It began seven months ago in the cool pines of Flagstaff. Suns first-round draft pick Casey Jacobsen logged an online journal for Suns.com throughout the team's training camp in northern Arizona. An online journal that was so popular with readers that the Stanford product agreed to continue sharing his thoughts and experiences of NBA life from time to time throughout his rookie season.
Now, with the Suns back in the playoffs, facing a first round matchup with the top-seeded San Antonio Spurs, the reserve guard is back to a daily schedule with his online insight.
May 2
It wasn't meant to be, I guess.
I really thought we were going to win Game 6 playing at home and push the series to seven games. That would have been awesome. But San Antonio is a good team. To beat them four times in a seven-game series would have been pretty difficult. We came up a little short, but we gave them all they could handle. In fact, I think they were even scared of us, because we showed that we could beat them on any given night. I just wish we had done it last night.
The playoffs were a lot of fun, though. I had a great time. I definitely won't take it forgranted, because you never know how many times you'll get there in your career. There were a lot of players around the league watching these playoffs from home.
I got some playing time, too, which made it an even more memorable experience. I knocked down a couple three-pointers and played some quality minutes, which is big for a rookie. I talked to a few of my friends and they were excited to see me playing in the NBA Playoffs. They thought that was pretty darn cool and so did I. Hopefully I'll get to do it again next year.
I think with some improvements this offseason, we should be able to earn a higher seed in the playoffs and have a better opportunity to advance. I thought we had a good run this year and represented the organization as best as we possibly could. You can be sure nobody is going to be picking us near last in the NBA next season. This franchise is going nowhere but up and I'm glad to be a part of it.
April 30
What can I say after last night’s loss to the Spurs? Trailing by 24 points at halftime against the best team in the league was just too much to overcome. It was obviously a big disappointment. We knew how big a game that was. We wanted to start out well. We wanted to send a statement to San Antonio that we want to win the series and we wanted to have a chance to eliminate them in Phoenix in Game 6, but it didn’t happen.
I don’t have an explanation for the way we started the game. We couldn’t make shots. We were shooting in the low 20s. We just didn’t come out with much energy and we weren’t sharing the ball. Sometimes shots just don’t go down.
They played well, though. That first half was probably the best shooting half they’ve had. Sure, our offense was struggling, but they were hitting threes and they were getting it into David Robinson and Tim Duncan, and scoring layups. Then Malik Rose came in and just started dominating. They made shots and they made plays.
Fortunately, we got back into the game in the second half. If we had just shot better we would have been in the game in the second half. They hit shots in the first half, but they didn’t in the second. They finally hit some free throws at the end of the game and that’s what ultimately won it for them.
Every game they’ve let up and let us come back after jumping out to big leads. They’ve done that every game. Sometimes they hold us off barely at the end to win the game and sometimes they let us back in, and we take game-winning shots. They’ve done that all regular season and in this series. We lead the entire NBA in fourth quarter comebacks. We have confidence, no matter how far we are down; there is still a chance.
Last night I got some significant playing time. It was nice to get out there and play more than just a few minutes. My previous games I just came in to give a rest for Stephon or Penny. This time I actually got to do something. Coach left me in to see if maybe I had a hot hand and could bring some energy to the game. I tried my best. Right now, I’m not so concerned about making shots, just going in there and playing tough on D, and giving us a spark some how, some way. Coach doesn’t expect me to start scoring once I get the ball, but he does expect bench players to be a positive difference maker in the game and that’s what I concentrate on.
I think I took advantage of the opportunity by making my first two baskets of the series, both three-pointers in the loss. I definitely feel good about that, but I’m not one of those people who are satisfied with making one basket. I want to be that guy who comes in and is expected to give the team a big burst. This series is not over. We need a lot of guys to step up and maybe I can be one of those guys.
I have to admit, though, it’s difficult not knowing how many minutes I’m going to get from game to game. That’s hard because I never know if I make a mistake that it might be the play that I come out of the lineup. I never know if Steph is so anxious to get back into the game that he tells coach he wants to get back into the game. There’s not much I can do about that because the veterans should be on the floor. If they want to be on the floor that means I have to sit on the bench. That’s the way it goes, but last night for some reason, Frank put me in and that’s fine with me. I’ll try to make the most of my minutes. Hopefully, I’ll earn some more.
