The Utah Jazz were out in force tonight to slow down the wild Warriors and take a 3-1 series lead in the Western Conference semi-finals.  The Jazz were successful in slowing down and controlling the pace of the game as they handed the Warriors their first home loss of the post-season.  To me the 4th quarter was the defining quarter for the Jazz, highlighted by only 1 turnover and an all-star performance by Derek Fisher.  The Jazz have had a real problem with committing turnovers in all the games of this series and when they finally did things right, as the did in the 4th, then they easily dominated the Warriors.

 

The Jazz also did an excellent job of slowing the game down and taking the Warriors out of their run and shoot offense.  It was the game Utah wanted to play.  And now we've got the opportunity to close it out at home on Tuesday.  If the Jazz can keep the turnovers down and play defense like they did tonight then I think they should be able to easily close out the series on Tuesday.  Oh, and if our players can stop from breathing on the Warriors, because that apparently is a foul, then that will help as well.

 

It's been a long time since we had something to be excited about for the Jazz in the post season and if we can close this series out then it's on to the Wester Conference finals (and what might as well be the NBA finals) against either Phoenix or San Antonio, both of which would be very difficult. But we'll worry about that when we get there. One thing's for sure, I don't think anyone but the Jazz faithful thought we'd get this far in the playoffs, most everyone was certain the series would be tied 2-2 coming back to Utah. I think that there will still be some big surprises and a lot of heads will be turned before the playoffs are over.

 

Go Jazz!

 

For more info read the Yahoo game summary.