Ok. The Rockets won that game fair and square. That game is exactly what playoff basketball is all about. We held a Live Blog last night and all I can say is welcome to the roller coaster, it you want to see the high's and low's of that game, simply read back through the live blog. Luckily, Lee (UofTOrange) from The Dream Shake was there to keep us in line. He was like the one chick who shows up to prevent an all out sausage fest. Thanks for coming Lee and being a class act. He didn't throw it in our face at all when the game was over. At one point he mentioned how he had just folded his '95 Rockets World Champions T-Shirt and how he would need it for game 7...when he typed that, I started to get nervous.
What if this series goes 7? Danger.
I'm not saying it will, and in fact, I don't think it will get past 6. I think we see the home teams win from this point on. But still...what if it goes to game 7. I don't think my blood pressure could handle that.
I know the vast majority of NBA fans hate the Jazz. I could care less. I don't really see what there is to hate, but I completely understand the hating. But I don't hate the Rockets. I might hate Houston, but I don't hate the Rockets. In fact, they are a great team to watch. No real superstars (McTeary has proven that), just a bunch of role players. They remind me a lot of the Pistons team that won a few years ago. Everyone in a Rockets jersey wants to win and works hard (minus Bobby Jackson, who just doesn't seem to fit for me). IF for some reason the Jazz blow this series, I want to see Houston go far...very far. Up to this point, their fans have been great in the blog world. That was just a quick though. Alright, enough of the Rockets love.
Here are my thoughts on why the Rockets won this game.
-The Rockets played excellent defense on the Pick-and-Roll. This is the bread and butter of the Jazz. Without it, their offense can get very stagnant and they start settling for jump shots. The Rockets have played it incredibly well.
-Alston was incredible. He provided energy that the Rockets have not seen up to this point in the series. He seemed to spread the floor well and know exactly where he wanted his teammates to be. Big help for the Rockets.
-Luis Landry (a morphisys of Luis Scola and Carl Landry as per Dream Shake). Landry loses a tooth, grabs 7 offensive rebounds, and makes the game winning block, followed by the game winning save. Scola didn't shoot particularly well from the floor, but goes 8-10 from the line. Sign up the Booze Hound to attend his summer camp so he can learn to perform like that.
Now for the Jazz side of things.
-Where is Carlos Boozer? Put out a freaking Amber Alert for our "All-Star". Don't be leaving comments saying how he went 15 and 13. That doesn't cut it. He is being guarded by Rookies for the most part. Destroy them. Take them the hole. Punish them. Boozer MUST show up for the Jazz to win this series. He dominated in this series last year. Without Yao, there is no excuse to be just as dominate this year
-Shooting. Memo 3-13. AK 2-7. Sap 0-2. Korver 2-5. Four key players all in the dumper. Now for the real glaring state. Free throws: Jazz go 20-33. That's 60.6%. Pathetic. This was the downfall.
-Jazz get out rebounded and allow Houston to grab 16 offensive rebounds. They also had only 20 assists. Notice that when the Jazz were pushing their offense and had a pace of 122 they were getting assists in the 30's. Jazz must share the ball, they are NOT a 1-on-1 team.
Those are my first instincts. I'm sure some people saw it differently.
The one thing that I really like was the maturity of Deron Williams. D-Will played 43 minutes and didn't once complain of being tired. Didn't complain that he was playing against a well rested Alston. Didn't complain that his teammates aren't shooters. Didn't complain about any flops. Didn't complain about his legs. Didn't complain that he HAD to take the last shot. The guy is a stud and T-Mac needs to take some notes on how to be a leader.
PS. I hated the white t-shirts for the fans. What happened to True Blue? Bad marketing for the Jazz I believe.
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15 comments:
Great recap, CBJ. I agree with everything you said, exactly, spot-on, to a tee.
Dream Shake - we don't think we got jobbed by bad foul calls...the Rockets truly outplayed us last night. Props to your team, but you can put away the History of Champions for now because I have a feeling that D-will is angry...and when he is angry, he has a perception problem. You see, every opponent transforms into CP3. What does this mean?
