Blues For The Jazz, Silver For The Spurs

SURE, PLENTY OF TEAMS ARE MORE EXCITING than the San Antonio Spurs, but name one that's as unexcitable. The fourth-seeded Utah Jazz threw everything they had (even lip moisturizer!) at third-seeded San Antonio in the Western Conference finals, and none of it rattled the Spurs enough to keep them from clinching the best-of-seven series 4-1 en route to their third NBA Finals appearance in five years.

The series' first two games—both San Antonio home victories—saw the Spurs blow big first-half leads and the Jazz mount last-gasp rallies that were ultimately thwarted by San Antonio's clutch shooting. When the Spurs' 19-point first-half advantage dwindled to 95-87 late in the fourth quarter of Game 1, Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Gin�bili came through with timely buckets down the stretch. When San Antonio's 22-point edge shrank to 83-76 late in Game 2, Bruce Bowen broke the Jazz's rhythm with a three from the left corner and another from the right to silence the threat. "Every time we made a run, they made a three," said Deron Williams, who had 26 points and 10 assists in Game 2 and with forward Carlos Boozer was the only Jazzman unbowed by the Spurs. "I didn't like what I saw out there with the guys shaking their heads at each other," added coach Jerry Sloan.

The Jazz's most cohesive effort came in a 109-83 Game 3 rout. Utah pestered Duncan into early foul trouble and got baskets from players other than Williams and Boozer, who had combined for 57.7% of their team's points through the first two games. But Jazz fans' euphoria over the team's only series victory gave way to frustration in Game 4—most of it aimed at Gin�bili and his, ahem, flair for drawing fouls. Eleven of his 16 fourth-quarter points came at the foul line in an ugly-but-effective overall team performance in which the Spurs made more free throws (30) than field goals (28). Contributing to that discrepancy were four technical fouls called against Utah in the fourth. The subsequent ejections of Sloan and Derek Fisher had a charged-up EnergySolutions Arena crowd raining jetsam onto the court in protest. "They threw Carmex at me," Bowen said afterward. "I like Carmex, but I don't like it thrown at me."

Rather than chafe, the unflappable Spurs responded with yet another commanding start in Game 5. They outscored the Jazz by 19 in the first quarter and led by as many as 29 on the way to a 109-84 series-clinching victory and an eventual date in the NBA Finals with the Cleveland Cavaliers.

"Early in the year I knew at some point we would hit a groove," said Spurs forward Michael Finley, who made nine of 19 three-point attempts in the series. Doubtless, San Antonio's 2-0 regular-season series deficit to the Cavaliers might have appeared to put the Spurs at an early disadvantage heading into their fourth Finals. But given San Antonio's collective cool, that wasn't worth getting excited about either.