I’ve never been a huge fan of John Hollinger’s totally statistic view of the league, but I have enjoyed the high ranking that the Jazz have had in his statistics-based Power Rankings.
I was even more pleasantly surprised when I read how high he was on the Jazz in his ESPN column.
I’ll let you read the whole column, but I wanted to quote a couple of stats-rich paragraphs about the Jazz which emphasize why Hollinger picks the Jazz to be playing in the NBA Finals:
Utah went 37-12 after Jan. 1, and the number of blowout wins over quality teams is staggering. The Jazz beat the Celtics by 18 in Boston — the Celtics’ worst loss of the season anywhere. The Jazz beat New Orleans by 28, and then again by 22 — two of the Hornets’ three worst defeats of the year. They beat San Antonio by 26 and the Lakers by 24 — for each, their worst loss of the season. They beat Phoenix by 22 and beat Denver by 27 … twice.
Overall, Utah won an astounding 18 games by more than 20 points. In contrast, the Jazz didn’t lose a single game by more than 20 points all season … until Wednesday night in San Antonio. And given their questionable motivation in that game and Deron Williams’ trouble with a bruised buttock, it’s hard for me to hold that against them much when we have 81 games of evidence that they’re the best pick in a compacted Western pack.