Recap - LA Lakers @ Utah Jazz - Game 4 - Round 2 - 2008 NBA playoffs

by Basketball John on May 12, 2008 4:03 PM MDT Comment 19 comments

So you're telling me there's a chance.

The Jazz were suppose to have almost no chance after getting beat pretty soundly by the Lakers in games 1 and 2. They were suppose to come up to the SLC to wrap things up and wait for the SA/NO winner. They had won 3 of 4 over the Jazz in the regular season with LA taking one of the few Ws by an opponent at the ESA.

But now we have more than a chance to win the series. Grabbing one at LA isn't an easy task. But if Utah avoids a one-quarter meltdown like the first two games, they have a shot to walk away from LA killing David Stern's dream Finals matchup.

Here's the ESPN title for their recap,

Back injury hinders Kobe as Jazz tie series at 2-2

Remember everyone, the Jazz didn't win it. The Lakers lost because Kobe wasn't at 100%. They have to say something about Kobe's 1-10 from th earc, his missed layups, and his 6-10 shooting from the FT line. I'm pretty sure Williams and Boozer are hurting too.

It was only the ridiculous hot shooting of Fisher and Odom that sent the game into overtime. Odom had made something like 30 three-pointers all year. But he nails a game-tying three with just about a minute left. And Fisher, who hit maybe 4 in the entire seaon he was with Utah, nailed 4-5 three-pointers. And two of those came in the final 3 minutes when LA rallied from a 12-point deficit.

It has to be a little disconcerting that the Jazz gave up double-digit leads twice, especially the one late in the fourth quarter. But as Williams said about the OT session,

It's just another five minutes on the clock.

The game could have ended in regulation with a Lakers win had we not received the huge game from Williams. With the Jazz up just 1 late in regulation, Williams was able to chase down an awkward pass that bounced off his leg and keep it from going over the half-court line. Nike needs to do a commercial with that play as his shoes gripped the painted Jazz logo and stopped a paper's width from a turnover. The play then went from a near-disaster to a three point lead as Deron shot a fadeaway over the long arms of Gasol.

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He took over the game when he was suppose to and found others when they were in a groove. He played his best in the extra frame when he found Memo for two deep twos, nailed a couple of FTs, and found AK for the finishing dunk and the foul. And he gives big props to the fans in his interview,

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And we needed Deron on another game where Booze falls off the wagon. I won't be hard on him though as he made two huge free throws at the end of regulation. He still finished with a respectable 14 & 12, but it took him 5-15 to get it. What we need is some consistency out of the big man. Maybe he needs to drop his Powerade endorsement and go with Memo's Dimes drink.

Because apparently it's working. Whatever Memo has been on over the last couple months has given him double-digit rebound ability, driving the lane skills, and some uber-confidence. He finished with 18 & 11 including the two huge aforementioned two-point shots. For whatever reason, he and Booze have gone in opposite directions the last couple month. It's like Boozer and Memo are playing Elaine and George respectively in the Seinfeld "The Opposite" episode. Elaine's and George's fortunes are the opposite at the end of the show. That's because Seinfeld (Williams) is even steven. If both Boozer and Memo have good games, the universe would collapse on itself. So really, Williams has a huge responsibility to ensure the safety of all mankind.

I'm proud to say I matched AK on the boards. He went for 15 & 0 in the game. But it was his five blocks, including two big ones on Kobe, that helped the Jazz win. Harp was solid with 12 and KK had a couple of big threes. But I still don't know why he got 30 minutes to Brewer's 23. But if it's a W, I can't say much.

And while he played only 8 minutes, Price provided plenty to talk about. The first was the hard foul from Turiaf that resulted in Ronnie17 getting 4 stitches above his eye. Turiaf was tossed as a result. He also had an acrobatic "and-1" when he went to the hoop and got a reverse layup to fall after drawing the contact. But the play of the game and maybe the block of the year came after he missed a three-point shot. The long rebound gave Luke Walton a cherry-picking opportunity. He was sprinting to the basket after Price's miss, and got hit with the TD pass. He slowed up at the end to lay it in (why he didn't dunk, I don't know) and out of nowhere, Price emphatically rejected Bill's son and sent him flying into the camera men. The best part was Price's stare afterwards. It saved two points and maybe the game.

No doubt some satisfaction there after getting hammered earlier. And for the Faker fans, its wasn't a foul. It was all ball. And besides, Walton shouldn't have been lackadaisical in the first place.

So now it's back to LALA land. It will no doubt be tougher than either of the first two games. There's no way that the Lakers are -20 in the FTAs this time. Kobe was milking the refs in this game. How else would you get away with a pushoff,

and have AK end up on the ground,

and AK gets called for the foul. I also love Sloan's reaction in that picture. He's absolutely beside himself. And then of course it's Kobe that goes to the ground a while later,

Is he hoping this gets into the highlights? Is he trying to replicate the flu game? Maybe he has a movie/commercial he's shooting when he gets back home and he was just practicing?

