[Deseret Morning News] "What can Jazz do about Yao in playoff series?"

http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,660208485,00.html



What can Jazz do about Yao in playoff series?

By Tim Buckley
Deseret Morning News

They got away with it once, and in doing so the Jazz buoyed their bid for home-court advantage in a likely 4-5-seed opening-round NBA playoff matchup with the Houston Rockets.
But if Utah thinks it can survive a best-of-seven series while allowing Rockets center Yao Ming outings anything like his 35-point, 16-rebound double-double in Utah's 86-83 win at Houston on Sunday, it is sadly mistaken.
Fortunately for coach Jerry Sloan, though, the Jazz — who are off until visiting Portland on Wednesday night — do seem to know better.
Or at least they talked a good game Sunday, using the experience to ponder what can be done differently on the terrifically solid one-man wall from China.
Small forward Matt Harpring offered one suggestion, centered on trying to exploit Yao's weaknesses when the Rockets are playing defense.
"With a guy like that who can block shots you've got to go back in and not let him dictate what's going on in the paint," Harpring said.
"I think we did that in (Sunday's) fourth quarter," he added. "Perimeter post-ups certainly helped that out, because it gets Yao out (of the lane), and then if they double-down it should open up some shots for Memo (center Mehmet Okur) and (power forward Carlos) Boozer."
Not-quite-7-foot Jazz backup center Jarron Collins, who spent part of his night dealing with the 7-6 giant, had a couple of ideas.
One involved a call for help.
"The only thing we could maybe do just a couple of times just to change it up," Collins said, "is to double-team him on the catch.... Make his catches difficult, and then try to body up on him when he shoots the ball."
The other similarly involved attempting to make Yao work harder for his points.
"Try to wear him down," Collins said. "You've got to meet him early. If you let him just run down on the block and get his position, it's over."
That goes on both ends, Sloan suggested. "You still have to keep attacking, (not) let him just stand out there (on defense) and never move out of his tracks."
Also not-quite-7-foot Okur, assigned to Yao for much of the evening, pointed a finger squarely at himself to illustrate how there might indeed be ways to slow the big fellow.
"He's such a good player, obviously. He's got good moves. He's a strong player," Okur said. "I think I've got to do a better job.
"I need to push him out of the paint more and make him move, make him run.... When he catches the ball, we need to (make) him shoot over our hands and make tough shots."
And this telling addendum: "I know it's not gonna be easy for me."
It is not, which is why Sloan had to laugh when a reporter (not from Utah) asked the coach about the Jazz's defense on Yao.
"He had 35 points," Sloan said. "You want to talk about defense with 35 points? I don't think we did much."
Sloan is the first to recognize the Jazz will need to do more come late April, especially if Yao — who on Monday was named the NBA's Western Conference Player of the Week, following a week in which he merely averaged 30 points, 12.5 rebounds and 2.25 blocks over four games — is refereed in the postseason similarly to how he frequently is treated in the regular season.
"First of all, he had 15 free throws (and made 13). You know he's going to have that when the game starts," Sloan said. "I mean, you have to deal with that. That's part of the business.
"We can't do anything about it, (except) just keep playing and keep playing, and hopefully know that he's gonna be involved as you come down the stretch and (hope) that he'll miss a couple of shots."
And — oh, yeah — hope too that fellow all-star Tracy McGrady isn't making them either.

E-mail: tbuckley@desnews.com

 

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JAZZ: Utah rallies to beat Houston


HOUSTON - Sure, the Jazz will wield a huge advantage by playing four games in Salt Lake during their upcoming first-round playoff series, something that became a lot more likely Sunday. But the real beneficiaries of Utah's improbable 86-83 victory in the Toyota Center are the Jazz fans who get to buy tickets for that extra game.
Because by the looks of it, this Houston-Utah series is going to be a blast.
Utah weathered a prodigious game by Yao Ming, some stretch-drive gallantry from Tracy McGrady and their own 38 percent shooting, and yet somehow stole their most important victory of the season through sheer stubborn willpower - and a 9-2 run to the finish - to set a grind-it-out tone for their inevitable two-week clash later this month.
"It's going to be fun," said Jazz guard Deron Williams, who picked up 11 assists and was a surgeon using the pick-and-roll as a scalpel late in the fourth quarter. "It's going to be a great series."
It's going to be one of those vilify-the-visitors, snarl-at-every-whistle, agonize-over-every-possession sort of series, if Sunday's game is any indication, with shooting percentages melting away like the springtime snow and fast-break baskets scored about once a week. You know, the sort of nonstop intensity Utah once reveled in every April, the style of game that makes plays like Carlos Boozer's sudden, outstretched dunk with two minutes to play, or Matt Harpring's three-point play on a layup the stuff of folk legend.
The series probably opens in Salt Lake three weekends from now, because Sunday's win opened a two-game lead in the loss column and guaranteed Utah the tiebreaker, whether by season-series victory or a better conference record. In other words, the Jazz would have to lose three more of their remaining nine games than Houston loses in eight for the Rockets to bring Game 7 to Texas.
So start making those posters and practicing those insults, Utah, because the role of villain-in-chief appears already cast: It's the indomitable Yao, Houston's one-man show during the first half.
While his teammates combined to miss 14 of their first 15 shots over an amazing 16 minutes, Yao kept the Rockets even with the Jazz by scoring 18 of Houston's first 22 points, part of his 35-point, 16-rebound effort. And on defense? His 7-foot-6 frame and intimidatingly long arms held the layup-centric Jazz to four points in the paint before halftime.
"He's such a good player. He's got good moves, and he's such a strong player," said Mehmet Okur, his upcoming task suddenly becoming all too real. "I think I've got to do a better job."
The Rockets did a better job eventually, and late in the third period, Yao had a free throw to give the Rockets a 10-point lead. He missed it, but the Jazz didn't appear to pose any threat.
Not until the subs checked in, anyway. Gordan Giricek, Jarron Collins, Paul Millsap and Harpring helped bring Utah back, closing with a 10-3 rush that cut Houston's lead to 61-59 entering the fourth quarter.
"We went through a stretch where it looked like we didn't think we could win. But our bench gave us a tremendous lift and kept us believing that we could," said coach Jerry Sloan. "Those [starters] sat there on the bench, and they came in the ballgame with a little different attitude about winning the game."
Apparently so. Boozer, limited by foul trouble, returned with 5:48 to play and the Jazz trailing by five. The lead got to seven on a Juwan Howard put-back, and Utah could have simply accepted its seventh straight road loss.
But from that point on, the Jazz executed almost perfectly. You know, the way you have to if you want to win a playoff game. The Jazz went to the pick-and-roll almost exclusively, and the Rockets couldn't stop it, surrendering points on eight of Utah's last nine possessions.
"We know the play was coming, but we couldn't stop it," said McGrady, who was harassed into a 9-for-23 game by several Jazz defenders, most notably Giricek.
"Very, very poor defense over the last four minutes," acknowledged Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy.
Boozer's jam on a perfectly timed lead pass from Williams cut Houston's lead to two. On the next possession, Harpring cut suddenly in front of his man and Williams found him underneath. Howard fouled while Harpring made the layup, and Utah was in front, this time for good.
"They do a good job of helping, but they slipped up a little bit; I saw Matt rub off, his guy was behind him, so I hit him," Williams said.
"If we just keep moving out there, someone is going to get some open shots by just cutting and moving," said Harpring. He'll remember that play later this month. "I think it'll be one tough series. But a good one."
pmiller@sltrib.com