Jazz Finale

[She_Growls]

Williams calls out some teamates
By Michael C. Lewis
The Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated: 05/31/2007 09:34:28 AM MDT

May 31:

SAN ANTONIO - Carlos Boozer and Deron Williams just made the offseason a whole lot more interesting. Stung by a crushing 109-84 loss to the San Antonio Spurs in Game 5 of the NBA's Western Conference finals at the AT&T Center on Wednesday night, the blossoming superstars blasted some of their teammates by questioning their heart and suggesting that some of them need to be traded before next season. "Guys need to figure out what's right here," Williams said, tracing his heart. The second-year point guard strained to play Game 5 on a sprained right foot, and scored a series-low 11 points while San Antonio's Tony Parker took advantage of him defensively. But Williams said "I'm going to play hard, regardless." "I like to win," he said. "I've always been that way. I've always been a competitor. Winning drives me, and there are some guys on this team that are like that. There's some guys who aren't like that."

Boozer agreed, saying that several teammates - presumably center Mehmet Okur, forward Andrei Kirilenko, guard Gordan Giricek and perhaps others who played poorly most of the series - literally already had made vacation plans while veteran guard Derek Fisher was arriving at the game at halftime after returning from New York, where his daughter was having treatment for a rare form of cancer in her eye. "We have some guys already having vacation plans," Boozer said, "and on the other side of the spectrum you see a guy like D-Fish who went across the country to take care of his daughter and fly all the way back just to make it to the game. It's sad to have that.

"You have a couple guys on vacation," he added, "one guy having some real life stuff going on and still trying to make it back and give everything he has. That's a problem and we need to get that fixed this summer. We need guys that are always going to give everything they have. We need guys that have a championship vision. When you have your vacation plans already, that's not a championship vision."

[She_Growls]

JAZZ: No heroics, just disappointment for Fisher
By Michael C. Lewis
The Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated: 05/31/2007 11:48:35 AM MDT


Posted: 11:50 AM- SAN ANTONIO - There were no heroics for the Jazz's Derek Fisher, this time. The veteran guard made it to the arena in time to start the second half of Game 5 of the NBA's Western Conference finals against the San Antonio Spurs, but that was far too late. The Jazz already had fallen far behind in what became a devastating 109-84 loss that ended their season. "I'm disappointed with . . . the way our season has ended," he said. "But to be on the doorstep of having an opportunity to win a championship in basically our first season together in terms of this group, I think it says a lot about our team."

Fisher had left the team after losing Game 4 at home on Monday night to fly to New York with his 11-month-old daughter, who is being treated for a rare form of cancer in her eye. He was expected to return in time for Game 5, but Tatum Fisher's treatment was delayed, forcing Fisher to arrive late. By the time he made it, the Jazz were trailing by 16 points, leaving Fisher with no hope of hitting game-winning shots the way he did when he similarly arrived late for Game 1 of the conference semifinal series against Golden State.

"Actually, the pilots on the plane were kind enough to give me a score in the first quarter, and you know, at that point, I knew ... miracles are possible and I knew that's what we were going to need in order to come back and win this game," he said. "I didn't feel I was that miracle, necessarily, but I felt really as I was driving over here, if we can just figure out a way to get this thing back to 10 by the start of the fourth quarter, we could still have a chance." Didn't happen.

The Jazz trailed by as many as 29 points, and Fisher scored only two points from the free-throw line, missing all three shots he took from the field. On the bright side, Fisher said his daughter was doing well. "We had a successful treatment," he said, "as far as we can tell at this point, and we are just back to day-to-day for a few weeks, just watching and montioring what's going on with her. . . . We have a life-long battle ahead of us, so we're just taking things one day at a time."

