As long as Jerry Sloan has been the coach, the Jazz have had the most physical and probably the dirtiest team in the league. You can't have it both ways Jazz fans.

During the regular season, the Jazz committed 24 fouls per game (most in the league), to the Lakers 20.6. About 3.5 more fouls per game. In this series, the Jazz have committed 30 fouls per game to the Lakers 24. So yeah, the Jazz have a bigger discrepency in the playoffs.

What I haven't seen anyone mention is that the Jazz have committed oodles of 'stop-the-clock' fouls down the stretch in the games they lost.

So, all the Jazz whiners got me to countin'...

The Jazz have been called for 16 fouls in the last two minutes of their losses, compared to seven in two losses for the Lakers. I understand it's mostly due the nature of each team's losses.

But, if you adjust the total number of fouls by subtracting the stop-the-clock fouls, the Jazz average 27 and the Lakers 23. Hmm, both teams are about 3 fouls per game over their average.

Were the Jazz fans crying all year long about how many fouls they've been called for? How about for the last 20 years when I'm sure they've always been at the top (or bottom) of the league in fouls called. I doubt it.

LINK

Boozer has to be the king of pushoffs. Watch the game and see him doing it every single time. He's three inches shorter than Lamar (4-5 shorter than Gasol), and has shorter arms (unlike an average/undersized PF like Brand, who has long arms), so he has to push off in order to get boards. Sucks that it's against the rules. Gasol pushed off on Okur on that one possession, but it certainly wasn't the first uncalled pushoff in the game. As for the Lakers getting more FTs... they really only had like 6-8 more until the Jazz began to intentionally foul at the end. Not much of a discrepancy. If you want to see a discrepancy, look at Game 4 (which went to OT), where the Jazz has 20 more FT attempts the Lakers, despite being more of a perimeter oriented team while Kobe and the Lakers attacked the basket. Funny how most Utah fans ignore that game. Feel free to describe some of the other blatantly obvious fouls in Games 5 or 6 though.

Props to the Jazz and Jerry Sloan though. They never gave up. With DWill getting better and better, they'll be a force to be reckoned with for the next decade.