This

Derek Fisher, who played with the Jazz last season, guarded Williams for the most part and had a career playoff-high six steals to go with five points and six assists.

"I think probably what confused him was how old I am," the 33-year-old Fisher said, laughing. "When he fakes, I don't go for it because I can't react that fast so I end up stealing it from him."

lol

IS SPARTAAAAAAAAA

Haha that's pretty good.

1. For his strength and height he plays the worst out of most 4's, bosh is a more physical presence than boozer.
2. Yes he has a solid, but not great jump shot. He would be a lot more effective if he would put his shoulder down and pound more in the post for position, he doesnt use his strength down low. Several times he allowed odom to push him out and caught the ball 5 -10 feet wider then he should be catching it in the post.
3. I wasnt mentioning kobe offense, obvious if kobe had him on the perimiter it is huge mismatch for boozer. Kobe took him in the post and abused him for a layup.
4. Yes booz has heart, but not for basketball. Not neccesarly a bad thing when it comes to life as there are a ton of things more important than basketball, but it must be frustrating to watch him as a fan.

By the way, using this years performance only, west is much better than boozer for so many reasons.

phil jackson is one of the smartest coaches in the league, but not smarter than sloan. Their genius is different, much different philiosophy so I dont think I can say one is better than the other.

?????????

None of which are recorded in a boxscore?

Might wanna elaborate on these multiple reasons that make him 'much better'.

1.
2.
3.
4. no, basketball is more important than life. sorry.

Are stats the way we judge players now ?

The ways in which a player scores his points or gets his assists make as much of a difference as how many of each he does.

Prime example of this is carmelo anthony. Who on the surface has great stats, but is overall not so great as his stats would say he is.

For the same reason I say west is better than boozer, I also say williams is better than paul.

NBA has gotten over hyped with stats and such and stopped looking at the most important factor which is how players help the team win ball games.

Same reason why kobe got the MVP this year with far worse stats, its because he became a better teamate, things that dont show up in the stats, like help side defense situations, off the ball cuts that open up other players because kobe attracts the defenses attention. Do these things show up in your box score ?

How do you track a stat like presence ? When boozer is in the paint does he intimidate anyone from driving to the paint, I dont think a single person would say they have pulled up for a jumper knowing boozer is in the paint. I believe west has the presence in the paint, which is as much of a factor as how many blocked shots he records in the box score.

If box score was so important than players like, iverson, mcgrady,melo, would be considered top 10 players in the league. which they are clearly not.

Ok, no access to computer during game. I'll honor Bobbo's no negativity plea, even though there mayhave been some during the 2nd quarter in particular.

One thing I take away from this game is how the Jazz dominated the boards. Pau and Odom seemed content playing the role of slashers or very tall swingmen, while the Jazz front court worked harder for position.

I've said this before, but Okur is turning into a GREAT rebounder. Look at the numbers in the playoffs. He's become really good at battling for position, and he hangs onto the ball. He used to be content with just batting the ball like many European players tend to do.

The shooting will pick up, and I really expect the turnovers to decrease, which is really all that needs to improve. The Lakers' transition baskets came on all the missed shots and the turnovers. Once those are decreased, so will the Lakers' scoring.

There, how's that for positive?

Nobody pulls up for West. They would pull up because of Chandler, if anything.

i'm really looking forward to game 2 i really like the jazz.

and look at mehmet okur going for almost 20 and 20! that's a dwight howard type game right there, vs. the lakers no less. now if the jazz can shoot a bit better as a team and maybe play the occasional defense, they should win some games.

edit: just wanted to add that i'm really excited about the jazz. love the players at all positions except for harpring (what a stiff, honestly who said he's gonna score 15 a game?). kirilenko had a great game 1 too, really fun player to watch he can do everything. and LOL at bosh being a greater physical presence than boozer... jesus. i'm a massive bosh fanboy, like one of my favorite players in the league for sure, but there's no way in hell he's a bigger physical presence than carlos boozer.

you realize that stats such as points, rebounds, steals, assists, turnovers, blocks, etc. etc. contribute to a team winning or losing a game, right?

the best shot blockers not only block the most shots but alter the most shots. the best defenders get the most steals because they're always in the mix of things. the best passers get the most assists because they're always contributing to the offense.