And for good measure, this was called a foul by the ref on the opposite side of the court by some good flopping,

We have a series again. And if you think you've seen it all, it's only just begun.

Other notes,

The Jazz need to hire the guy who flew the Jazz banner from the plane and send him down to LA on Wednesday. How many people would try to shoot him out of the sky?
Ronny (you're spelling it wrong) "I'll Turi-YourHead-af" was ejected for a flagrant 2 on Ronnie17. I didn't think it warranted a 2, but I'm not complaining. If the league lets it stand, he would miss game 5.
Would Fisher have been given his unconditional release had he played like he has this year? And making the money that he currently does? I wonder if Miller would try to trade him knowing what he knows now.
It's a good thing she read her scriptures
Check out the rest of the game videos, (Veoh - high quality ) & YouTube

Other blogs,

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Personally

I can not wait until Game 5. It could potentially be one of the defining games of these playoffs. Jazz haven’t been a great road team but got 2 big road wins in Houston earlier these playoffs. Boozer didn’t do a great job in LA and will need to show up for Game 5.

Backbone of the DMV

by NY1 on May 12, 2008 5:03 PM MDT reply actions 0 recs

Turiaf's foul

The reason I believe the refs called a flagrant 2 on Turiaf was the fact that the hard foul came well after the whistle was blown on another Laker player (I wanna say it was Fisher) as he fouled Price as Price was blowing past him. I haven’t heard one analyst explain this. Of course if this was a normal situation, it would’ve been called a flagrant 1 foul AT WORST. But since the hard foul clearly came after the whistle was blown, the refs deemed it was excessive AND unnecessary, thus the flagrant 2 foul. Am I wrong here?

by neff on May 12, 2008 5:36 PM MDT reply actions 0 recs

NO

That totally makes sense.

Have they said whether or not Turiaf is suspended for Game 5?

by DaniellelovesKK on May 12, 2008 6:06 PM MDT up reply actions 0 recs

I have an observation.

Most of you have probably picked up on this already, but unitl the Pistons won in Orlando the other day, the Jazz were the only team to win on the road in the playoffs (winning 3 in Houston). Now, they got A LOT of crap during the regular season for having such a disparity between home and road games. But, they’ve stepped it up so far this post season. Also, Boston has yet to win a road game in the playoffs. Very interesting.

by DaniellelovesKK on May 12, 2008 6:07 PM MDT reply actions 0 recs

Nevermind

IDK how I came up with this rediculous idea. Right after posting it I realized I was so wrong. WHERE is the delete button. Hahahaha. I’m such an R-tard. BBJ, please delete this.

by DaniellelovesKK on May 12, 2008 6:14 PM MDT up reply actions 0 recs

I too have an observation

There’s a two day break before each game in LA.
There’s a one day break before each game in Utah.
No other series has such a pattern.

Not to be a conspiracy theorist, but this ‘scheduling quirk’ seems to fit quite nicely with the sentiment expressed in the second picture on the game thread.

by jaffa on May 12, 2008 9:09 PM MDT reply actions 0 recs

Correction

A flagrant 2 foul does not equal a next game suspension if the player is removed from the floor at the time of the foul.

If it is called as a flagrant 1, and then later upgraded by the league, it costs the player the game that they would have been ejected had a different (not necessarily better) call been made. The Lakers should be glad that he was ejected from this game as the league would have probably been forced to eject him from the next game. As it stands I think the Jazz would have been destined to win that game anyways and I’d rather see Gasol forced to play max minutes at home.

Oh well, it is as it is.

by pentaxian on May 12, 2008 10:39 PM MDT reply actions 0 recs

Thanks for the correction.

by Basketball John on May 13, 2008 12:57 PM MDT up reply actions 0 recs

regarding your point about the espn title of the recap, you can screencaps of all the major sports websites in the link below and how basically ALL of them were about the lakers (scroll down)...

http://jazzfanatical.wordpress.com/2008/05/12/salt-lakers-lakers/

by moni on May 13, 2008 1:33 AM MDT reply actions 0 recs

That's incredible.

by Basketball John on May 13, 2008 12:58 PM MDT up reply actions 0 recs

Rebounds after Blocks

I was at Sunday’s game, and one thing that really stood out (besides Kobe’s woe-is-me routine every time he hit the deck) was how many easy putbacks Odom and Gasol got after Jazz blocks. Check out the Play-by-Play over on ESPN. In the first half alone you’ll see two putbacks, but I swear there were at least four (3 for Gasol, 1 for Odom) in the first half. The Jazz really need to close out on the boards and make sure they’re gathering up the loose balls after a block – letting the Lakers get 4-8 easy points ruins an otherwise good defensive effort.

by kris247 on May 13, 2008 9:12 AM MDT reply actions 0 recs

I was really disappointed in the Jazz after the first 2 games, after hearing all sorts of dire warnings about “physicality” and “precision offense” to see them go down so meekly. As a fan I’m excited that this is a series now, and we might see a great game 5 and/or 7.

