Toughest Opponent?: Utah Jazz Versus the Other losing teams?

I think we BY FAR had the toughest opponent. The Jazz are smart, well coached, and tenacious (though their offense really is pretty crappy).

The Rockets, however, showed mental fortitude and great intensity to beat them in 5 games, especially once their defense started to pick up after they figured stuff out a bit.

I think this will prepare us for the next round. The Warriors, for all the praise heaped upon their defense, don't have a rim protector like Gobert, which might make it easier for our MVP to get into the lane and finish. I hope they call some of the fouls for him next series, though.

 

Jazz are way better then the Okc blunder

 

They bricked quite a few open 3s. Giving up all those open looks against the Warriors is asking for a blowout.

 

The problem the Jazz have is they have no consistent good shooters in their team. But they do make up for it with their defense.... definitely the hardest team to score against.

 

At the same time, GS doesn’t have a guy like Gobert to shut down the paint. #1 defense since the break

 

Personally i wouldn't even bet against them in a series with Boston, San Antonio, Denver, Phila and Portland. The only teams i can clearly see beating them are Warriors, Bucks and Raptors.

 

There is a reason why Rudy Gobert is the reigning DOPY. Glad the warriors don’t have a rim protection like that.

 

Take it easy hes just comparing to the losers so far

 

no

 

This team is a team to watch out for. Mitchell is only getting better and the shots that he missed will eventually go in on a consistent basis. Despite the results of this season I truly hope the Rockets find a way to improve next season. The Jazz have a damn good coach who knows how to draw plays for both ends of the court. D'Antoni and Coach Bzdelick better step up their games and not rely on just playing Harder!

 

It seems to me that this might have been their defensive game plan. Utah averaged only 26% in 36 attempts/game from 3 for the series. It's one thing if you have a couple of bad 3pt shooting nights, but Utah shot poorly in all 5 games.

Defensive game plan will be much different against GSW (or maybe even LAC).

 

They definitely played some hell a fied defense on us

 

I pray that's the case. Because if it isn't, we are in for an epic shellacking.

 

I think you haven't given enough credit to Gordon's defense on Mitchell. I have seen writers this morning stating that Mitchell got absolutely "stonewalled" by Gordon. MDA learned his lesson from the 4 quarter of game 4 when the Jazz went on their only big run of the series - put Gordon back to follow Mitchell's shadow whenever the latter check back into the game.

Gordon is going to guard Thompson in the next series. Play should be guarded with the same degree of attention as Mitchell.

 

Skeptical. Utah shot as well as we did in the regular season from 3, #10 in the league (35.6%), and on a healthy volume (#9 in the league). It might make sense against a team like the Spurs who don't like to take 3s, or a team that's bad at shooting them. But daring them to shoot (aside from Rubio) is probably not a great idea. Utah did a great job moving the ball around and being patient to find the open shooter. I think that's the reason for the open looks. They just underperformed on sinking them for whatever reason.

 

The Jazz are actually quite good. They had the 4th best point differential in the league at +5.2, and the 4th best net rating at +5.

They have a championship level defense, but a 1st or 2nd round exit level offense. Mitchell should be a 2nd option at best right now, and the rest of the team is a bunch of 4th or 5th options. It’s just not enough against the truly elite teams. They’re the WC version of the Pacers with a healthy Oladipo IMO. They’re very good, but the offensive flaws are too much.

 

We were a match-up nightmare for them. Two teams I think they have zero chance to beat is us and the Warriors simply because they don't have enough fire power to keep up. Had they played the Nugs or OKC, I think they will go at least 7 and possibly win the series.