Wow whats with all the Spurs hate? Dirty? Maybe, but they're not breaking any rules. There is a fine line between breaking and bending and they definitely bend them.
I predicted the Spurs at the beginning of the playoffs and I'm sticking to my guns. They're experienced, play great defensive basketball, and have one of the top 3 big men I have ever seen play basketball in Tim Duncan. I absolutely love watching him play.
The Jazz CAN take them out too (will they? that remains to be seen how they play in this huge situation), they have more offensive firepower than the Suns do. Boozer down low, Okur can play inside and out, Kirilenko can score in stretches, Harpring, Giricek, and Fisher are awesome when they're on, and Deron Williams is elevating himself to ELITE point guard status.
I absolutely love the Jazz and the Boozer/Duncan matchup should be a great one.
But mark my words (I'll eat them if this doesn't happen, but I'm confident in this), the player that's going to have the biggest impact on this series? Memhet Okur. San Antonio has a lot of trouble defending bigs who can play inside and out, and Okur is a guy that fits that mold. If he turns it up, he's going to be scoring 25+ a night with the way Oberto/Duncan will not want to go out and defend him on the perimeter and open up the inside. It's going to open up the inside big time for Boozer and Kirilenko to post up. Popovich is going to need to figure out some crazy defensive scheme for this one.
Can the Jazz win? Absolutely. Will the Jazz win? I'm still sticking with San Antonio. Duncan will step it up big time, I'm taking the Spurs in 7 in a friggin great series.