I can’t believe that we are going to be playing the Spurs for the sixth time in a row and the 10th time this season tomorrow night at America West Arena. I’ve never been in this type of series before. It’s crazy playing the same team over and over again. It’s really weird. I’ve memorized every single play the Spurs have. It’s incredible and now we are in a situation where if we lose, our entire season is done. We’ve played over 90 games, including the preseason. It’s been a long season, but we don’t want it to end.
We are lucky Game 6 is in Phoenix. We have a lot of confidence playing at home. In fact, Coach guaranteed Joe Johnson and I a win in Game 6, so we've got to make sure we don’t make our coach look stupid and make ourselves look stupid. We’ll go out and take care of what we need to take care of. We have confidence that we can do this.
I like our chances if we can take this series to seven. We’ve played them tough all season. They know if we go back for a Game 7 that we are not going to fold in the first half and give them a 24-point lead again. It’s not going to happen. We are going to be a better team than that. If we give ourselves a chance to win at the end of the game in Game 7, we have nothing to lose because we are the eighth seed. We are trying to put the pressure on them and make them scared that the eighth seed might not knock them off. If we win Game 6, I think the whole series shifts to our advantage.
April 28
We're back in San Antonio and we're back in this series!
What a great game last night. I'm really, really happy for Jake. Moments like that are why we play this game. He definitely took advantage of that moment, knocking down the game-winning hook shot, the biggest shot of his career, no doubt. It just goes to show you that good things happen to good people. Jake has become one of my really good friends on the team and when your friend does something like that, you almost feel like you were a part of it.
He had another big shot in that game, too. He scored and got the "and one," and made the free throw to tie up the game late. He did everything he was asked to do last night. He said he dove for about four loose balls too. He was on the floor all over the place. He was in a zone. He was doing what he does best: hustling, playing defense, finishing around the basket. I don’t know how he feels about it, but we all feel like Jake’s shot gave us new life in this series. I feel like now that it’s 2-2, this is when it really starts to get exciting.
 Jacobsen shares a riddle with a couple teammates during Monday's practice. (Jeramie McPeek/Suns Photos) |
Every team playing in the playoffs right now has to take it up a notch. If they don’t, they’re going to lose. If the Spurs don’t take it up a notch, we’re going to beat them tomorrow night. If we don’t take it up another notch, they’re going to beat us. Every game we have to make adjustments and do something different, because we know the Spurs were doing the same thing we were, watching film, practicing what they did wrong, working on what they did right. If we do the same thing, down to every single play, exactly the way we did last night, then they’re going to have something better and they’re going to score.
The crowd at AWA gave us a boost last night, too. Our fans have been good all year, but they took it to the next level, which we hoped would happen. We need their help. Let’s not underestimate how much that kind of atmosphere can help our team. I’d like to say that we don’t need our fans and we can beat the Spurs without them, but they really help us a lot. They get us pumped up. We want to work hard for them. We want them to give their money’s worth. We want to show them that we’ve appreciated their support all year long and in order to show the fans we appreciate them we have to play hard. Any fans would get upset if the guys weren’t getting after it. That game was a thanks to our fans in a way, and we’re excited we’re going to play another game in front of them on Thursday. Hopefully we'll be 3-2 going into it with a chance to advance to the Semis.
April 24
I'm sure you heard the great news about our Rookie of the Year. Steph told me in the locker room before our practice a couple days ago that Amaré had won it. I'm extremely excited for him. I definitely think he deserved it. I know what it’s like to go through a rookie season and the things you have to deal with on and off the court is really incredible.
For him to be so consistent this year, night in and night out, was simply amazing to watch. He just punished people. For a guy to come out of high school and do what he did this season was crazy. I spent three years in college and this is one of the toughest years that I‘ve ever had, just learning and playing against guys that are so talented and knowledgeable about the game. This is a whole new world in the NBA and Amaré’s just been unfazed by that this year.
People have been talking all year about it, so I’m not saying anything that hasn’t been said before about Amaré. He has a great work ethic. If he just continues to keep his head on straight, which I'm sure will happen, he will prove to be a perennial All-Star and a cornerstone for this franchise in the future. I know he likes Phoenix and I think Suns fans will enjoy watching him for a long time.