Utter domination by the Jazz is about to happen in Game 4.
I gotta echo CBJ - serious props to Rafer. I've seen the guy play a LOT, and he rarely plays as well as he did last night. I don't think he'll have another game like that, though. Even Rockets fans have to admit he shoots that well every 10 games or so.
Damnit! Make 3 effing free throws Boozer and you win that game.
Dear Jazz players, feel free to not fould the Houston players 4 freaking times on one posession when you are up by 5 and there is still 10 minutes left in the 4th quarter. That was the dumbest thing I have ever seen in my life. I want to cue up the old head coach of the Arizona Cardinals Mr. Dennis Green after they lost to the Bears on Monday night football. "We had them where we wanted them and we let them off the hook!"
Also, scratch everything I said on the round-table about being confident for game three and saying that Rafer would not make much of an impact. I was dead wrong on those. But I do wonder how Rafer would have played if that first lucky crap bank shot of his misses badly instead of going in. Does he reel in the intensity a litte?
At least we still have home court advantage, but I am not about to make any predictions on the rest of this series. That was too hard to watch. Lots of props for Houston coming ready to play and not giving in. Although I am not sure that Tracy did anything that special last night, it was Landry, Alston and Scola that did the damage.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DmCHLCOJms
Check out this video response to bitter rockets fans everywhere.
I too have to eat crow. I said Alston wouldn't make a big difference....wrong.
Guy was a stud last night.
Things to be worried about if you are a Jazz fan:
1. McGrady still hasn't had a truly great game. He is due for a 40/15/8 breakout.
2. Luis Scola is actually playing worse than he's capable of (his shooting % is bad).
3. Utah shot a LOT more FTs than the Rockets. Still lost.
4. It's not like Boozer, Okur, Kirilenko, Harpring and Millsap are all of a sudden going to stop hacking the Rockets. So expect the Rockets to be in the penalty early in each Q on Saturday.
5. At some point D-Will has to miss a shot. Or maybe even two.
If Game 4 is close, expect the Rockets to win again. Utah keeps expecting to win by 20 and doesn't expect the Rockets to fight back.
Great video Kevin.
If only we had pulled it off last night.
Great video Kevin.
If only we had pulled it off last night.
The Jazz lost this game plain and simply because of the missed free throws. AK was 0-2, Boozer was 3-8 and Memo was 4-7. Those three are all way better than that and if they all hit just one more the game is over. All of the other stats are pretty close.
And I dont want to hear another word said about how the Jazz got all of the calls and the number of free throws prove it. How quickly you forget that in game one the Rockets had a 29-19 advantage and in game two they had a 26-21 advantage. Its called a home game, you always get more calls at home.
Don't get too high on yourselves just yet Rocket Fans, the Jazz sucked ass last night and you all played the best game I have seen from you so far. Do you really have a better game in you, because you the Jazz can play better. On top of that Tracy still sucked last night, dude was 11-26 from the field. If I am playing a pick up game and some guy jacks up an 11-26 we all kick his ass to make sure he does shoot it any more. Does he think that he is going to get better if he keeps shooting? I can not say enough good things about your other players because making up for that black hole is a tough job.
McGrady not having a good game yet is precisely why the Jazz should be worried. It's coming... probably in Game 4.
So is Boozer and Memo's good game. I'm pretty sure that will at least equal out anything McTeary does.
Memo's last good game was in 2005. Don't hold your breath waiting.
LOL.
Mark my words. McTeary will NOT get 40 points at any point this series.
Tracy would have to jack up 40 shots to get 40 point and even then he would only make about 11 or 12 of them total. What a waste of talent.
Thanks CBJ, I had a great time last night. I'm putting one up on our site and will run it on Saturday.
Ronnie Price is LEADING the NBA in PG player efficiency. He needs more minutes. 2 good things may result: 1) Deron is more rested; and 2) Jazz win.
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