Salt Lake Tribune (Salt Lake City)
Yes, what doubts can be - the defense of “San Antonio” turned out to be just as they said. “Jazz” tried passages, long-range shots, penetrations on the front. Almost everything was met by the resistance of the Spurs defender.
Remember all the quick break points scored by Jazz vs. Golden State? Only 9 were scored against Spurs. Remember how Carlos Boozer crushed the Warriors under the ring? There was no such luck in Sunday's defeat, and Boozer ended the match with hard-earned 20 points, foul early loaded.
Of course, what else to expect when your opponent is a team led by Tim Duncan and defensive specialist Bruce Bowen ...
Neither Buzer nor Kirilenko got into the game in the first quarter, except for the counted throw, incorrectly blocked by Kirilenko, for the first time out of three in the match.
San Antonio Express-News (San Antonio)
At first, Boozer was compared to Carl Malone, the standard for any black Utah striker. Then, when the Spurs went to the finals of the Western Conference, Boozer found himself on the same level as Tim Duncan. And when someone asked Carlos how he would feel about going to the finals in Cleveland, whose proposal he had once refused the contract, Buzer did not back down. “Have you seen my shoulders? I can take anything! ”
Everything is possible except the current burden. Jazz is not over yet, but if the victory of the Spurs 108: 100 last night proves something, then Sloane is right in saying that it is unfair to compare the young workhorse with Malone and Duncan.
No matter how wide Buzer’s shoulders are, they are not strong enough to push the Spurs out of the way as easily as the Rockits and Warriors. On Sunday morning, the heavy forwards of rivals could still be compared. But in the evening, the theory burst towards the end of the first half, when Buzer twice ran a run when he missed 5 of 6 shots, and two flew so far as if the ball in the air quietly pushed Robert Orry when he was outplayed by a man who could not be called MVP three times final for no reason.
San Antonio Express-News (San Antonio)
Few in the Spurs are as silent as Fabrizio Oberto. The 32-year-old center man from Argentina, professionally performing in Argentina and Spain before signing a contract with San Antonio before the 2005/2006 season, overcame the shyness typical of the first months of the team, when he sometimes could not express his thoughts on new language. But he is still reluctant to give interviews.
When he tried to quietly slip out of the locker room after scoring a record 14 points in the playoffs and making 7 rebounds in the victory over Utah in the first match of the Western Conference finals, he smiled stupidly at the reporter chasing him and then showed himself as if saying: "Who, me?"
Oberto's performance against Carlos Boozer, against whom he defended most of the match, requires recognition. In the decisive first part, he threw and re-sorted All-Star from Utah.
Deseret News (Salt Lake City)
If you ask Jerry Sloan, Jazz is now a team that has run out of excuses. Previously, they were young "jazzmen" who began to play in the playoffs four weeks ago. But, after victories in two series, he considers them veterans. So do not mention inexperience.
In a sense, Sloan is right. Having won the first round, losing 0-2, then knocking out the dangerous and self-confident Golden State, Jazz seems like a club that has been playing in the postseason for many years. On Sunday, in the second half of the match, they even looked like a team of veterans. Losing 19 points, they took on the image of a typical Sloan team, as they say, annoyingly persistent. Do you know these merchants you can't get rid of? This is Jazz.
Associated press
It was assumed that the “San Antonio” would look tired, going to the match 39 hours after the end of a rough and promiscuous series with the Phoenix Suns. Either the Spurs will not have enough concentration, either because they feel like they have passed the most difficult test by the “suns”, or because they will be relaxed about the seeders under the 5th number “Jazz”, especially because that they beat Utah in their last 16 meetings in San Antonio.
Instead, the game turned into an illustration of which team is aiming for the third title in the last five years, and which reached the final of the conference for the first time since 1998, although Deron Williams organized a late spurt that proved that this novice team should be taken seriously.
Prepared by Nikolai TSYNKEVICH