Right now we’re in the playoffs, so it’s kind of a weird situation. I asked him if he was going to go celebrate with his friends and family and he said he might. He didn’t seem too caught up in the award, which I think is pretty noble since we are focusing on other things right now. Once the season is completely over, though, I hope he understands how great a year he had, because we all see it and I certainly realize it being a rookie with him on this team. I was glad I could be a part of it. As Amaré said when he accepted the award at the Hard Rock this afternoon, we all had a hand in his award. But he was the guy who had to do it.
It was nice for me to have another rookie on the team throughout the season. I can only imagine what it would be like to be the only rookie on a team. Amaré and I got to know each other before I even met any other teammates that I had. He was my first teammate and friend that I had in the NBA, and we’ve gone through the learning process of being a rookie in this league together, which is something I will always remember.
I’ve gone out to charity functions with him this season and obviously we’ve spent a lot of time together on road trips, just the guys going out to dinner and stuff, and he’s just a really good person. He deals with his newfound stardom really well, especially at a young age. He’s only 20 years old, but he seems to understand the value of giving time of himself to other people and just being a good locker room guy. He hasn’t caused any problems. Everybody likes him and I think that’s part of the reason why he won the Rookie of the Year Award, too, because he is so likeable.
April 23
We got back to Phoenix Monday night after Game 2 at the fairly reasonable hour of midnight. We had a practice at 11 a.m. Tuesday morning, but it was just a shootaround, as well as treatment for guys that had injuries. I came in and got some extra conditioning and running in after not having played that much in the first two games. Steph and Shawn are playing a lot of minutes and I need to be ready to play more than just the one or two minutes that I have been playing. One play here or there and any of the guys on the bench could be the difference-maker in a game.
If this series goes six or seven games, which it very well may, having our main guys play 45 minutes a game is a lot. I don’t care who you are or what kind of shape you’re in, that’s going to wear on you. And if we can wrap this series up, we'll have to do it all again in the next round, so all of us bench guys need to be a little bit more on high alert. Our assistants said that anyone could go in at any moment and I’m going to do whatever I can to be ready.
It's nice be back home after a four-day road trip to San Antonio. I get so excited when I walk in my door and see my dog. I miss my dog whenever I’m away, whether I am gone for one day or five days. She wiggles her butt at the window by the door where you can see in and she just gets so excited when I come home.
Coming home also meant another edition of Casey off the Bench, my weekly radio show with John Gambadoro and Mark Asher on Xtra Sports 910. I was honored to pass along the proceeds I earned from that show this season to Phoenix Suns Charities. In addition to being able to contribute something back into the community, it gave me a unique opportunity to continue my interests in broadcasting, something I hope to pursue later, hopefully much later, as a post-playing career.
My first experiences in the broadcasting world came at Stanford where I did a couple internships in television after my freshman and sophomore years. I wasn’t thinking about the NBA when I first got to Stanford. I loved basketball and I was thinking that I would love to be a pro someday, but I was also thinking about what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I want to have a job that I really enjoy going to every day and I think I could do that by being a broadcaster.
When the Suns drafted me last summer, Gambo and Ash said that they had heard a few interviews with me and wanted to have me on the air for a weekly segment. Much like this journal, I thought it would be a great way for Suns fans to get to know me beyond the game of basketball, and I have loved every show. It has been awesome.
Speaking of the game of basketball, we are so pumped up to play Game 3 at home. We played really well at home for most of the regular season and we hope the Phoenix fans will give the Spurs as much crap as we got in San Antonio. They were hooting and hollering, they had signs telling us we suck, signs saying that Steph and Amaré’s shots in Game 1 were lucky and they can’t do it again. They got after us and we’re looking forward to hearing cheers when we make baskets now rather than boos and silence.
April 22:
I thought we had it. I mean I really thought we had that game last night.
It was another really, really good game, but in the end Tim Duncan just got hot, which was our mistake and they made some shots. They didn't shoot the lights out, but they made the shots down the stretch that they'd been missing the whole game and that they'd missed in Game 1. They also made the free throws at the end of the game that they missed the other night, and those things ended up being the difference.
