Two minutes later as Bryant came running down the floor and a foul was called they said �you know their going to give that foul to Bryant so I don�t know why you would even try that�

Tell me how that�s fair! You know they are going to call a foul on you if you even get close to him.

In my opinion Bryant forgot to thank the men in the strip shirts for his MVP award.

Some genius wrote:

"The foul where Kobe fell down and put Kirilenko out the game was awful..."

Did you just discover the game of basketball yesterday? Kirilenko's foot tripped Kobe as he was driving to the basket, and Kobe went to the floor pretty hard as the ball bounced out of bounds. I know it wasn't intentional, but what do you suggest here? Should unintentional tripping be allowed? Better yet, do you really think the refs should have given the ball to the Jazz after that?

In short, if you watch another basketball game, you might notice that the refs consistently call those unintentional tripping fouls. Wait, maybe you're better with baseball; ever heard of "tie goes to the runner?" Same idea.