"If the Spurs don't win game-4, it will be a waste of effort, time, and energy." --Me, Sunday.
Game-4 in Salt Lake City saw a sloppy shooting performance by both teams. Then Manu, Jack, and Neal scored 7-straight to take the early 1st-Q lead 22-19. And then our 2nd-Q lead would swell to 12, before the Jazz closed it to 8. At halftime it was 50-42, Spurs.
The 3rd-Q was pretty close throughout, as Devin Harris continued what he began with 9 first-half points. He has been mostly non-existent in this series, though. Derrick Favors started this one, and rightfully so, as he, too, was torching us. Then Manu hit two straight threes - his first two of this this series! Up 10, 68-58 at the end of 3-Qs, Manu, Splitter, and Green continued to pour it on - outscoring the Jazz 15-0 for 8:08 (including the end of the 3rd-Q and the first 7+ minutes of the 4th-Q). Jefferson would finally put a halt to it, but we were then up by 21, 81-60, with 6:00 left. So the Spurs relaxed. Players took their foot off the gas, and thought the Jazz were in "white flag" mode.
The Jazz played inspired b-ball from then on, and forced Pop to bring back Tony & Timmy. But it didn't help. It appeared we had already put the game on "coast". Jefferson, Harris, and company would dominate us for 5 minutes, and come within 4! It's the 1st time we've been challenged in weeks, here. But a critical Jazz turnover with :49 left led to the clinching lay-up by Manu , and then a few fouls & FTs later, the game was ours, but barely. The 87-81 Spurs WIN marks our 14th straight. We close-out Utah, and await the winner of Memphis and the Clippers. Here's the boxscore, and here's ESPN's recap.. Bench scoring: Spurs 56, Jazz 10. Jazz 3-point shooting: 0-13.
Yeah it's a sweep, as noted in my post last night, but the last two games were not pretty by any means! We now get some rest, and more importantly, some practice time, and then - bring them on. Whoever it is. Memphis might just pull it out.
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