By Craig Kwasniewski
As I've learned over the years, the national media tends to be 2 to 3 weeks behind when a random team starts to play well. Fare thee be warned: the Utah Jazz have already passed the NBA Jam "he's heating up" stage and they are on fire!
At the end of December the Jazz were sitting at 16-16, clearly one of the most disappointing teams in the NBA. Kirilenko was bitching about his role on the team (again), Gordan Giricek was banished to the locker room by coach Jerry Sloan and people were left wondering "what the heck happened?" (Heck because it's Utah, golly jeepers!!) The Western Conference Finalist were written off as a lottery team in the incredibly deep Western Conference.
Then came the Kyle Korver trade and since then the Jazz have taken off on an incredible 15-2 run. Was it really that simple, trade for a 6-6 small forward with excellent shooting range who's white (it's Utah guys, Mormon law dictates that 85% of the Jazz must be or at least look white), basically all that Giricek was supposed to be? I guess so, because the Jazz look very dangerous in an already deep conference.
But should we be surprised at all? The Jazz have one of the top three point guards in Williams, Carlos Boozer is a top-tier power forward, they're a deep squad and despite the owner's December threats, they still have one of the best head coaches ever, Jerry Sloan. So they are who we thought they were!
So while most of the national media is busy sucking off the 8th seeded Golden State Warriors and their "Bay Area resurgence" (I'm talking about you Marc Stein!), the real resurgence is happening in Salt Lake City. And the Jazz easily handled Tha Dubs last spring and I really doubt an over-the-hill power forward with zero clutch-ability in the post season and playing on one leg will make any difference. And that's *IF* Tha Dubs make the playoffs, and in the west, that's a very big if.
Utah is back!
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