Jerry Sloan on Tuesday heaped lavish praise on the Jazz's upcoming playoff opponent. And he meant it. "Everybody knows they're a terrific team," Sloan said of a 52-29 Houston Rockets club that was without injured starting center Yao Ming for 32 games and more than two months from late December through early March, and without fellow All-Star Tracy McGrady for another 11. "They've had a lot of injuries all year long, and look where they are. "They're a 60-win team right off the bat if they stay healthy," the Jazz coach added. "And they're set up for a championship-type team. When you have that, we know we have to play extremely well to try to play against them." http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,660212780,00.html
Well said by Sloan...he's telling the truth and do believe that if this team had the chance to really get on the same page w/o injuries and boneheadedness of Bonzi...we would have won 60 games this year. I'm glad we wrapped up HCA in the 1st Rd so let's take care of business and get momentum for a long run. We have to get back to our Defensive roots and play tough for 48-minutes and this team is capable of beating anyone.
I really like JVG's response to the media.He has a champion's heart. Whatever they say,to beat jazz never shoud be our target.We only care about the title.
although i believe what he said was true i wouldn't put too much thought on it, especially not overjoyed by it. c'mon, this is a psychological war he put up before the big fight. he wants you to feel really good about youselves and relax a bit. and then he'll hit you hard before you wake up.
I am very happy Sloan said this. I feel content with the season now. I hope the Rockets take it easy in the first round. Such a nice man, Mr. Sloan is.
Further acknowledgement for Rockets. They've got the premier low post player in the conference, they've got a superstar who can carry his team to victory on any night, they've got solid perimeter shooting to go with the inside game, and they play tremendous defense. They are the Houston Rockets and as the conference's #4 seed, they draw an opening round home series against Utah. Houston just seems to be built for playoff basketball and as long as star swingman Tracy McGrady's back holds up, they have a very real opportunity to take the next step this post season. Their inside game is paced by center Yao Ming who can score, rebound and either alter or block shots. He's not alone down low however because the presence of frontcourt players Shane Battier, Chuck Hayes, Juwan Howard and Dikembe Mutombo has helped the Rockets become the second leading rebounding team in the NBA and #1 in field goal percentage allowed yielding a mere 42.7% per contest. Interior attributes on both ends go a long way in the playoffs and the Rockets have that. http://www.sportsmemo.com/handicappers/veno/articles/1110/ They also have the perimeter part covered as believe it or not they are the fifth best three point shooting team in the league at 37.3%. Their long range arsenal is not limited to just McGrady as many might think. In fact, guard Luther Head (43.9%), 6-11 forward Shane Battier (41.4%) and point guard Rafer Alston (36.5%) all shoot it better statistically than McGrady (32.9%). With multiple options on the floor all at once and with the ability to penetrate the way the Rockets perimeter players can, they figure to be problematic for opposing defenses. They shoot free throws very well as five of their top six players led by Ming's 86% all shoot 74% or better. They have solid depth and can absorb foul trouble pretty well although long trips to the bench for Ming or McGrady could hurt. Aside from that, their only other downfall would be their 44.5% shooting from the field which ranks as the lowest of all 16 playoff teams. Head Coach Jeff Van Gundy's team is able to mask that deficiency with second chance opportunities, an abundance of trips to the free throw line and strong defense. Houston is in the Dallas Mavericks half of the bracket and certainly has a tough opponent in Utah to start things off, but they are a legitimate threat to play for the Western Conference title and one that's worthy of looking to play on once the post season begins.
Let the mind-games begin. I expect JVG to now come out in the press comparing the Jazz to the Celtics dynasty. Its all about getting your team focused.
man i hate when we have so much praise. a week ago after tmac went out w/ the sore back and we were on a 3 game losing streak, everyone was against us. i enjoyed that. i think when everyone's against us, we feel we have something to prove nightly. hope our players don't get into this hype.
If that were true, we'd be a championship contender. Goodness gracious, is it that hard to research the correct height of a player.
Sloan is just playing smart. You always want to talk up your opponent even if you are the Mavs facing the Hawks. In this league on any given game any team can beat any team and you don't want to give your opponent a reason to get fired up about playing you. If anything you want to talk down your team as the underdog.
