Welcome May

"A" Game

Is there any doubt who the best player has been in this playoff series so far? There are really only 2 candidates:

• Tracy McGrady
• 23.3 points per game
• 7.8 assists
• 8.5 rebounds
• 38.3% FG
• 15.4% 3-point
• 57.6% FT
• 3 points per 4th quarter
  

• Deron Williams
• 21.8 points per game
• 9 assists
• 1.8 rebounds
• 54.5% FG
• 58.3% 3-point
• 66.7% FT
• 6.8 points per 4th quarter
  

BUT...the most important stat: Deron - 3 wins, Tracy - 1 win.

What was nice about last night's win was that the scoring was balanced, all the starters were in double figures and shot fairly well (aside from Boozer's 3-13, but he made all his FTs.) If we shoot at least 25% on threes we win by 10.

I am still worried about game 5. We've won 3 of 4 overall and 3 in a row (in the playoffs) in Houston, but they've been playing well and we've had 3 close games in a row. I say the winner is the first to 90 points.

And in case you didn't see the game last night, here's one of the highlights...

Refresher Course

I saw this today on CNN.com and thought it would a good opportunity to remind people what the 1st Amendment means.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Seems simple enough, right? The story is about an atheist soldier who is claiming harassment from other soldiers and officers. This guy is out there putting his life on the line, religious beliefs couldn't be any less important. He should be able to worship how he wishes, even if it means not at all. If the tables were turned, if the atheist soldier was harassing Christians, you KNOW that he would be crucified in the media (pun intended.) The 1st Amendment guarantees that citizens can follow any faith they want without punishment and that no religion will be forced upon them; I'm fairly certain that it applies to the Federal Government.

26 years ago...

...I was born. Happy birthday to ME!

Special thanks to my sister who arranged a call from Carlos Boozer earlier. Seriously, I talked to Booz today (well, I use "talked" loosely, it was more like me stammering.) Thanks Booz, good luck on Thu.

[update: TrueHoop blogger Henry Abbott picked up on my story and posted on his blog. This is both awesome and embarrassing.]

Game On

Time for the playoffs! Jazz will start the post-season in Houston (again) tonight, but the biggest difference is that the Jazz are actually favored this time:



Of course, the Jazz won this series last year even though everyone picked the Rockets:


My previous predictions weren't exactly accurate, although I was 1 win from being right about the 3 seed. I'll pick the Jazz (obviously) to win in 6 games, but 5 games wouldn't be shocking at all either.

The Jazz have gotten a lot of love lately from ESPN,

In the second round, I see Utah and the Lakers meeting in what should be the true conference finals...I have Utah beating L.A. in a six-game barn burner that's about as close to a coin-flip as any pairing you can come up with. That sets up Chris Paul versus Deron Williams in the conference finals...so Utah rolls to the Finals in six.

Game on in 5 hours and 15 minutes!

First Timer

It is 5:01 AM and I woke up about 25 minutes ago with my bed shaking. It was as if someone was standing there shaking it violently. It lasted about 10 seconds and I had NO idea what was going on. It was weird enough that I was immediately alert. I walked around to see if anything had fallen off the walls, but nothing had. I turned on the TV and waited until the 5 o'clock news started and, lo and behold, there was a 5.2 earthquake about 250 miles away near the state line. It is officially my first earthquake; kinda scary, but nothing serious.

[update: just felt a brief aftershock at 10:15 AM]

Of Nerdery and Weather

First things first...

My birthday is next Wednesday and I've been checking the weather to see if I'll get some sun. Last week weather.com said 60s and sunny. YAY! Then about 4 days ago it said scattered showers (BOO!) but later that day it said cloudy (better) then back to rain (yargh). Today it says 60s and sunny again. This is torture! Can it please just be warm enough to drive with the windows down and sunny enough to wear my sunglasses?

Next...

I bought a TV tuner card for my computer over the summer. It was fun to play with for a bit, but the software was really really bad. I didn't hardly use it. THEN, after some suggestions from the Roomie, I looked for some new software and found Sage TV. THIS. IS. AWESOME. Not only is it easy to use and find shows (the interface is like Comcast digital cable) but it also works like a DVR so I can record shows right to my computer (if anyone wants to see tonight's episode of The Office, let me know.) It is the perfect companion to a habitual interwebs surfer. I have a fairly large monitor (21" widescreen) so I can have the TV up and a resized, but still pretty big, browser window open. Tasty...

MIA

Sorry I've been quiet for so long. It's pretty clear that my love for the Jazz has completely taken over my life for the time being; I've been following the Jazz religiously and reading the Jazz blogs that I just linked to under "sweet blogs." I've become a regular commenter on a couple of them. If you haven't been following the NBA, the western conference is like the 405 at rush-hour. 6 teams have at least 49 wins and only 2.5 games separate 1st from 6th place. This is significant for the Jazz for several reasons:

1. Only 3 more road games (but they're at New Orleans, Dallas, and the black hole...San Antonio, where we haven't won since 1999)
2. The Jazz lost @ Miami (13-61), @ New York (20-53) and @ Minnesota (TWICE! 19-53). Had they won those games they'd be #1
3. Of the 4 home games remaining, we should win at least 3; and since 3 of those games are against playoff teams (or borderline: Denver) we should make up a game on at least 2 of them.
4. The Jazz are 4th, but that's only because of the silly rule that division winners are guaranteed at least 4th. BUT, that doesn't mean homecourt advantage if the 5th seed has a better record. If the playoffs were seeded only by record with no advantage to division winners, the Jazz would be 6th.
   

Bottomline: I'm nervous about the playoffs. We'll probably play either Phoenix or Houston and neither will be easy.

In other news:
I got a job with the Public Defender one county over. I start in July so I'll have 6 weeks to be lazy as I can be. I'll probably go home for a week or 2 in June and go to the Lake. Luckily it's a paying job so I'll have a little income to blow on video games and Jimmy John's.

Also, I'm pretty tired of school. This is the worst part of the semester because I have to start thinking about finals, and there's still stuff to do before that (like finish the decision for the judge). All in all this semester has been alright, nothing great, but not painful.

I'm looking at next semester's schedule and I'll probably be taking insurance law, secured transactions, and (drumroll please...) the criminal clinic. This is fairly frightening because it is REAL defense of REAL defendants and it's as close to practicing as one can get without passing the bar.

With 6 weeks off after finals, expect more posts and more fun stories.