 Jacobsen awaits the start of Game 2. (Jeramie McPeek/Suns Photos) |
We had some breakdowns in our defense on him down the stretch. We had doubled him hard the last two times we played them and we've tried our best all season to keep the ball out of his hands. But at the end of the game he got hot and it seemed like we were a little confused about who was supposed to double him. That's the whole focus of our defense.
Up until that point we had been pretty successful against him by just anticipating the ball going down to him and being right there the instant he'd catch it. In this one, though, he hit a few big shots where he caught the ball and had a good two seconds to turn and shoot before anyone came over to help pressure him. So I think that's the big thing Coach will be stressing in practice these next few days before Game 3. We've got to be more consistent with that.
Before he got hot, we could sense the tension from the Spurs. We had a seven-point lead late and you could just feel them getting nervous, which made us even more confident. But they all just jumped on Duncan's back and let him lead the way. Once he made a couple of those shots, the rest of them started getting their confidence back.
We were obviously disappointed in our locker room after the game, but we are still happy with the trip. We took away their home court advantage! Now, they have to beat us at America West Arena to get it back and we don't think that's going to happen. We've been playing very well at home lately. Suns fans: Get ready!!!
April 20
Last night was one of the best games I've ever seen and definitely the best game I've ever been a part of. The finishes, both in regulation and overtime, were some of the best finishes you'll ever see in any sport. Big time players making big time plays. That's what you expect the playoffs to be all about.
After the game, while everybody was celebrating the win and talking about Steph, I went over to Amaré in the locker room and congratulated him, and said, "Hey, your shot was just as big." You know, Steph doesn't get a chance to shoot that game-winner if Amaré doesn't put it into overtime.
That was just an unbelievable shot. Lucky, but unbelievable. I mean, c'mon. He banked it from the top of the key! A shot that he never shoots. He's a clutch player, no doubt about that, but a three-pointer shooter, that he's not.
As for Steph, I told you he would be ready. He struggled for maybe three quarters of the game, but it doesn't matter because he's going to hit the shots at the end of the game. He's probably hit six out of seven game-winning shots since I've been her. I think I only remember one miss that he's had. Everything else he's just buried every time.
He's the best point guard in the league right now as far as being a leader, as far as running the show, scoring points, getting other people involved. There is nobody in the NBA that's playing better than him right now. With that said, we're all really confident right now. We're just going to follow his lead.
He didn't even shoot the ball well and he still won the game. Imagine if he'd hit his shots like he normally does, shooting 45 or 50 percent. He would have scored about 35 or 40 last night, although we wouldn't have had the fun ending. But that's what great players do. Even when they are struggling they still hit those shots when it counts.
I tell you what. I was on the court over in the corner for his shot and that was fun. I probably had the best angle you could have on it in the entire arena. I couldn't tell if it was going in when it left his hand because I was off to the side, so it banked in and there was a second there of shock. If you watch the highlights I don't celebrate right away. It's like the shot goes in and I look around and then I go, "WHOA!"
Steph fell on the floor and I ran over to pick him up, and we were just going crazy. We didn't like dog pile or anything, but we were just all over the place looking for people to hug and high five. Steph sprinted off the court. We all wanted to stay out there and party, but our man left the court and ran back to the locker room, so we all just followed him off and went and celebrated in the locker room, where it was more private.
We didn't want to rub it in the Spurs' faces. We'd rather go celebrate in privacy. It's more fun that way, too, because you can say anything you want and not worry about anybody hitting you in the back of the head with a beer bottle or something because they were mad. So we did our thing in the locker room, had a great time and everybody was in a great mood today. It just makes everything so much more fun when you win a game like that. Everybody's in a better mood. Coach was in a better mood today. We have more confidence. We're having more fun. It's good, man.
We know that we can win this series, but there are a lot of games left to go and we can't get too confident. Game 1 was huge, though. If you had to pick a game you definitely wanted to win, you'd probably pick Game 1. The pressure is all on them now. I mean, they're the No. one seed and we're the No. eight seed. We won the first game, so now the pressure is on them. They've got to play really, really well in Game 2 at a time when our confidence is at its highest and they're confidence is probably a little bit shaken. I wouldn't say it's completely low, but it has to be shaken. It has to be. We beat them four out of five times this season.