LOOKING AHEAD
The Jazz will head into the summer with nearly $59 million committed in player salaries for 2007-08. That puts them above salary cap projections - the cap for this season was $53.135 million - but below the luxury-tax threshold that teams pay a dollar-for-dollar penalty for exceeding. They have three free agents to decide about re-signing in Rafael Araujo, Dee Brown and C.J. Miles. When it comes to signing other teams' free agents, the Jazz could use the standard midlevel exception ($5.215 million last season) available to all teams over the salary cap. The Jazz also have a biannual exception ($1.8 million) they could use in free-agent signings.

[DevinFuture]

The Jazz could stand to move some players to get Willaims and Boozer some more help.

[She_Growls]

JAZZ: Players make up before going their separate ways
By Lya Wodraska
The Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated: 05/31/2007 06:00:45 PM MDT


Posted: 6:01 PM- Between packing up their belongings, meeting with coaches and signing a few last-minute autographs, the Utah Jazz players apparently found time to make up Thursday before going their separate ways for the offseason.

The Jazz, whose season ended with an ugly 109-84 loss to San Antonio in Game 5 of the Western Conference finals Wednesday, said all is well in their ranks after their end-of-the-year team meeting Thursday.

The team as one happy family wasn't the picture given shortly after the loss to the Spurs, when Carlos Boozer and Deron Williams said some of their teammates played like they already were on vacation. The two didn't name names, but it wasn't difficult to figure out who they were alluding to after poor performances by Gordan Giricek, Mehmet Okur and Andrei Kirilenko in the series. By Thursday, tempers had cooled, and so had the harsh criticism. "I like to think this group of guys can do it," Boozer said when asked if changes needed to be made, something he and Williams hinted about Wednesday after the game. "I'm very confident in my teammates and I love each and every one of them. We have the talent, we just need to press the button a bit to get some of them going, but we got where we are with this group, and why wouldn't we be able to go up the mountain?"

Williams, who questioned his teammates' heart after the loss, said the best thing the Jazz could do is move forward and learn from the experience to put themselves into a better position next year. "It's a long season, but guys have got to be prepared for this, and I'm sure they will be next year," he said. What seemed to frustrated Boozer the most was that his teammates didn't play with the same urgency the Spurs did, particularly in the must-win Game 5. "We want to make sure we have the same attention to detail from every guy on the team, and we didn't feel like we had that from everybody," Boozer said. "When you have guys giving everything they've got and you don't feel like you have that from others, it bothers you, but I'm going to tell you - we are going to come back next year better. Whatever happens, guys will be improving, guys will be hungry and hopefully learn from this experience."

Those who most notably faded in the postseason were Giricek, Okur and Kirilenko. After averaging 17.6 points in the regular season, Okur averaged 11.8 in the playoffs and just 7.2 against the Spurs, a team he shot only 28.3 percent against in the five playoff games.
Giricek's rocky season ended with him as a virtual nonfactor against the Spurs, as he averaged just 5.2 points. Giricek said he hadn't heard of the criticism and shrugged it off Thursday to frustrations of the big loss. "Guys were trying to do their best," he said. So was Okur, he said, who admitted his offense was harmed by the defensive effort he gave against the Spurs' inside game. "Those shots wouldn't fall for me, but I tried to do my best on the defensive end," he said. Kirilenko's newly-found game against Golden State disappeared against the Spurs. After averaging 16.2 points and 8.8 rebounds in the Warriors series, he managed just 9.2 points and 4.6 rebounds against the Spurs, a team he has struggled against in recent years. Rather than a lack of effort on Utah's part, Kirilenko said the difference was the Spurs were simply a better team.

"San Antonio forced us to play with a lack of focus," he said. "They took us out of our rhythm and just outplayed us." The experience of a deep playoff run - and not how it ended - will ultimately be more important to the Jazz, guard Derek Fisher said. "We had seasons like this in Los Angeles, some that ended at the hands of the Jazz," Fisher said. "Playing an experienced team, a smart team, you learn from it and you try to make it a goal to play like that. Personally, I don't plan on waiting a few years; I'd like our next opportunity to be next season."

[alby]

Deron Williams will be / is a stud