Game 3: (The Predictable Letdown Game)

Poignant Observations from Game 3:

- How does 19 turnovers to 17 assists sound? Eight of those turnovers belonged to Duncan, many of them a result of the Jazz guards coming down for a quick slap at the ball when he made his move to the middle of the court. Reminds me of how the Warriors went after Dirk Nowitzki. Duncan, however, is a low post guy. He needs to establish lower position so that the guards have to go further for that play on the ball, opening up shooters on the perimeter. Dirk, unfortunately, couldn’t get position on a blow up doll.

- Bruce Bowen, for all his defensive capabilities, has trouble guarding quick point guards. That being said, I don’t think a brick wall could stop Deron Williams right now. With Phoenix, the Spurs allowed Nash and Amare to pick them apart, but didn’t give the rest of the team a chance to get a rhythm. Do you start treating Williams and Boozer with the same respect, or do you take your chances with the Jazz role players?

- Francisco Elson seems to be providing less and less every game. His confidence could be shaken, or maybe he just isn’t used to the physicality, but at least 3 rebounds have fallen off his fingers and gone out of bounds in this series alone. Reminds me of the good ol’ days and the butterfingers of Malik Rose (although Elson has yet to master the “8 head fakes under the basket” maneuver).

- Remember that problem the Spurs have in dealing with big, physical small forwards? Matt Harpring does, and he started to go to work down low.

- Seven points and 3-3 from the stripe for Jarron Collins? Seriously? The Jazz bench went for 38 after being beaten around by the Spurs bench in games 1 and 2.

- Only two players on the entire Jazz roster shot under 50%. Only three players on the Spurs team shot over the same mark.

- Another great game by Tony Parker. He carried the team for stretches, especially considering Duncan was plagued by foul trouble. However, the key problem with Parker remains the same: when he is constantly going to the rim, the offense tends to fall into the occasional “watch Tony go” mode.

- Okur (0 points in 21 minutes) and Kirilenko (2 points and only 2 rebounds in 30 minutes) still looked lost. It took Okur about 4 games in the Houston series to get going, and Kirilenko didn’t show up until the second round, so don’t write them off just yet.

Spurs will make the proper adjustments, Duncan will stay out of foul trouble, and they’ll come out angry and efficient in game 4. I fully expect that the Jazz are in trouble. Generally, the Spurs drop one or two just to show the league that they aren’t a team of engineered robots, and it may as well have been game 3. The Jazz were making their shots and became aggressive at the right time, but keeping that tone up for an entire 48 minutes could be tough.