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We all know it's going to happen... and please, nobody say "Well we can't look ahead, we need to be concentrating on the Rockets, yada yada." The TEAM needs to be focusing on the Rockets, but it's alright for the fans to look ahead.

Anyways, I know the Lakers beat us in our house already, but they came out fired up, the Jazz slept walked through the beginning of the game, and by the time we started playing, it was too late. We did, however, outscore them by 10 or so for the rest of the game. I think if we would've even had a decent first quarter, that game is a win.

So, I don't think the Lakers will be able to win in Utah again, not during the playoffs. And I also believe that we can win at LEAST one at Staples.

My prediction? Jazz in 6.

if the jazz let vujacic and radmanovic burn them from beyond the arc all night they are screwed

Lakers in 6 or Jazz in 7 are good bets, I think.

Gotta win either Game 1 or 2, if not, we won't win this series.

I used to think the Lakers were clear cut favorites in this matchup. Because defensively they were way better than us and Kobe is bound to eat our weak perimeter defenders.

After seeing the first two playoffs games by LA , i don't think that anymore. I can definitely see us pulling an upset over LA.

Defensively they are not that good , Denver has scored 110 pts per game so far. Denver has a bad offense , no points from their bigs (and melo is struggling too on the post so far) , no outside shooters (apart from JR Smith) and a terrible passing game.
We have the best offense in the league. IF they defend us like that , we can definitely take at least one game at the Stapples Center.

regarding Kobe , he's coming out of his best playoffs game ever (one point from his playoff high , one assist from his playoffs high) and LA started to pull out only in the 4th quarter.
Plus Kobe is bound to have at least one subpar game per series because he has a bad shot selection (first time in 131 playoffs games that he scored 30+ points on more than 62% shooting) . We're better defensively than the Nuggets , we won't be worse than them on Gasol.

Odom might be an issue though. He owns Kirilenko. I don't know how we're gonna deal with that. Boozer will probably have to defend him and he will struggle a lot.
Still i'm very optimistic now , i used to put LA on the level of San Antonio and Boston but they're clearly not there . Not this year at least. We can reach the WCF again.

edit : Oh and watch out for Vujacic. This guy is going to hurt us A LOT during the next round.

IMO, let Kobe get his points. Do not double team him as this will open up the passing, as it has against the Nugs. I am more concerned with Gasol/Odom and perimeter defense. This one is going to be a crazy series. I know the Jazz can win it.

Jazz in 6

Yeesh...guess I'm just too timid. No way do I start making second round predictions when we're only up 2-0...I'll wait to see our guys home and cool.

All y'all go right ahead, though...my fingers are too crossed to type for now

I remember when the Rockets were up 2-0 and 3-2 last year, their fans were talking about how they were going to beat the Mavs or Warriors. I have to admit feeling smug satisfaction when those posters were given a reality check and they lost the series. I hope we don't provide them similar fodder by the time this over. At least we're up 2-0 and going home as we're talking about it, though, as opposed to getting cocky when the next two games were on the road.

Hopefully it goes 7. Thats what I want.

loserX wrote:Yeesh...guess I'm just too timid. No way do I start making second round predictions when we're only up 2-0...I'll wait to see our guys home and cool.

All y'all go right ahead, though...my fingers are too crossed to type for now

+1

Being 0-2 in the road it's different. A lot of series are 2-0 then goes 2-2. But not when a team goes 0-2, not utah. In the worst case scenario, it will go 1-1.

I'm pretty sure in series where a team wins the first two games on the road that they close out the series 90+% of the time, probably in the 95-100% range

Lakers in 6

The weird thing this year is that the only game the Jazz won against the Lakers, and the game was won handily was the game were both Memo and Booze were on the bench with injuries and was Fesenko's only game this year with quality minutes.

The other three games it seemed that the Jazz had never seen the triangle offense before, and the Lakers coasted to three easy wins, including the win in Utah a few weeks back.

In terms of matchups, DWill >> the Farmer / Fisher combination, but he can't let either of them get open for easy threes. I suspect that Kobe would guard DWill for much of the games which could cause us some trouble.

Brewer will be stretched to his max in keeping up with Kobe. I don't see how Kobe doesn't average 35 + pts in this series.

AK and Odom are a push.

Boozer and Gasol are a push, as well.

Okur should dominate against Radman, but Radman is 6'9" and a streaky shooter. Memo needs to hustle on both ends of the floor.

I think that Korver / Harp and Walton / Vujacic are a push. We cannot let either of those two burn us the way they are lighting up Denver.

Milsap is a more talented player than Turiaf, but both are very much from the same mold. Price is probably a little inferior to either Farmar or Fisher, whoever lines up against him.

For us to win this series, Memo and Milsap are going to have to play the series of their lives and Kobe is going to have to be somewhat cold. Deron may need to put up Chris Paul like #'s (25-30 pts, 14-16 asts per game) or otherwise, as much as it pains me to say it, Lakers in 6.

I think Brew will be overmatched and AK will be on Kobe. CJ might see some time on Odom.

Not until this series with the rockets is over..................

I'm superstitious.

Maybe I don't have enough faith in the Jazz, and maybe the Lakers look as great as they do because they are playing the Nuggets, but I see the Lakers taking it in 5 or 7 games. I think if there is a game 6 the Jazz will win because it's at home.

Oh and normally I would wait until the current series is finished, but there is no way the Rockets steal more than 1 game at ESA, this series is as good as done. (I hope I don't eat those words later)

"Well we can't look ahead, we need to be concentrating on the Rockets"

We are the fans. We can concentrate on whatever we want. The players and coaches need to focus on the rockets.

Denver would've made the games better if they actually made a tiny bit of effor to play defense.

meh, it's up to the Jazz not to look too far ahead, as Jazzfan said. I don't feel it's a problem to predict a win in this series, and then if we do win to predict what the next series will hold.

I think that if/when the Jazz probably most likely will definitely play the lakers after maybe and most likely beating and/or sweeping the rockets completely off say, maybe the face of the planet, that:

this series will be like the series against Houston a year ago. We go in the underdogs, adjusting and improving each game until we have the confidence to finish it off. because of that...Utah in 7 games.