Just stop buying food for your kids for a week, and sell Swen's Pokemon cards.

Shulamith: "Dang, tickets are only $65 for tomorrow. Tell me again that we're waiting to go to a second series game."

Isaiah: "Why not both? I bet the price went down since we're playing the Grizzlies now."

Shulamith: "Cuz I'm poooooooor. I'm gonna save the $70 and put it toward the $160 second round tickets."

Isaiah: "Just stop buying food and stuff for your kids for a week."

Shulamith: "Hey, they don't eat anything anyways, so maybe that's not a bad idea."

Isaiah: "Sell Swen's Pokemon cards."

This dialogue is a snippet from a conversation Friday on our 3-way text thread, whose theme wraps itself primarily around our favorite basketball team, the Utah Jazz. If basketball isn't your vibe, I get it. Totally. It wasn't mine either for most of my life. But then Isaiah moved to Utah for college and jumped on the Jazz train. And I followed. Because, you know, I'll do most anything to hang with my awesome kids. (Remember this, for example?).

I no longer follow the Jazz just to chill with Isaiah; I'm a diehard fan in my own right. And this year, oh my! For those who are unaware, this basketball team finished the regular season as the #1 seed in the Western Conference and with the best overall record in the NBA. For real. Coached by the brilliant Quin Snyder, and led by the incredible talent of Donovan Mitchell, Rudy Gobert, and Mike Conley, this organization has proved to the basketball world that, indeed, team is everything.

It wasn't a perfect season. It never is. They made mistakes. They lost games they should have won. But as Rudy likes to say, "on to the next one."

On April 16th, in a game against the Indiana Pacers, Jazz leading scorer Donovan Mitchell suffered an ankle sprain. Shulamith, Isaiah, and I were watching, and in the moment, we had no idea the extent of his injury. Did he break his ankle? Would he be out for the remainder of the season? All the questions. It was so sad. As you know, I am forever the "glass half empty" girl, so I was sure this was the end of our rainbow. They were already barely hanging on to the #1 position in the west, with Phoenix right on their heels.

I was wrong. Even facing adversity, the team persevered. They fought. Their passion pushed them forward, one game at a time, without Donovan and eventually without Mike Conley, whose chronic hamstring issue flared up. They finished the regular season in the #1 position. 

The post-season games began this week, with our first series against the 8th seeded Memphis Grizzlies. We should win. Yes, we should. Even without Donovan, we should win. We lost the first game. The first quarter, they played well, at least on the defensive end, enough to get us a 14-pt lead, but then, I don't know, everything just sort of fell apart. We couldn't make shots, and the turnovers...yikes! Up until 20 minutes before game time, Donovan (and the rest of us) believed he would be playing. He didn't. They pulled him. I'm glad they're being extra cautious with his injury; we need him healthy. 

Game 2 of the series was last night. I expected them to come out strong and determined, and they did. They don't like to lose. This time, yes, we had our Donovan, who was insanely on fire. It was a solid win, and now we need just three more of those to progress to the second round series. 

Oh, and in case you're wondering, Shulamith's kids are fed, and we did not have to sell Swen's Pokemon cards. All is well. We'll catch a game second round, and you know, when they make it to the championship finals, maybe then.  :-)