Well, once again, the Jazz beat Tracy Mcgrady and the rockets in the first  round of the playoffs. Why did the Jazz prevail once again? Well to keep it short, they were just plain and simple a better team overall than the rockets.  Sure you could make a case that the rockets didn't have their all-star center in Yao Ming, but that didn't stop the jazz last year from beating them in game seven.  A game seven that was in Houston might I add.  But still, if anything, the jazz are a much improved team from last years western conference finalist team.  Yeah they lost the leadership of Derek Fisher, but they also added a great back up point guard in Ronnie Price, and a much improved Ronnie Brewer from his rookie season.  Brewer is a great slasher, and as the season progressed he made other 2 guards respect him by improving his jump shot.  Even though the jazz didn't go as deep into the playoffs this year as they did last year, i feel they are still a much improved team.  Some might say they had an easier road to the western finals last year by facing the warriors in the second round.  The warriors were a great story last year when they pulled off the tremendous upset of the 1 seeded mavericks, but they just didn't match up well enough with the jazz's interior play of boozer.  Then the jazz had to play the spurs.  Yes the same spurs which have had the jazz's number for so many years.  But this year that was not the case.  The reason the jazz came up this year was because of Kobe and the lakers.  Kobe was just too much for the jazz to handle.  The jazz have had trouble all year defending 2 guards, such as Kobe, Mcgrady, Redd, and many others.  The jazz are still a very young team and have a lot of room for improvement, so they still have a bright future ahead of them.  As long as they keep the nucleus of at least Williams,Boozer, and Okur then they should be good for a long time.