| It All Comes Down to Who Has Home Court Advantage! |
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| Written by Ryan.W | |
| Monday, 12 May 2008 | |
 In every sport whether it be football, baseball, soccer or basketball, every player loves to play at home. Everyone in the stadium or arena cheering just for you and booing the other team off the court, being so loud that the visiting team finds it hard to think, react or just play their game. This has been no more apparent then for whatever team steps foot into the Utah Jazz’s house at the Energy Solutions Center.
The Energy Solutions Center has proved over the years to be one of the toughest places to play for any visiting team in the NBA (besides MJ’s Bulls back in the day), the fans so fanatical and get so damn loud, you can’t help but get out of your game plan.Coming into this series against the Los Angeles Lakers the Jazz were coming off a tough series against Tracy McGrady and the Houston Rockets (without Yao Ming) which went 7 games. This series was the perfect example of the benefit of home court advantage (which the Jazz had) because all the wins in this series were won by the home team. The 3 times the Jazz went to Houston the Rockets prevailed and all 4 games in Utah the Jazz won which resulted in them winning the series to advantage to the semis against the Lakers. It seems as though this trend with the Jazz is continuing, even though the Lakers have home court advantage the Jazz are still dominating on their home floor. First Kobe Bryant and the Lakers manhandled Deron Williams, Carlos Boozer and the Jazz in Los Angeles, beating Utah in convincing fashion, but once the Jazz got back home, the series completely changed. I still believe the Lakers are in the driver’s seat in this series because they made the Jazz really work for the two wins they got at home with the game 4 going into overtime, but I would have to say the team that gets a win in the other’s house will win the series. The two guys that have been the X-factors in this series have been point guard Deron Williams of the Jazz and of course, Kobe Bryant of the Lakers. In Utah, Deron Williams is virtually unstoppable! He just makes smart plays over and over again, he can hurt you from beyond the arc, slashing in the middle and dishing to his teammates every night. Neither the Lakers, nor any other team in the league for that matter have been able to find answer for this kid. He plays with the consistency of a veteran, hitting clutch shots and he always seems to make the right play for the Jazz. If the Jazz manage to pull the upset against the Lakers and if the Hornets are able to knockout the defending champion Spurs, the Chris Paul versus Deron Williams match up will be one to remember. Kobe Bryant on the other hand can play at the highest level no matter where he is and he has proved that during his 12 year NBA career and throughout these playoffs thus far by averaging a little over 35 points a game and getting his teammates involved always dishing to the open man. Kobe has the unique ability, much like MJ, to score literally at will (if he is healthy). The MVP can pull up from anywhere on the floor, drive pass any defender and has the knack to set up his teammates for open looks off the opponents double teams. One big reason for the Jazz taking game 4 was Kobe Bryant bad back. Only a couple minutes into game 4, Kobe went up for a turn around jumper on Utah’s Ronny Brewer in which he missed badly and ended up twisting his back bad enough to be in obvious pain for the rest of the game, losing a step on his speed towards the basket and struggling with his shot. Game 5 isn’t until Wednesday which gives Kobe a good 2 day rest, but if he can’t bounce back from this injury, the Lakers could be in trouble and in desperate need for Lamar Odom (had an awesome game by the way) and Pau Gasol to step it up big time.         Set as favorite Bookmark Comments
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