Warriors vs. Jazz Might be a Lot of Fun

Those of you who were concerned that the Jazz would ugly up the series against the Warriors, and negate their up-and-down, frantic appeal, your fears have been assuaged. Utah has no intentions of slowing things down.

If your enjoyment level is contingent on the Warriors actually winning, though, the Jazz aren't so eager to accommodate. They had to earn every damn bit of it, but they did manage to hold off Golden State down the stretch last night with a gutty win.

Down the stretch, the story was the Jazz taking exploiting the advantages they have against the Warriors. They pulled down two big offensive rebounds in the last 4 minutes, and converted them both. On the other end, the Warriors didn't get a lot of good looks down the stretch ... they kept going to Stephen Jackson one-on-one against Andrei Kirilenko, and Kirilenko forced him into tough shots every time.

Kirilenko was fantastic last night ... he thought about crying again after the game, but decided instead to get a hand in the face of his tear ducts, and reject the tears. He was a one-man swarm, getting all over the place with 7 blocks, 7 rebounds, and 4 assists. Still not the offensive numbers you'd like from a guy making max dollars, but he's not the shrinking violet he was a couple weeks ago. He scored 13 on 3-of-8 shooting, including 7-of-8 from the line.

Anyway, this series is going to be fun. You get the feeling that the Jazz will get more comfortable with this style, its advantages and disadvantages, as they go ... but you also get the feeling that that won't be enough to cancel out Golden State's advantage in their own building. I see this one being close all the way.