BSPN: How the West matches up

[ambchang]

Two of the leading contenders in the West, the Utah Jazz and Phoenix Suns, met on Wednesday night. Steve Nash's chipped tooth led the way in a 103-98 win in Phoenix.

Most notably, this was the fifth straight loss of the Jazz.

Watching Utah the last two or three years, this recent stretch is by far the worst they've played offensively. The big part of it is they don't have that third guy behind Deron Williams and Carlos Boozer. Utah has to hope somebody else gets hot, but too often nobody does. And the answer is not Mehmet Okur, who missed this game with a trapezius strain. He backed into an All-Star appearance last season, and his shooting percentage has sunk to 40.8 from the floor this season. Ronnie Brewer (13.4 ppg) and Andrei Kirlilenko (10.0 ppg) are the current leading third options.

That lack of a consistent third option is something you could say about another West contender, the Rockets. After Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady, who are you looking to? Bonzi Wells? Shane Battier?

Utah could swing a deal to improve its chances. And it seems that after their big two and Paul Millsap, the rest of the roster should be an open book. They need more offensive firepower.

They've got the right point guard. If I were starting a franchise tomorrow, I'd take Williams over any other point guard.
Phoenix has a superb one, too. Steve Nash (29 points, 11 assists) showed he's anything but soft in this win. He chips a tooth, hands it to the trainer, and looks like Lloyd Christmas, Jim Carrey's character from "Dumb and Dumber." This after playing with that gash in his nose last season.

He's played tough and tougher. One thing to note about the Suns: they look similar to the last couple of years, but I know for a fact Suns coach Mike D'Antoni is not putting as much emphasis on the regular season as in the past. They now look at it like they want to be healthy and rested going into the playoffs. D'Antoni wants to be a top-four seed, so he gets first-round home court advantage, but the emphasis is on being hot and healthy when the playoffs come. Even with that approach, the Suns (17-6) are now No. 2 in the West, trailing the Spurs by one game.

Pacing themselves is how the defending champion Spurs have approached things. And that shows with Manu Ginobili, who took his first offseason off in five years. He doesn't look beat up anymore. He's fresh and ready.

Figuring out how to bring down the champs is the job of all the West contenders.

The Suns don't match up as well, even though I thought they were one Amare Stoudemire suspension away from beating the Spurs last season and winning the NBA championship. As for the Mavericks, I think the Spurs have gotten inside their heads a little.

Despite their lack of that third scorer, I think the Jazz are the team the Spurs would least want to face in a West final. Utah has that inside-outside presence, they have the best offensive rebounding team, play hard every night and have the right coach in Jerry Sloan.

Of course the Jazz have time to get back on track. They are now 13-10, in seventh place, closer to being out of the playoffs than up in the Spurs' territory

[ambchang]

Pretty poorly written, as the writer jumps back and forth on different points, making the whole article a collection of randomly scattered points.

I also took issue with his assertion that "The Spurs have gotten inside their (Mavs) heads a little." If anything, the Mavs got inside the Spurs' head the last couple of years, and it's the Warriors that got inside the Mavs' head.

Then he said the Jazz are the team the Spurs would least like to meet. What? Did he watch last year's finals? It's the Mavs the Spurs would least like to meet. The Jazz are now a poor man's 90's Jazz, and the Spurs match up with them quite well.

[m33p0]

read that article earlier today. 12 hours later, i'm still asking myself "The Jazz? Really? How?". still doesn't make any sense to me.

[spursfan09]

If the Jazz are really our toughest comp this season, then Spurs will be okay. I think any Spur fans knows that if Dallas gets it together they have what it takes to beat the Spurs. They can still turn it on. Suns will defini ly want to throw thier best at the Spurs, but I think last year was thier best chance. Out of all the teams Mavs still pose a huge threat in my eyes. Lets hope they never get it together.

[Mr. Body]

As amateur writers, I cannot blame ESPN staff for not getting little details right, such as the fact that a team has thoroughly dominated a match-up for the last few years and dominated in a small series such as the Western Conference Finals the year before. No doubt between cutting lawns and pulling coffee orders at Starbucks - how they really make their money - they are left little time to watch the game they write about. I'm sure they're very tired when they come home from their jobs. We should cut them some slack when they bang out their articles late at night.

[Extra Stout]

At some point, ESPN needs to pull the plug on the Tim Legler experiment.

[spurs_fan_in_exile]

Are the Suns really pacing themselves? After looking at their stats from last year, I'm not so sure. It seems to me if you're going to pace anyone on that team it's Steve Nash, because while he seems ageless he's still getting older, and if he's not healthy in May then it's all moot. He's only averaging about 35 seconds less per game. Stoudemire, Bell, and Diaw have seen noticeable drops in their minutes, but then you have Hill logging 35 minutes a night. He's done well thus far, but I don't know if that's a sustainable number over 82 games.

And looking at their overall numbers their offense pace seems as higher or higher across the board. Of course, that's the least of the problems with this article.

[Reggie Miller]

At some point, ESPN needs to pull the plug on the Tim Legler experiment.

That day has long since past.

The problem is that he almost looks competent next to Smith and Bucher. While Legler is incompetent, many of the other ESPN talking heads are not even adequate. It creates the illusion that Legler might know what he's talking about.

[Reggie Miller]

As amateur writers, I cannot blame ESPN staff for not getting little details right, such as the fact that a team has thoroughly dominated a match-up for the last few years and dominated in a small series such as the Western Conference Finals the year before. No doubt between cutting lawns and pulling coffee orders at Starbucks - how they really make their money - they are left little time to watch the game they write about. I'm sure they're very tired when they come home from their jobs. We should cut them some slack when they bang out their articles late at night.