SLC Dunk's Yucca Man previews the series:
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I’m really excited about the Denver series
Of course, for likelihood of a deep playoff run I’d rather they had homecourt and played Portland the 1st round. But besides that matchup, there wasn’t a single possibility that made me believe "yeah, the Jazz should dominate that series." OKC scared me. Phoenix scared me. Lakers would have been awful. San Antonio is going to beat whoever they play in the 1st round. Mavs and players fans should be petrified. Actually, the only other team that I would have liked was the Mavs, and that wasn’t happening.
So, if I can’t have Portland and homecourt advantage, there’s nobody I’d rather play than Denver.
Why?
Because the teams don’t really like each other that much. Because the Jazzmen are pissed they lost the season series to them, which cost us homecourt. Because the Nuggets are pissed they shared the division chapionship with a team they beat 3 out of 4 times. Because Deron likes to stick it to other top-tier PG’s. Because Melo still needs to prove that he’s a superstar.
Because the fans don’t like each other very much. Because they think our guys are thugs. Because we think K-Mart’s a thug, that J.R. Smith is a basket case, that Chauncey’s overrated, that Birdman’s an alien, and Melo’s the lamest, most infantile "superstar" in the league.
Because Denver’s convinced they’re a better version of SLC. Because we believe SLC’s a much better version of Denver. Because Denver’s jealous that they’ve never had the Olympics. Because we’ve never gotten over the potshots their newspapers wrote about our Olympics. Because they know how much we love their Broncos and Rockies, since our poor city’s not notable enough to even have either an NFL or MLB team. We don’t even get an NHL team. Because we hate the freaking Broncos and don’t give a horse’s crap about the Rockies.
I think it’s going to be a throwback, mid-80’s style series with hard fouls (please, Jazz font line, make it HARD fouls), pissed off players, little scuffles, thrown elbows, stuck-out-knees, and ruthlessly hostile crowds.
You don’t like basketball if you’re not excited for what this series is going to be like.
Unless the Jazz lay a series-long egg. Which they might.
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