On Monday night, the Los Angeles Lakers rejoiced after beating the Utah Jazz in Salt Lake City. This led some in Los Angeles to infer that the Los Angeles Lakers should hope to see the Jazz in the first round of the playoffs if the team wants to have any real chance of advancing.
Jazz fans should respond to such sentiment with three words: bring it on!
First, let us not forget Deron Williams was out of the line-up on Monday because of a variety of ailments. Yes, the same Deron Williams who is averaging over 17 points and 9 assists and might very well be the NBA's most improved player -- not to mention perhaps the best point guard in the Association not named Steve Nash. Even despite Williams' absence, the Jazz still had a great chance to win Monday night's game coming down the stretch.
Also, understand that All-Star Mehmet Okur played perhaps his worst game of the season scoring just 9 points on 3-19 shooting. And while some Laker fans might like to believe that was because of L.A.'s defense, the reality is that Okur missed open shots that he has made the majority of this season. Moreover, anyone who has watched the Los Angeles Lakers play the last month or so understands perhaps the team's biggest weaknesses have been defensive effort and execution.
Still, the end result on Monday was a win for the Los Angeles Lakers. In reality, though, that win was nothing more than fool's gold, and anyone who says the Los Angeles Lakers have a viable chance of beating the Jazz in a seven games series in which Utah has home court advantage is fooling themselves.
That said, the chance that the two clubs get to meet in the first round appears to be pretty high. Coming into play Thursday night, the Jazz occupied the fourth seed in the West just one game behind the surging San Antonio Spurs, while the Los Angeles Lakers were in the six spot four games ahead of the Denver Nuggets. If the Los Angeles Lakers stay in the six seed and the Jazz can surpass the Spurs, than the first round series between the two teams would become reality.
If that turns out to be the case, the Los Angeles Lakers would be lucky to survive even six games for several reasons.
1. The Los Angeles Lakers have no one on their roster capable of controlling Williams. He would run circles around Smush Parker, Jordan Farmar and any other stiff the Los Angeles Lakers might try and stick on him.
2. Andrew Bynum would be rendered essentially meaningless in the series because of Okur's shooting ability. In other words, Andrew Bynum is lost trying to defend people on the perimeter and Los Angeles Lakers' coach Phil Jackson would be forced to take him out of the game after Memo nailed a couple of treys in succession.
3. Andrei Kirilenko would have a good chance to make an impact defensively. Of course no one man can stop Kobe Bryant, but if you look back in history, players with length (think Tayshaun Prince in the 2004 NBA Finals) have bothered Kobe Bryant fairly substantially. Don't believe me? Well, recall that Kobe Bryant averaged only 22.6 points against the Pistons in the 2004 Finals, which included an alarmingly low 11 point output in Game 3.
4. Carlos Boozer would eat the Los Angeles Lakers alive in the low block and the mid-post as he has most teams this season. Sure, some Laker fans would respond by suggesting that a healthy Kwame Brown would help neutralize Boozer. C'mon people. If you're touting Kwame Brown as your defensive savior against a guy who has had the kind of season Boozer has . . . well, let's just say you're in for quite a disappointment.
5. Derek Fisher wants to stick it to the Los Angeles Lakers -- badly. You'll never hear Fisher say as much publicly because he's such a class act, but that doesn't change the fact he feels like the Los Angeles Lakers kicked him to the curb in the summer of 2004. By the way, if you'd like some empirical support to back-up such a claim, here's something to consider: Fisher scored 23 points against the Los Angeles Lakers on Monday which was a season-high. In addition, he also took 15 shots, which as you probably guessed, was also a season-high. Probably just a coincidence, right?
Please note: listed above are just five reasons the Jazz would whip the Los Angeles Lakers in the playoffs, and by no means should this be considered a complete and comprehensive list.
It might be popular to pick Utah as the team which has overachieved in the regular season only to become easy pickin's come playoff time. However Laker fans, if you need proof of just how good this Jazz team really is, just peruse their schedule. The Jazz have already beaten Phoenix three times and San Antonio twice. Oh, and they also defeated the Dallas Mavericks -- you know, that team which has won 13 in a row -- by 22-points earlier in the season.
The moral of this story? Be careful what you wish for, because if Laker fans get the Jazz in the first round as they hope to, it will be a quick exit.
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