I appreciate your taking the time to give a TR, npp. However, I'm going to disagree with a few, all right, most, of your points. 1. Rebounding. I'm not sure I understand how people are attributing the extremely lopsided rebounding to variance and other factors. When a shot misses, both teams have an opportunity to rebound. The Jazz did this, while the Lakers were cherry picking (effective I'll admit) and just not getting it done. The Lakers should do better in this area, but it will be at the expense of fast break points, imo.

2. I'm trying not to whine about officiating, but I do agree there were a lot of touch and phantom fouls called, which forced a lot of players to the bench early. I appreciate your being candid about the officiating, npp.

I wonder why the play-by-play guys always feel they have to mention that Utah leads the league in fouls at least 40 times per game. Is it in their contract? I guess I don't care really, but that type of repetition really does have a persuasive influence on anyone watching a game. For example, some posters have even said that a foul should be called on the Jazz on every play (can't remember who it was), which suggests that this type of propaganda has its effect.

3. Re Boozer and his "girly" fadeaway. That shot looks a lot less girly when it goes in, which it was doing during the season much more often. What Boozer gives them is a guy who has a great touch around the basket, and can hit from up to 18 feet or so. He's never been much of a defender, and I'm not sure what you expect to happen when he's guarding Kobe, lol. I disagree that he doesn't care. He's just not playing that well right now, and has some limitations that he can't change.

4. The Jazz missed practically all their outside shots, which they just do sometimes, especially on the road (e.g. games 4 & 5 vs. the Rockets). The Lakers did close out pretty well, but those shots are very makeable. Harpring shortarming his shots was driving me nuts.

Naturally, I disagree with you on your game 2 prediction!

I wish he didn't have such large posts; I can't even bother to make fun of him.

EDIT: Boozer shoots 44.7% on jumpers.

I haven't read this entire thread, but after yesterday's game, the thing (as a Jazz fan) that stood out was the poor quality of Utah's interior D. I say Lakers in seven games, and that's as a die-hard Jazz fan and someone who hates Kobe with the heat of a thousand suns.

This is true. We have stats to count for this, like TO% and TS%.
Um... What planet do you live on? Cp3 is a better rebounder, a better passer, turns the ball over less, and is a better defender?
No, because they're pretty damn negligible. The reason the Lakers get so many easy buckets compared to last year is not Kobe. It's PAU, along with the development of all the young guys the Lakers have (Farmar, Turiaf, Bynum, Vujacic).
Admittedly, this is pretty difficult. Defense counts and is hard to adjust for. That said, y'know, West isn't a great defender.
Because you use crappy stats. There are no good stats that put guys like Iverson, McGrady or Melo in the top 10 players in the league.

A-

Ok I'll keep posts shorter so more people can lake fun of me.

Good post about okur he's turning into a beast of a player both inside an out

I will retract the Williams better than Paul statement and say they are equals in differnt systems that causes the difference in stats in Orleans Paul is in charge of making the offense run similiar to what Nash does in phoenix which leads to more pints and assists for him but Utah has more of a systematic ball movement philosophy d will is setting as many screens on offense as he is getting set for him. He gets more steals because he can gamble more and has chandler behind him to erase his mistakes. All the talent in the world can't make up for a bad jumper and pauls jumpshot is bad

According to 82 games, Paul and Williams average the same EFG% on jumpshot.
And Lebron James shot 10% worse than both of them, so talent can make up for a bad jump shot.

Nope wrong. Look at his #'s from AS break on.

chris paul shot better from the field and from 3 than kobe this year.

um...you seen them play yet this year? that has been the glaring fault with an otherwise great team all season

1. Kobe Bryant GREATLY GREATLY facilitated this "development" of their young guys, thats a huge reason why he got MVP. He showed confidence in them and they became more confident in themselves.


2. Thats it.

Utah only had 13 turnovers........its not that many......Pretty average amount of turnovers really, not sure waht all the discussion about Utah's TO's is to be honest-- so they had 7 in the 2nd quarter, but the rest of the game they were fine, and overall during a typical game they had a TO # that is pretty normal.

Or maybe it's because all of those guys are young, and they improve because young players improve? Remember, Kobe was ready to throw those guys under the bus at the beginning of the year. Last year, he wanted to trade Bynum for Kidd (which would've been BRILLIANT, IMO).

Of course, the media thinking that is part of the reason Kobe won MVP, but... I mean, the media gave Steve Nash 2 MVP awards.