Spurs are Jazz's nemesis, measuring stick
By Gordon Monson The Salt Lake Tribune
http://www.sltrib.com/jazz/ci_7651841
There are so many compe ively meaningless exhibitions in an NBA regular season, a numbing apathy - even felt by the players - can set in around the uninspired humdrum of some games.
Not Friday night's.
The Jazz aren't on the road against any normal team. This isn't Memphis, or Golden State, or Seattle, or Portland, or . . . zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz . . . some other mediocre outfit they could and should beat in various degrees of slumber.
This particular contest means something beyond numerical increase or decrease in the win-loss record.
This opponent is more than just the next bunch of stiffs on a seemingly never-ending slate of bunches of stiffs faced night after night after night from November to April.
Who's up? Oh, OK, whatever.
No.
The Spurs are the Jazz's nemesis. Even more, they are the Jazz's measuring stick, against which they can size themselves up and gauge their progress from the last time these two teams played, such as it was, in the Western Conference finals.
We all know how that turned out.
And now we'll know more.
A lot more, even if Tim Duncan can't play on account of an ankle sprain suffered earlier in the week. Briefly losing the two-time NBA MVP, who is
averaging 18 points and nine boards this season, might severely hamper an ordinary team. But San Antonio beat Dallas, one of its chief rivals, on Wednesday night without their main cog. Manu Ginobili, who also was fighting a bruised hand, dropped 37 points on the Mavs in Duncan's absence, and Tony Parker added another 23, and the Spurs did what champions do regardless of the cir stances: They won, again.
"This really showed the character of this team," Parker said, afterward. "To play without our best player, our franchise guy, everybody had to step up. Fabricio, Elson, Bruce, Finley, they all did. And Manu had an incredible game."
Remember those guys?
Last year's playoff series with them was, ultimately, the closure on the Jazz's freeway toward heightened awareness regarding how good they might be, or, at least, become. The Jazz emerged through the first two rounds, surprising maybe even themselves en route. But the Spurs quickly blew holes in their new hopes, revealing the considerable work left in front of the youngsters to ascend to the NBA's top level.
The memory of the Spurs disassembling and eliminating the Jazz in Game 5 at San Antonio by a whopping 25 points - the Jazz's 19th consecutive loss there - is still clear. The Jazz got rolled that night, looking confused and disheartened and panicked, especially at the offensive end, chucking shots up from all over the place. The building roared as the Spurs shot 65 percent in the first period, and their first-half lead grew to 23 points. The rest was just as ugly.
"They came at us hard," said a disappointed Jerry Sloan, after the Jazz were done. "We abandoned our offense."
That lopsided ending was also punctuated in the postgame by Deron Williams and Carlos Boozer complaining about a couple of teammates. Willams said "there were some guys already on vacation. On vacation a long time ago."
Added Boozer: "It's sad to have that . . . You have a couple of guys on vacation. That's a problem and we have to get it fixed this summer . . . We need guys who have a championship vision."
Williams and Boozer, though, played crappy in Game 5, too.
When fully dialed in, the veteran Spurs have a way of doing that to opponents, especially young, aspiring teams who are rapidly ascending, who are showing great promise, but who yet have to grow and mature and learn how and for what to prepare in order to reach the pinnacle.
The Jazz appear to be on that hopeful, lofty course.
But here's the thing: nobody knows with exactness - until the Jazz are faced with playing a team like San Antonio, again, particularly on the road. That's the real measure. That's when and where the revelations are plain to see and interpret, not against a steady diet of typical NBA fare.
The Jazz may catch a break tonight. They might get the Spurs without their top player, the guy who triggers everything around him, who over the long haul contributes so significantly to their prowess. But, as Dallas found out the other night, they are still the best team in basketball, champions in every compe ive sense.
They are the truth the still-developing Jazz must face.
And find a way to conquer.
GORDON MONSON hosts "The Big Show" weekdays from 3-7 p.m. on 1280 AM The Zone. He can be reached at [email protected].
How things have changed. . . .
If this piece is written in December 1997, it's written by a San Antonio writer about the Spurs headed to Salt Lake City.
Man I love the Spurs...
Why would a team want to use its league's defending champion as a measuring stick? Why not the team with the highest TV ratings?
For the record Gordon Monson is the biggest jackass in the history of SLC's newspapers (which says incredibly little for him). Nevertheless, he nailed this article. As a Jazz fan all I can say is that you're the only team I use as a litmus test. Unfortunately, we usually fail that test. Hope we change that tomorrow.
The words missing?
"in the playoffs".
This is DECEMBER.
Nice to see the writer calling all of those teams "stiffs". How many years ago was it the Jazz didn't make the playoffs? When was the last time they got out of the first round (b4 last year). All of a sudden they think they're in some kind of elite company? GMAFB!
These clowns got rolled last year, and things aren't any different now. I give not two s if they come in and beat down the Spurs tomorrow night - with or without Tim; it is meaningless, pointless. They are exactly to the Spurs what that writer claims most other teams are: no measuring stick. Get all excited. RAH RAH RAH. Sweep the Spurs in the regular season for all I care.
The Jazz don't have what it takes the ONLY time it actually matters - and we ALL saw that quite clearly just a couple of months ago.
no kidding. those were some fierce battles.
