Utah Jazz are Done.

To begin I must disclose that I am a Jazz fan. I love the Utah Jazz and still hold hope that maybe they can dig themselves out of a 0-2 deficit in the best of seven second round series with the Los Angeles Lakers. The realist in me does not see it happening. Some might say I'm not a real fan or I'm an eternal pessimist. In taking the first two games into consideration I don't see how anyone could think the Jazz still have a chance. There are two main reasons the Jazz will lose the series and quite possibly get swept. Carlos Boozer and Kobe Bryant. In game two Kobe showed why he was awarded the MVP trophy before the beginning of the game. Carlos Boozer has yet to show why he was named to the All star team in two consecutive years. 10 points and 5 rebounds in game 2 is hardly an all star performance. You can bring up the fact that C-Booz was in fould trouble in the first half and so spent most of his time on the bench. That of course is part of the problem. C-Booz is a terrible defender. Many times through out the play offs we have seen Booz often looking the wrong way, he gets cought flat footed and his man gets by him. Some of this in the second round can be attributed to the Lakers ball movement. This Lakers team is better then any other Lakers team in recent memory, that includes the teams that won three championships with Kobe and Shaquile O'Neal.
Game one of the Houston series was probably Carlos' best game. Since then everything has been down hill. He looks tentative to take shots. When he gets the ball in the post he holds it too long and allows the double team to come over instead of making a quick move. It appears that he waits for the double team to come over and then he kicks it back out wanting someone else to shoot the ball causing the Jazz to become a jump shooting team. Carlos is not acting like an all star. He doesn't appear to want to take shots. Many times the media has tried to draw a comparison to Karl Malone. I don't see how they can, not in this life time, not yet anyways. Karl was not a great defender, but he was more aggressive and a smarter defender. When Karl got the ball in the post he wasn't afraid to take it inside, especially early on in his career. Later in his career he did develop a great jump shot which he used. Carlos also has a great jump shot, but it hasn't been falling for him. If it was Karl he would pound it inside. Karl was not afraid to take the game into his hands if need be. I have yet to see Carlos do this.
Part of the problem is the Lakers are defending the pick and roll so well. Derek Fisher has done a great job of staying with D-Will and defending the pick and roll. Many times when this happened in the Stockton to Malone era what did John and Karl do? They resorted to old fashioned pound it inside in the post to the Mailman.
The Jazz always have a chance until the Lakers win four games. Carlos Boozer needs to show up to the games if they are to have any clear chance of winning. The story of the past two games has been one terrible quarter that pins the Jazz in a huge deficit. The other three quarters the Jazz seem able to match the Lakers point for point. Let's hope they can do it, let's hope Carlos Boozer comes to play. He still has yet to prove he is deserving of the all star label. The reality is unless something drastic changes the Jazz's goose is cooked.