ShareThisBy GORDON MONSON
Salt Lake Tribune
Friday, May 11, 2007
Inspiration made an appearance during Wednesday night's Game 2 of the Utah Jazz-Golden State Warriors playoff series. It did more than appear, it blew in alongside a man suffering the unimaginable, and filled up an entire building. Emanating from him, it was felt everywhere, soaking into everything, working its wonders.
Accompanied by good fortune, too.
The Jazz used all of the above, in addition to some clutch play, to beat Golden State, 127-117, in overtime at EnergySolutions Arena.
The biggest of many big moments came when Derek Fisher hit a huge three from the left side at the 1:06 mark of OT to give the Jazz a six-point lead, finally separating two teams that had stuck and stuck and stuck to each other throughout.
If you believe in good karma coming to a deserving soul, this was an occasion for you.
Fisher, fresh off an airplane from New York, where he was with his family, with his young daughter, who is fighting cancer, it was revealed hours earlier, stepped through the tunnel to the court and was inserted directly into the game with just over three minutes left in the third quarter.
The place erupted.
His three-pointer, Fisher's only basket of the night, underscored a heart wrenching story _ one that shorted even buzzard-tough Jerry Sloan for words.
"He's gone through a lot the last few days,"
Sloan said, afterward. "That matters more than the game itself."
It was telling, indeed, that after a tough loss, putting Golden State in an 0-2 hole in the Western Conference semifinals, the Warriors walked over to Fisher, their former teammate, to embrace him on the court.
After that, if anyone cares about the game itself, here are some details: The Jazz outshot the Warriors by percentage, 53 percent to 42. They outrebounded them, 60 to 32. The Jazz had 31 assists to Golden State's 15.
How, then, was this thing so close?
Here's how: the Warriors made 15 threes to the Jazz's seven. And the Jazz suffered 23 turnovers.
At the end, none of those disadvantaged numbers mattered.
What mattered was that the Jazz found a way to fight back from a 112-107 deficit with just under a minute to play in regulation. After a cooler-than-cool shot by Deron Williams to tie the game with 2.3 seconds remaining, Davis missed a jumper.
OT was the result.
It stayed tight _ until Fisher's shot from beyond the arc, and beyond the realm.
The Jazz got help from a ridiculously large number of players. Six of them scored in double figures, including Boozer with 30, Mehmet Okur with 23, Andrei Kirilenko with 20, Deron Williams with 17, and Gordan Giricek and Paul Millsap with 10 each. The boards were spread around, as well.
It was as though all the Jazz were buoyed by Fisher, their suffering teammate, and his rejoining the fold. Taking what he brought them, along with more playoff lessons, from the importance of effort _ their work on the boards, resilience _ repeatedly, the Jazz forged a lead, only to have the Warriors charge back, toughness _ fighting back from their own deficit at the end, and poise _ that quality came in handy over and over.
One of the most fascinating and compelling aspects to the Jazz in these playoffs is their evolution. It might even be a revolution. They are rapidly changing, in a mostly positive direction, from week to week, even game to game, and, in this particular contest, quarter-by-quarter, possession by possession.
And they, themselves, have no clue, not with any exactness, how far that growth will take them, or where its upper limits are set. They seem to sense some kind of destiny, but who knows what sort?
All the Jazz know is they are on their way somewhere, and they were pleased _ and relieved _ to hang on in Game 2. And happy for the company
(Distributed by Scripps-McClatchy Western Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