Malone and Stockon = the dirtiest duo of all time.
The difference being that the Jazz, while better than those 90s Spurs teams, were never Champions.
I do IT work for a company that has offices in Phoenix... you know what my favorite thing to do is since they know headquarters is in SA?
Before I help them I force them to yell "GO SPURS!!" So everyone can hear them.
Yes, a blatant misuse of IT power... but funny as .
And if the Spurs of today had to go up against those Bulls teams they wouldn't be champions either.The difference being that the Jazz, while better than those 90s Spurs teams, were never Champions.
That occurred to me; but Pop made it clear in the 1997-1998 timeframe that he was building a team that was intended to beat Utah: not concerned with Chicago or anyone else - beat Utah. It took a regular season game in SLC in late April of 1999 (and a Sunday afternoon game at the Alamodome a couple weeks later) to finally summit that mountain; anyone who was there, I think, would say that vanquishing the Jazz, even in the regular season, propelled the Spurs to their first le. That was true whether the Jazz were champions or not.The difference being that the Jazz, while better than those 90s Spurs teams, were never Champions.
Give ME a in' break. The compe ion's writer goes out
of his way, more than most writers ever do, to laude praise upon your team and you find a way to rip him and the Jazz. ing laughable... Just laughable. In case you didn't know, asshole, the Jazz have made the playoffs for like 21 of the past 24 seasons. Have some respect and try to get a ing clue next time puss.
Last edited by balli; 12-06-2007 at 09:44 PM.
was that the game where Duncan got like two offensive rebounds in a row and then dunked all over the entire Jazz team and then yelled after doing it?
Love Deron Williams' game. He's no joke.
I thought the Jazz were nuts taking him ahead of Chris Paul in '05. Boy, have things changed in 2 years.
But not miserable.
I'm not sure what Utah's playoff history has to do with assessing whether they are real contenders in the here-and-now. I certainly think the Jazz have a formidable club, but there are reasonable questions about their playoff moxie, given that they got the unexpected benefit of having to beat an 8-seed to reach the conference finals. Until they beat a real contender in a playoff series, there will be some questions about just what the Jazz proved in the 2007 playoffs.
That the Jazz had a long stretch of playoff appearances and even some playoff success in the Stockton/Malone era doesn't say much about the current Jazz team, which has made the playoffs in 1 of the last 4 seasons.
No doubt. I agree with some of what you said. At the same time 101A is out his mind comparing us to the stiffs of the league. Our past doesn't do much for us this season. But in terms of respect a Jerry Sloan team should never be dragged into the mud and called a stiff teams as if they were Clippers or somebody. A culture of winning permeates our organization, despite the Spurs recent success. And although I agree with you, for those reasons 101A can still go himself.
BTW, before they beat that 8 seed they beat a 5 seed possesing homecourt named Mcgrady and Ming. Furthermore, we handily dispatched the 8 seed (who did win like their last 15 reg. season games before destroying the then best team in the league during the playoffs) in short and spectacular order. I don't know how much more we can actually prove short of beating the Spurs. Which really, was the point of this whole thread's featured article.
Last edited by balli; 12-06-2007 at 10:12 PM.
To most Spurs fans this game means nothing at all but to us Jazz fans this is the biggest game of the year. We MUST find a way to win a game in SA. We all know if we're gonna get to the Finals, we have to go through SA to do so. If we can win a game in SA during the regular season, it will help us in the playoffs much like it did in game 7 last year at Houston. Knowing we could win in Houston was a big advantage.
If we played the Spurs right now in the playoffs we wouldn't win a road game. That's why this game is so important for us. I don't look at the game as a measuring stick, but more as mental stability for a young team.
I guess that I'm confused about your point, then. I would think that 101A's point was that a regular season win in San Antonio won't prove much for the Jazz and that until they get it done in the playoffs against someone who matters in the le chase, there will be questions about the Jazz. That's not a great deal different than what you and I apparently agree about.
Again, the question is beating a club that is expected to compete for a le -- not just a good team that qualified for the playoffs. The Jazz beat a good Houston team (though one that has developed something of a history for struggling in the playoffs) on their way to knocking out a Golden State club that was hideously overmatched against a team that: (1) had its full attention on the Warriors; and (2) wasn't susceptible to the gimmicks that ended the Mavericks' season.
I'd think the proof that Utah doubters would want, as I said elsewhere, is a series win against SA, PNX, or DAL.
Yeah. No doubt those are the three proven elite and thus far, the spurs, have proven conclusively to be better than us. That said, I think we'd beat Dallas over 7. Right now they're losing to the Nugs 111-100 for their their 6th loss out of 9 . Also, I think we match up with Phoenix in a way that would give us at least reason to believe we're capable of beating them. Not to say we definitively would, but certainly couldn't be counted out.
All in all, I think the situation is more like the Spurs are the test for the Suns and Mavs as well as Utah.
I don't take umbrage with that part of 101A's argument. I just didn't care for his arrogant tone and the way he compared us to the scrubs of the league. Yeah, we're not the spurs...yet. But we're sure as not a bunch of stiffs either and I didn't appreciate being characterized as such, simply because we aren't as good as the proven best team in The League.
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