Where does he say that they foul on purpose?

And the fouling just won’t let up. Matt Harpring and Andrei Kirilenko seem to think that their non-shooting fouls early in quarters are fine, because nobody’s being sent to the line – which makes sense until you realize that non-drivers like Derek Fisher (7-8 from the stripe) are being given freebies later in the quarter merely because Harpring decided to put two arms into his man on a drive five minutes previous.

This isn’t the first/only time Dwyer has written in this vein. Basically, since the series with the Lakers has started, he has repeated the sentiment that the Jazz do nothing but foul on defense, and that it’s a conscious decision. Look at his “Behind the Boxscore” columns for every Jazz game and you’ll see the trend.

I’m not saying the Jazz’s rep for fouls isn’t justified. I just don’t like the implication that it’s deliberate.

I don’t think the fouls against the Jazz were unwarranted (except the call on Boozer with Odom going in for the dunk). My frustration came when the Jazz would get hammered and nothing was called. Harp got barreled over from Odom outside the restricted area and nothing was called. I understand letting them play, but that was one of the worst I’ve seen. Deron was hammered all night with not much to show for it. And Kobe had a spin and knocked over Brewer with nothing. How are those not called?

I hate complaining about refs because that’s what all the fans of the losing team does. And there’s always going to be bad calls or calls that don’t go your way. The biggest thing is that they’re not consistent. Why are things on one end a foul, but not the other. Why aren’t fouls called the same for all players?

The refs shouldn’t factor in the game at all. They just need to call what’s in the rule book. But they seem to have been given the freedom to interpret those rules as they see fit.

I don’t know that the refs lost us the game. But they certainly didn’t help. I felt like Boozer and the rest of the team (minus D.Will) played a regular season game. There was no playoff intensity on the part of the players. They need to play more intelligent and start defending without fouling.

The Jazz always get the brunt end of the stick in road games.

is when Harp is all up in Kobe’s grill 30 feet away from the basket only to have Kobe blow past him for a layup or foul. I know Kobe’s a dangerous shooter from the outside, but I’d rather have him hoisting up long jump shots than get his points in the paint or from the free throw line.
Bottom line is that the Jazz just play dumb, and sometimes lazy, defense (yes, I’m looking at you Booz). Put AK on Odom and let Booz cover Radmonovic or Walton. Odom’s finally discovered that he can just blow past Okur or Booz because they both have cement for feet.
And for Harp, I know you have a rep for playing hard, but you don’t need to smother Kobe 30 feet away from the basket… Sometimes it’s better to play smart… Just a thought~ GO JAZZ!

In my blog post about the game, I sarcastically mentioned the absence of an actual “3-in-the-key” rule.
Are we sure it exists, or has J-Slow totally brainwashed us?

Not anymore.