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Here's a shot of Deron Williams before the first-round series with the Rockets, proclaiming that the Jazz are ready for a new playoff challenge, come what may. Check out the determination blasting out of his eyes. "The Lakers are nothing to be afraid of," he says. "We want to play the best."

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This is the cover to Bruce Springsteen's "Human Touch" CD, the 1992 release with track No. 6, a song featuring lyrics written just to D-Will: "Before you choose your wish, son, you better think first. With every wish, there comes a curse."

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Notice the big, goofy grin on Carlos Boozer's face here as the Houston series commences, as he describes Tracy McGrady as a clutch player: "He's one of those guys in the league who can put a team on his back and carry them through a series." Also notice everyone around him busting up, laughing.

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Game 1 at the Toyota Center, McGrady whirls like a dervish, firing up a fall-away J after completing a rare jump combo of a triple salchow following a double toe loop, with a lutz and walley thrown in for style points. Dick Button would have been proud. Too bad the shot ricochets off the rim and into the crowd. T-Mac shoots 33 percent in Game 1, Jazz win.

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This is one for irony: Andrei Kirilenko smiles broadly, sitting in the same exact courtside seat in Houston where he busted a pipe in his plumbing and melted into an emotional blob during a practice session after Game 1 a year ago. He scored 21 points this time and looked relieved. "I'm taking [basketball] a little less serious," he said, a sentiment that would raise its head later in the playoffs.

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With the Jazz up by just three in the final minute of Game 2, Kyle Korver tosses in a floater that comes to him after he scuds an initial jumper off the side of the glass, which Kirilenko rebounds and sends back to Korver for the dagger. Another Jazz win.

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Kirilenko accepts his Oscar for Best Flop of the Year, a role that helped the Jazz win Game 2.

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This isn't a cartoon, although it looks like one. It's an actual photo from Game 3, an ugly brawl that the Jazz lose. The dust cloud in the middle of the frame, reminiscent of one of those old Quick Draw McGraw cartoons, is stirred as Luis Scola, Matt Harpring, Carl Landry, Paul Millsap, and El Kabong smack one another in the beans, wrestling for a loose ball. Over on the right-hand side is Rafer Alston dribbling that ball - screaming, "I'll do the thinnin' around here, Baba Looey, and doooooooooooon't you forget it" - in the opposite direction, toward another jumper, and a surprising Rockets' victory.

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A badly dented rim at EnergySolutions Arena, the one the Jazz brutalized in the first half of Game 3. At one point in the second quarter, the Jazz made just 9 of 29 shots, and 8 of 13 from the line.

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Here's a shot of Boozer. You can't quite make him out because the Jazz power forward was invisible the entire postseason.

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McGrady here in an off-day interview, taking the blame not just for the Rockets' problems, but also for global warming, the sagging economy, the soaring price of gas, and the reported breakup of Tony Romo and Jessica Simpson.

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A dented peach basket. In Game 5, the Jazz set offensive basketball back 75 years, shooting just 36 percent from the field and making only 56 percent of their free throws. They lost by 26 points.

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This is either a picture of the shiny, happy crowd gone mad - thanks, Ric Bucher - at EnergySolutions Arena or a leftover promotional shot of the New Christy Minstrel Singers after Rabies set in. Not really sure.

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McGrady shown here thumbing through the Jazz's media guide, trying to find a pronunciation key to help him properly say DE-ron - or is it Der-ON? - Williams' name. He finally figures it out - when the Jazz pummel the Rockets in six games.

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Here's a pic of a decisive give-and-go pulled off by Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol in Game 1 of the second-round series with the Lakers, an L.A. win.

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Speaking of the give-and-go, that's exactly what the Memphis Grizzlies did when they gave Gasol to the Lakers for next to nothing. In this group photo, the Grizz front office stands with their hands extended, palms up, looking for a little something back for the lame effort.

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Kobe hitting his 21st of 23 free throws in Game 1.

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Kobe hoisting his MVP trophy before Game 2: "Let's get this party started," he says.

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A Lakers fan channels the Wicked Witch of the West, waving a broom at Staples Center during the second game, a 10-point win for the home team.

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Jack Nicholson, the coolest man on the planet.

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A wide-angled shot of Section DD at Staples.

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This is a melon cut into two halves and, then, clumsily slapped back together. It represents the Jazz's season. The one half is terrific, it's the home half, symbolizing the Jazz's prowess at EnergySolutions Arena, where they almost never lost. The other part is the road half, where the Jazz lost a lot more than they won. The Jazz never can figure out how to win at Staples Center.

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Here's a teenage girl's head, on the brink of exploding, after David Archuleta sings the national anthem before Game 3.

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Boozer reappears for a brief moment, getting 27 points and 20 boards in a Game 3 win.

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Mehmet Okur stepping out of his Ferrari F430 at Jazz practice on an off day. "It's amazing car, my dream car," he says. "Hey . . . I asked my wife."

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A shot of former Jazz player Greg Foster, who is on hand for Game 4, a gut-wrenching win for the Jazz in overtime. It is Foster who used the perfect words of an old ranch hand to describe the setting and circumstances on Sunday, only they came a decade earlier, when he said: "It's nut-cuttin' time."

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Kobe, all decked out in a suit, standing for a postgame interview with a microphone in his hand after Game 4, on account of a twisted back. "I'm Don Cornelius," he says, laughing.

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Gasol dunking the difference in Game 5, after roughing up Okur, hauling in an offensive board, and sending the Jazz home losers.

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A Jazz fan sucking a binky and complaining about the refs' calls, suggesting a conspiracy after Game 5.

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Kirilenko picking up his visas in San Francisco for a summer vacation to France, missing practice on Thursday, the day before the biggest game of the year. Sacre bleu!

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Williams walking dejectedly off the court for the last time this season at the end of Game 6, a frenzied three-point loss that would have been much worse had the Jazz not shown such admirable fight. The point guard further establishes himself as a great player and relentless competitor.

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Boozer, if you look real close, still nearly invisible, straight to the end.

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That's it, Charlie. Bring up the lights. We'll see you next year, bub, and the next, for as long as all this lasts.

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* GORDON MONSON hosts "The Big Show" weekdays from 3-7 p.m. on 1280 AM The Zone. He can be reached at gmonson@sltrib.com.