[Izulde]

Exciting news from the D-League playoffs, where the Timberjacks clobbered the Sea Dogs 93-77 despite a heroic 30 points from Andrew Clay, a 27 year old former 1st round pick of the Spurs (23rd overall in 2010 draft). Clay for some reason is listed as having 0 years of experience, even though he played very sparingly for the Spurs and Hawks from 2010-2014 and also played in the D-League each season. Lindsey Williamson did well in the victory: 6/12 for 12 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals and a block. So the Timberjacks go on to the conference championship.

Utah's an interesting opponent. They've had some measure of success, making the playoffs in 2007, 2009 (won the Northwest Division), 2013 and this season, but as I can't find my playoff records, I'm not sure how far they've advanced each year. (OOC Note to Self: Suggest Playoff History in Alamanac)

We've never played them in the postseason since I've been here, unlike the Mavericks, who we would've faced had the Jazz lost.

But enough of me rambling. I'll let my favorite press do the talking.

"And so the Nuggets will have to continue fighting through its own division on their quest for renewed glory. The Jazz look impressive in sweeping Dallas and Utah's said to have a chip on its shoulder after all the criticism they received for letting David Anyan go in free agency.

Utah also looked good in the regular season against Denver, but most of their success was when Kyle Smith still wore a Nuggets uniform. Denver's restored team chemistry and strong play since then mean that a much closer look at the matchups are required.

Point Guard
Brandon Brooks vs. A.J. Dunkley
Brooks was incredible in the opening series, exorcising the ghosts of his other, lone playoff series with Portland by averaging 17.4 points, 8.8 assists, 4.2 rebounds and 2 steals. He and Mateen Yeaton have an instinctual understanding and awareness of each other on the court and have become the best backcourt in the West. GM Jestor said in an interview before the first game of the postseason that had he still been the Knicks GM in 2008, he would've passed on Ronny Smith and Kelvin Moody to take Brooks. Now that Jestor has his man, we're starting to see why.

Dunkley is a phenomenal passer with good ballhandling and terrific ball-stealing abilities. 23 years old, taken by the Jazz with the 9th pick in the 2011 draft, he's been improving his offensive game and production each year and could be one of the better PGs in the league in another year or two. The weak spot is his medicore defense. Against a player as hot as Brooks, that spells trouble. Dunkley averaged 14.5 points and 6.8 assists against the Mavericks.

Advantage: Denver

Shooting Guard
Mateen Yeaton vs. Deron Williams
Another postseason demon banisher, Yeaton averaged 23.6 points, 4.4 rebounds, 1.2 steals and 1.6 blocks against Minnesota and appears to have finally hurdled the mountain in his path. Or was it merely a function of having a pedestrian defender guarding him in the opening round?

There'll be a partial answer as Williams is a little bit better than average, but not necessarily good defender. What Williams -does- bring is excellent passing skills and a good shot, along with a 20.4 points per game in the regular season, the first time in his career he's reached the hallowed 20 point average mark. However, he wasn't very involved against Dallas, averaging 16.5 points, 4.8 assists and 2 steals. If the Jazz want to win, Deron's going to have to step it up in scoring, a task that may be a tall order, as he, like Monta Ellis in the last round, surrenders 5 inches to Yeaton.

Advantage: Denver

Small Forward
Patrick Pastner vs. Andrei Kirilenko
Pastner averaged 12.8 points, 6 rebounds, 3.8 assists, 1.4 steals and a block versus Minnesota, precisely the kind of all-around game the Nuggets anticipate from him, although Denver would like to see more points out of him and a better shooting percentage than 39.3.

That's not likely to happen against 6-time Defensive Player of the Year Kirilenko, who's had a surprising outpouring of offense in averaging 16.3 points, 7 rebounds, 1.3 steals and 3.3 blocks against Dirk Nowitzki of the Mavericks. The Russian's going to make Pastner's life hell and shut down one of Denver's bigger offensive weapons.

Advantage: Utah

Power Forward
Emeka Okafor vs. Carlos Boozer
Okafor contributed just 6.2 points a game against Minnesota, but as we've said before, his role is defense and rebounding and he did a good job of that in the opening series, averaging 8.2 rebounds, 1.4 steals and 2 blocks against Timberwolf superstar Kelvin Moody.

He'll have another offensive powerhouse to shut down in Boozer, who's a fantastic shooter and a very good rebounder, averaging a team-high 21.8 points and 12.5 rebounds in the Dallas series. That said, Boozer is turnover-prone and, like Williams, has only slightly above average defense and any extra offense Denver can generate out of Okafor is that much better for the Nuggets, especially with Pastner liable to be shut down.

Advantage: Utah

Center
Dan Jacobson vs. Andris Biedrins[/u]
For all Jacobson's heralded defense and shotblocking abilities, the undersized Kyle Jordan made him look downright silly at several points during the opening round. However, Jacobson did still see his way through to 12.4 points, 9 rebounds and 1.8 blocks in the first series. But there's now lingering questions about whether Jacobson can be a productive postseason player, especially since these totals represent career highs.

