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Jazz Pwned & Trade Rumor?
November 3, 2007
It’s official. The Utah Jazz is officially our bitch. We took them to town in the playoffs last year, beat the in the first game of the season, and tonight after a slow first half, came alive and routed the Jazz. With this win we’re now 3-0, top in our division and tied with the Spurs and Mavericks at 3-0.
As its been usual this season, the Warriors fell behind early and the back-door cut as absolutely killing the team. Deron Williams was incredibly accurate with his passing, and by the end of the first half had a mind boggling 13 assists already. The forwards Jackson and Harrington got into trouble with fouls again; it seemed like every time they contested a shot, a whistle was blown. I couldn’t stand even watching some of it because the referring was so bad. The first half ended with Utah up 11 points, 64-53. Boozer led the Jazz with 10 points, while Williams had his ridiculous 13 assists. Watching Williams hook up with Boozer one after another reminded me of the Stockton-Malone combination. Brandan Wright was pretty much again the only bright spot for the Warriors, having 14 points and 5 boards at the break. The difference was in the free throw shooting, which the Jazz had a 5 shot advantage, they also hit one more three-pointer and field goals.
The Warriors followed their pattern though this season by coming out of the second half on fire. The first two possessions for the Jazz were disastrous as Golden State swarmed them, forcing two shot-clock violations in a row and causing Jerry Sloan to call timeout. Opposite of these two shot-clock violations for the Jazz were two consecutive alley-hoops by the Warriors. One from Davis to Biedrins, and another from Jackson to Davis. Eventually the lead began to slowly chip away.
The Warriors showed a couple different defenses, like they started the half with a full-court press, then they played several variations of zone, as well as a half-court trap. Biedrins actually gave the Warriors their first lead with 3:01 left in the 3rd with a 17 foot jumper, putting the score at 82-81, but the Jazz took the lead back right away and finished the quarter still ahead 89-85.
For the 4th quarter it was just mayhem for the Jazz, with the Williams-Boozer connection shut down by the zone and despite the flopping and fouling by Kyle Korver and Mehmet Okur, the Warriors ran away. I mean, what better is there than this? Drinking beer, eating Chinese food, and just watching the Jazz get dismantled by the Warriors. Matt Barnes came in and hit two jumpers from the right corner, while Brandan Wright was getting into the lane at will, and Baron picked up his 10th assist at the 2:31 minute. After that it was pretty much smooth sailing, and we cruised to the 115-107 win. I have to say, that look of absolute shock at the end of the game on Boozer and William’s face, I thrive on it, and it fuels me. Suck it Jazz, you’re our bitch now.
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On a side note, my friend who works for the Warriors as a ball-boy gave me a call after the game. He said he overheard something about a possible three-team trade that will involve Yi Jianlian. General Manager Chris Mullin is a major believer in Yi and other various members of the Golden State Warriors staff have all expressed major interest in bringing Yi to the Bay. You can bet they were pissed off in the Warriors war room this past June when the Bucks took Yi at #6 despite Yi's agent preventing the Bucks from working out Yi. We weren't able to swing a trade for him on draft night either, so to hear something this soon into the season is promising.
So I did a bit more research on this board called RealGM then some basketball game forum called NLSC (which has some decent NBA discussion), and found the rumor verified. Supposedly the teams involved will be
Golden State,
New Jersey Nets, and the
Milwaukee Bucks. It's suppose to involve Austin Croshere, Richard Jefferson, Yi, and Bobby Simmons. It goes something like this:
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Golden State gets: Yi Jianlian
Milwaukee gets: Richard Jefferson, 2008 & 2009 draft picks from GS
New Jersey gets: Bobby Simmons, Austin Croshere[/align]
I'm psyched about this possible trade. We bay fans get rid of that ugly and slow Croshere, and instead we pick up Yi, whose probably one of the most athletic rookie forwards this season, and this time he'll actually be in a market where he will be happy, and naturally thrive in. We do unload two second round picks to the Bucks, but there whatever, they are just second round picks. The Bucks get Jefferson, whose a steal from the Nets in my opinion, he'll finally give some athleticism to Milwaukee and maybe now Michael Redd will pass the ball instead of jacking up 30 jumpers a game.
Overall I am very ecstatic about this trade. Seriously I hope it goes through. In fact ESPN just talked about the proposed trade a minute ago. Barring any implications with salary cap and whatnot it should work and hopefully in a day or two we'll see Yi in a Warriors jersey.
This is making me want to start one of my own. 
