Phoenix is, er, Moving Up In The World

The Suns, previously scorned as a lottery consignee not worthy of Steve Nash's talents, are now 23-22 after defeating Houston by 13 tonight. The Suns have won 11 of 14 games and are now just 1 win back of Houston, which holds the 8th playoff position in the Western Conference. Lost earlier in the season, Coach Alvin Gentry has whipped his charges into shape by sitting free-agent disappointments from 2010 (Warrick, Childress), running his offense around pick-and-rolls with Marcin Gortat, and letting Jared Dudley bother opponents at both ends. Gentry, like Gregg Popovich in South Texas, wisely sits his older players at opportune moments; Nash and Grant Hill did not touch the floor last week in a road game against the Clippers, the middle frame of a back-to-back-to-back set. Stupendously, the Suns found a way to win the game anyway. And for Phoenix owner Robert Sarver, who values financial performance a bit more than other owners who crave a championship, a fringe playoff contender with Steve Nash on the roster puts more butts in seats than Sebastian Telfair and Markieff Morris would.

But Phoenix is not the only Western team to defy expectations. Utah, which was, following the February 2011 trade of Deron Williams, billed as a rebuilding team featuring four rookies or second-year players, also sits at 23-22 and will likely battle until late April for that final playoff spot. The Jazz's decision to sign veteran free agents Raja Bell and Josh Howard, and not to trade veterans Al Jefferson, Paul Millsap, and Devin Harris, looked questionable in the frenzied fortnight of roster building last December after the lockout. With so much young talent, Utah need not worry so much about winning games, went the thinking. But the strategy has paid off: Hayward, Favors, Burks, and Kanter are beginning to thrive, and occasional (but not daily) starts have helped them ease into stardom. Better to develop them in a winning culture than a Bobcats-like woebegone culture. And the flip side of amassing FOUR lottery picks is that more top young talent would do more harm than good, messing with floor chemistry and team economics. So Utah has no need to "tank" this season. And with the NCAA men's basketball tournament running this month, let us not forget that Hayward came within a few centimeters of leading his team to the national championship two years ago. That guy is really good!

Utah vs. Chicago '98

Last night NBATV, perhaps trying to counter the lure of live March Madness (although NBATV is run by Turner, which is broadcasting NCAA tournament games, so perhaps my conjecture is wrong), showed the original "Jordan Pushed Off" game, Chicago vs. Utah in Game 6 of the 1998 NBA Finals.

I noticed a few things in this game that had slipped from my memory:

Dennis Rodman was an unbelievable rebounder, bounding multiple body lengths to grab caroms.

Scottie Pippen could barely walk in this game, yet delivered a number of clutch shots.

Michael Jordan started the fourth quarter shooting 2 for 8. He kept shooting, though, and hit two mid-range buckets in the final minute of the game to hand his team the win.

Utah won 62 games and made the Finals with a motley collection of role players including Antoine Carr, Howard Eisley, and Shandon Anderson, all of whom played crunch-time minutes. That is all from coaching.

Isiah Thomas was a credible TV commentator. Bob Costas, though, should stick to hosting the Olympics.

Celtics Creaming Opponents

Yesterday I had the pleasure of watching the Jazz vs. Celtics at the TD Banknorth Garden.



As a ticket purchaser, the game was quite uninteresting. There was no drama, and the win was effortless for the Celts. Wish I had gotten tickets to a better game.

As a Celts fan, the win was amazing. The Celts didn't even break a sweat in surgically dismantling the Jazz, who I thought were a good team. It seems like the turnovers came to get them in the end, but still with a starting lineup of Okur, Williams, Boozer, Brewer, and AK, the Jazz have no excuses to get destroyed as they did.

Three points:

1) The Celts look incredibly balanced. Offensive production from every starter, and from those off the bench. Despite my qualms that Rasheed was slowly evolving into an Antoine Walker jack-up-threes-even-though-I-am-almost-7-feet-tall-and-should-be-posting-up clone, he didn't look half bad (at least his play wasn't half bad; not sure what to say about that growing gut.)

I also have to give him some credit as he appeared more than comfortable coming off the bench (contrast: Allen Iverson). Plus he had some nice new tats.

2) I didn't appreciate how good Paul Millsap could potentially be until seeing him live. If I were a betting man, the Jazz should bet their future on him over Carlos Boozer.

3) I was reminded by one of my friends at the game about some of the well known AK-47 stories. The one I had forgotten was when AK started crying about not getting enough minutes. My friend claimed that AK-47 had the highest salary to skill ratio of any player in the league. Kenyon Martin has a good claim to that list as well.