Biedrins was once a marquee signing for the Nuggets, but he was shipped off two months into the season to the Jazz for Mehmet Okur and Utah's 2014 2nd round pick. He's got great rebounding skills, but he's been a terrible disappointment offensively, has subpar ballhandling and is another one of Utah's slightly above average, but not truly good defenders. The only reason Biedrins averaged 11 points, 10.5 rebounds, a steal and 2.3 blocks against Dallas (and indeed, the only reason Utah swept the series), was because Jonte Jones broke his finger in the opening game. All of that said, Andris does have the size at 7', 240 lbs to go toe-to-toe with Jacobson.

Advantage: Denver

Bench
It's hard to get a read on the Nuggets reserves because of the terrific defenders Minnesota had on their bench, but Kirk Hinrich averaged 7 points a game and Phillip Gill made his presence felt with 6.8 points and 6.4 rebounds, throwing in close to a block a game besides.

At 36, Mike Bibby isn't the textbook PG he once was. But what he is, is an explosive 6th man the equally offensively of fellow aging PG Kirk Hinrich. He averaged 11.8 points and 4.5 assists versus Dallas and will play a key role in this series as well. Unfortunately for Utah, he's the only bench player really worthy of mention.

Advantage: Denver

Final Thoughts
On paper, this is looking like a possible Denver sweep. But Andrei Kirilenko will singlehandedly create major hassles for the Nuggets offensive scheme and Deron Williams, a far more accomplished player than Monta Ellis, should have a dynamite series against the average defender himself Mateen Yeaton. It won't be a sweep, but in the end, Denver's depth gives them the edge.
Prediction: Denver in 6

At least we're still favored.

Game One
After our opening loss against Minnesota, I've learned to take nothing for granted. It was a pretty good, pretty scrappy game. Utah got 10 points and 20 rebounds out of Andris Biedrins, 20 points and 10 assists out of A.J. Dunkley and 15 bench points from Mike Bibby. But it wasn't enough, as Mateen Yeaton scored 26, Emeka Okafor bulldozed his way to 13 points and 10 rebounds and Kirk Hinrich countered Bibby with 16 bench points of his own, netting us a comfortable win.
Final - Utah 81 Denver 97[/i]

Game Two
This is the best defensive game we've played all season, holding the Jazz to 31.2% shooting. Andris Biedrins was the lone Utah highlight with 12 points and 16 rebounds and was more than matched by Mateen Yeaton's 27 points, 4 assists, 4 rebounds, 5 blocks and 4 steals, to say nothing of 21 points and 11 rebounds from Emeka Okafor. Utah's definitely looking drained out there as we take the easy 2-0 lead.
Final - Utah 72 Denver 95

Game Three
If the Jazz are going to get back in this, they need to show some life here. A victory is extremely important yes, but far more critical than even that is to illustrate some ability to even keep a game close before their home crowd. Deron Williams puts up 26 points, A.J. Dunkley scores 20 and Carlos Boozer gets 17 points and 11 rebounds, but even the revival of their top three players isn't enough, as Emeka Okafor continues his amazing series with 17 points and 16 rebounds, Mateen Yeaton scores 21 and we get enough points from everyone else, including a nice 19 from Patrick Pastner to win by a surprisingly large margin and push the Jazz to the edge of elimination.
Final - Denver 98 Utah 84

Game Four
If the Jazz play out of their minds, they can avoid the sweep, but honestly, with as flat as they've looked all series, I don't see that happening. And it doesn't, as we not only hold Utah to 37.2% shooting, but Mateen Yeaton has an absolutely amazing 41 points to deliver the big knockout blow. Dan Jacobson finally stepped up with 12 points and 16 rebounds and Kirk Hinrich topped it off with 10 bench points. The Jazz starters were just terrible, so much so that two bench players were the only, lonely Utah highlights; Mike Bibby with 13 points in 8 minutes and Taj Gray with 10 points.

It's a satisfying sweep, although I'm a little concerned that Brandon Brooks didn't have a breakout game and our bench didn't dominate nearly as much as I thought it would. On the other hand, Mateen Yeaton looks positively inspired out there and Emeka Okafor's got that fire in his eyes as well.

San Antonio beats the Rockets in 5 games, setting up the Western Conference final matchup I most didn't want outside of the Lakers. We've beaten the Spurs in the playoffs before, but they're always hell to play against.

Detroit pulls off a major stunner in upsetting the Heat in 5 games as well. Although technically not an upset due to seeding, with the Pistons the #2 team, betting was heavy on Miami due to Dwayne Wade and Nigel Abel on the Heat.

But that's nothing compared to the buzz generated by the Raptors/Bucks series.

Milwaukee shocked everyone by jumping out to a 3-1 series lead on Toronto. The Raptors responded as I thought they would, clawing their way back to force a Game 7.

But then the Bucks, largely a collection of unsung heroes, hold Greg Oden to just 3 points and frustrate the Raptors all night in an incredible, home-crowd embarassing, 94-82 victory to pull off the playoffs' biggest upset.

Chris Bosh went on such a tirade in an interview after the game (He scored 10 points off the bench), that the betting pool is officially open as to where he'll end up next season. He's been complaining bitterly all year about being forced to the 6th man role and there are rumors that his unhappiness about David Anyan's arrrival and disruption of the Raptor lineup wrecked Toronto's chemistry.

Ironically enough, Anyan was the only Raptor to reach 20 points in Game 7, scoring 23 and grabbing 9 rebounds. On the other hand, he turned the ball over 5 times.

It's going to be one of hell of an East Conference Finals matchup betweeen the two Central teams.