You guys are kidding yourselves about the Turiaf foul—the Lakers got hosed on that one, which Jazz fans can’t accept because it doesn’t fit their worldview that the NBA/ refs are conspiring against them. We’re about to find out if the Jazzercise are for real or if they’re actually the team that went 17-24 outside of those friendly ESA confines.

by go_lakers on May 13, 2008 10:49 AM MDT reply actions 0 recs

Most of us

believe that Turiaf shouldn’t have been tossed.
Or at least that’s what I think. Even Ronnie Price agrees.
But in this day’s NBA, you have to take all the breaks you’re given. Because given the officiating (on both ends, not just for the Jazz), nothing is guaranteed…

The Utah Jazz
A disillusioned Pirates fan in Utah...

by UtesFan89 on May 13, 2008 11:19 AM MDT up reply actions 0 recs

@pentaxian

“The Lakers should be glad that he was ejected from this game as the league would have probably been forced to eject him from the next game.”

You’re joking, right? Have you seen some of the other fouls these playoffs that didn’t lead to ejection? Kidd on Pargo? Haywood on Lebronze? If the foul was after the play, why was Price going in for a layup? Ever heard of continuation? Not having Turiaf meant time for DJ Mbenga, who was a disaster and a big help towards that double-digit lead in the 4th.

by go_lakers on May 13, 2008 10:57 AM MDT reply actions 0 recs

Duh!

Kidd and Haywood both got tossed, dude. Nice examples.

by Lake Powell Fan on May 13, 2008 2:06 PM MDT up reply actions 0 recs

Of course

Of course I’ve heard of that but the fact is that

1. The play was called dead.

2. Turiaf’s right arm helped Price to the ground

3. The league does NOT want a repeat of last year’s playoffs where the Jazz fans littered the floor with debris after Manu started flopping.
3a. This basically boils down to the league coming down hard on anyone who commits an act that could potentially lead to conflict.

So yes, if Turiaf were called for a flagrant one in game it would have been upgraded to a flagrant 2 later on. Perhaps it wasn’t intentional, I don’t think it was, but the league has a huge stake in keeping people calm which is why Okur’s technical, while not consistent, is a good call. Vujastinksatlife should have received the same call in OT in my opinion but I respect the officials wanting to keep the game under control. As should you.

Sorry dude,

You lose.

by pentaxian on May 13, 2008 11:10 AM MDT reply actions 0 recs

holy crap

Did you just admit that your fans bully the league/refs into making favorable calls? Is that your mentality in the arena? “These refs better give us the calls or we are going to riot!” Wow… well, the Jazz were, what, 37-4 at home and 17-24 on the road, so it’s tough to argue with you. Too bad you don’t have home court advantage (or an ability to win games based on skill/strategy).

by go_lakers on May 13, 2008 11:40 AM MDT reply actions 0 recs

Uhhh. . .

Pentaxian’s talking about the players and the game being under control, not the crowd. What a ridiculous, half-assed attempt at an insult to pretend like he meant anything else.

Also, Kidd did get tossed when he flagranted Pargo, so perhaps that isn’t the most relevant example of a hard foul that didn’t lead to an ejection.

by Kcin on May 13, 2008 12:34 PM MDT up reply actions 0 recs

the point is...

that it was AFTER THE WHISTLE. You see offensive players all the time shoot the ball or drive to the hoop after the play has been blown dead. But that doesn’t mean that a defensive player has the right to throw the guy to the ground.
I guess skill/strategy had nothing to do with the 2 road wins in Houston last series.. The refs must have thought they were in the ESA.
Stop using Turiaf’s ejection or the so-called ‘mob-mentality’ of the fans as an excuse to for the Lakers losing. The fact is that Princess Kobe played three quarters of good ball and it wasn’t enough to win, so Fisher and Odom had to bail them out at the end of regulation. Then Princess Kobe decided to go away from Fish and Odom and take the game over in overtime because… well he’s Kobe and no one gets credits for a Laker win but him. That was the Lakers undoing… and D-Will’s stellar play down the stretch. I hope Princess Kobe tries to take game 5 by himself again.. Hey at least Faker fans will have another excuse in Princess Kobe’s ailing back.

by neff on May 13, 2008 12:47 PM MDT reply actions 0 recs