Let's hope we can make it five out of six tomorrow night.
April 18
We had an early morning today. Normally our practices are at 11 a.m., but we started at 9:30 today instead. I know it's not that early, but there were a lot of guys rolling in with sleepy eyes and messed up hair like they just rolled out of bed. Myself included.
We watched film again today so we can know the Spurs like the back of our hands, and then we had a short practice. Although, it was a hard practice. Actually, it was one of the hardest practices we've had, as far as intensity goes, in about two weeks. We really got after it for about 45 minutes, then we shot a little bit and talked to the media, showered and got on the bus to the airport.
 Casey helps unload the bus at Sky Harbor. |
I spent most of the two-hour flight playing Tiger Woods golf. I bring my PlayStation 2 on the road with me because I can play video games or watch DVD movies on it. Some of the guys have seperate DVD players. Some of the guys bring their laptops and watch moves on them. I bring my PlayStation 2 and I've got this cool little screen that attaches to it. I bought it when we were in Houston a couple months ago and I've brought my PlayStation on every trip ever since. It's a great way to fill the time we have on flights.
We got to our hotel at about 5 p.m. and I've pretty much just been hanging out. I've got some friends coming in for the game, but they don't arrive until tomorrow, and most everybody else has friends or family on the trip, so I think I'm just going to lay low tonight and get some rest. I'll probably go out with my friends after the game tomorrow night since it's a 5 p.m. tip-off. San Antonio's beautiful. It's one of the nicer cities that we go to each year and we're staying right on the River Walk, so that's fun to check out. But not tonight.
Speaking of the game, I'm getting a little anxious to see what it's like. I'm expecting both teams to be fired up at the beginning of the game and maybe a little bit jittery. But once it calms down and once we get used to the intensity level and the crowd, I think that's when you can expect us to just step it up another level.
Like I said yesterday, I've never done this before, so I can't speak about it from experience. But I have to think this first game in the playoffs is really important. We want to start off on the right foot. And in a series where we're playing one of the best teams, if not the best team in the NBA, to be able to win the first game would be just awesome. It would be a real confidence booster for us and maybe lead to a series victory. We don't want to get down 0-1 and then have to already climb out of a hole, so it will be important.
April 17, 2003
I can't wait for Saturday! This is my first experience of NBA playoffs. I don't really know what to expect, but I guess I can compare it to the first time I played in the NCAA Tournament.
Surprisingly, I'm not nervous about it, though. I feel like we have a great shot at winning the series with the Spurs and I feel like we're going to be really prepared going in. I think when you're prepared that nervousness fades away. Coach Johnson and his staff are going to have us ready for every single game and every situation that we could encounter.
We were already hard at work today. We got home from Seattle at about 2 a.m. this morning and were back here at the Arena by noon for practice. We had a team meeting first and they handed out VHS tapes of every single play the Spurs run, as well as tapes of specific players for each position. Our big guys got tapes of all their post players, Tim Duncan, David Robinson and those guys. I got a tape of every guard San Antonio has with video of the shots they like to shoot, so I'll watch those tonight, kind of like homework.
We then watched a team video to kind of orient us on what we're going to be going up against and went down to the practice court and walked through every play they have. And after that we started shooting. So you can see that even on our first day of practice it's already a very thorough process. We've played San Antonio four times this season, yet we're watching films of every play they have and walking through them three days before the first game. I think that's a pretty good indication of how serious we're taking it and how well the coaches are preparing us.
I think that our veterans know that we can win this series and they're going to lead us. They've been telling the young guys about the intensity in the playoffs. It's not going to be like the regular season out there. It's going to be the best athletes in the world playing every possession like it was life and death. If you make mistakes in games during the regular season it's okay. You have 82 games to make up for them. But against the number one seed, the best team in the NBA, if we make mistakes our season is over. So there's going to be a little bit more riding on every possession.
We've worked all season long for this, so I think their games are going to go to the next level. I'm really excited to be a part of this. This is my first time and I don't want to take it for granted. A lot of guys miss out on the playoffs every year, so I want to have as much fun as I can.
