Will Rose give some troubles to the King?

Will Rose give some troubles to the King? It's a premature question since Bulls have not locked down the No. 8 seed yet. But I do look forward to the Cavaliers-Bulls Series.


We always had an edge over Suns so I do believe we could beat them in the final regular season game and clinch No. 3 seed. I foresee we could walk into Western Conference Semi-Final, easily.

Playoff Starts; Rose Blossoms; and Lakers, See You Soon

Jazz,

- Okur still can't run full speed with the strained hamstring he suffered in Monday's victory over the L.A. Clippers and pegged his chances as "low" of playing this afternoon when the Jazz open their first-round playoff series against the Lakers.

The Jazz have not officially ruled out Okur, but have made contingency plans, with coach Jerry Sloan saying he would start veteran Jarron Collins in Okur's place, much as he did in Tuesday's regular-season finale against the Lakers.

The chance of upsetting Lakers in the first game is a little bit...slimmer?

- Rockets really kicked Trail Blazers ass today. Jazz, could you remind me how we kicked Rockets out in 1st round, for two years in a row?

Others,

- Rose just showed everyone he is the Rookie of the Year. He scored 36 pts, 11 asts in a playoff debut. The mental strength you seldom found in a rookie.

- Asked about his range afterward, James paused. "Uh," he said. "Pretty much unlimited."

LBJ perhaps is the best athletic basketball player ever, but sometimes I thought he should have shown some more humbleness in his words.

Disheartening Buzzer Beater, Hughes Silenced Jazz (9-6) at Home

Jazz Game,

- Hughes got lucky rebound, nice pump-fake thought...

- Our D on Pick-and-Roll needs to be a bit tougher, Derrick Rose often got plenty of spaces after the pick

- To sum up, nothing wrong in the offense in Q4, but the D should be better

- Okur is back!

- Watch what Coach Sloan, CJ and Knight said after the game - link.

Teams struggling with injury will benefit in Season End?

- Look at Spurs, without two killing weapons - Parker and Ginobili, they are initially struggling, and then they do better than most would have expected (including me) in recent games. The recent "surge" of Spurs could be explained by the more playing mins of Roger Mason, a very capable perimeter shooter (and Sixth Man if Spurs is healthy), and rookie George Hill, no one pays much attention on him when Spurs is healthy. Now, the playing opportunity has already sharpened these two players. They can well replace the roles of Finley, Udoka, etc...

- Same applies on Jazz. Our injury situation couldn't be worse at the beginning of the season. D Will, Boozer, AK, Korver, Harpring, Brevin Knight, and Okur has been back to Turkey for a week. This gives opportunity for CJ, Koufos, Price, Millsap and Brewer more playing time, and getting more seasoned. Now, Jazz simply has the deepest bench in the league.

4-0, and counting

Thoughts on Jazz Game,

- as mentioned, deep bench, this time is some clutch plays by Okur and Brewer

- looks like the 19-pound gain by Brewer helped him a lot, makes him have an edge physically over ordinary SGs. With his better and more confident outside shooting, he is (once again) set to be a front-runner in the Most Improved Player Award this season

- Price seems not to be used to the starting PG role, at least his shooting accuracy so far is sub-par.

- If we win the next game vs Thunders, we can celebrate Coach Sloan 1000th Win with Jazz at Home.

- D Will does not need to rush for return in Thunders game (they are Thunders man, we should be able to take them down without D Will), but for this potential memorable game he may consider to play some 20 mins as a warm-up for the road trip?

Other Thoughts of Today,

- ESPN's column writer David Thorpe seconds my support on Rudy Fernandez. He is more than a rookie, and he seems to payback my support by cooling down a bit vs Jazz. Thanks!

- Heats got lucky, Mario Chalmers, very solid rookie, looks like a unsung hero. 9 steals today... Did I mention Heats also have a so-far-alright rookie Beasley?

- Derrick Rose is still keeping his good performance, no matter Bulls win or lose. Another front-runner of Rookie of the Year.

- Last but not least, did the 2OT win by Spurs over Timberwolves convince you that their dynasty is over? You won't believe Spurs needs 2OT (and actually could have lost in 1OT) to beat Timberwolves if I told you in the past few seasons. As of now it is just a 2+1 team (Duncan, Parker, Mason)? You are in doubts? look at the Boxscore and you will know. 78 out of 97 attempts are by them. But credit to Parker, his 55 pts is amazing and his shooting is indeed getting better and more stable year after year.