Mike Monroe: Deposed Van Gundy cautions: Beware the Jazz Web Posted: 05/19/2007 11:09 PM CDT San Antonio Express-News Unlike the Suns, the Jazz have no MVPs; no first-team All-NBA selections, let alone two; and no first-team All-Defense players. Utah won 51 regular-season games, not 61. The Jazz had the fifth-best record in the Western Conference, not the second-best. Beating the Suns was the hard part, wasn't it? The Western Conference finals should be easier than the grind of the conference semifinal set against the Suns, shouldn't it? "Forget about that," warns Spurs guard Manu Ginobili. "Utah is a really tough team, hard-nosed, good execution. And playing in Utah is really hard." How hard? After the Jazz eliminated the Cinderella Golden State Warriors in their conference semifinal series, Don Nelson congratulated the Utah fans for making Energy Solutions Arena every bit as loud and hostile as Oracle Arena during the Warriors' first-round upset of the Mavericks. Here's the truth about the Jazz: They are much more than disciplined, hard-nosed, hard-working players, which is how they typically are characterized. "It sounds self-serving, but it really isn't," said Jeff Van Gundy, fired on Friday because he could not coach the Rockets past the Jazz in an opening-round Game 7 on his Toyota Center court. "I think Utah is better than a lot of people realize." Van Gundy resumed his between-jobs career as one of broadcasting's best game analysts. Working for ABC and ESPN, he will be watching the team that torpedoed his career as it attempts to puncture the Spurs' hopes of raising another championship banner at the AT&T Center. Nobody has a better feel for how good the Jazz has played this postseason, with the possible exception of Gregg Popovich's mentor, Nelson. "They've got a tremendous point guard," Van Gundy said, "plus a power player that can both overpower smaller players and take bigger players off the dribble; a 3-point shooting center; a max (contract) player who is their fourth-best player and who has great length and ability in many ways to impact the game; and then tremendous bench depth." Van Gundy's Rockets turned Andrei Kirilenko into a crybaby as they took a 2-0 lead in their first-round series, then watched him renew his game and become a defensive pest on the glass, around the basket, in the open floor, even in the backcourt. If Jerry Sloan was Dr. Frankenstein, inserting a fresh, more resolute brain in Kirilenko's cranium, Van Gundy was his unwitting Igor. "He averaged about 15 minutes the first two games and really had zero impact on either game," Van Gundy said of Kirilenko. "Then, in Game 3 through Game 7 he had a huge impact on the series. He started to make a few jump shots, which helped him stretch the defense a little bit more. I thought his play helped tilt the series." The Jazz are well rested, but the Spurs enter the series with a nice helping of manufactured anger, upset that the league buckled under to ABC and scheduled tipoff of Game 1 about 39 hours after the buzzer ended Game 6 of their intense series against the Suns. How tough a task did Popovich and his staff face getting the Spurs prepared for a hugely important game in such short order? "It's difficult," Popovich said. You had to see the fire in Popovich's eyes as he answered the question to understand just how difficult he thinks it is, not to mention how unnecessary he believes it was to schedule such a quick turnaround. Van Gundy, of course, is a Popovich acolyte, unable to ever heap enough praise on the Spurs, while doing everything in his power during his tenure in Houston to emulate Popovich's approach. As much as Van Gundy admires the Jazz, I have no doubt he believes the Spurs will win the series and advance to their fourth NBA Finals. So do I. Spurs, in six games, all of them more difficult than many Spurs fans probably believe possible. http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/basketball/nba/spurs/ stories/MYSA052007.04X.COL.BKNmonroe.spurs.30fc899.html --

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