We need to play better than this

Agreed. We need to play better if we want to win in next two.

We need to play even better if we want to make some noise in the playoff.

 

Good point... good thread.

Our Rockets can play quite a bit better. I'm sure that they know this also.

Glad we won the first 2 though.

 

I won't flame you for this because I agree with you 100% . We have been playing poorly and need to play more intelligently in the upcoming games. If we don't we won't go far in this platoffs.

 

i completely agree with you here.

jazz play a really physical type defense with grabbing, swiping and small shoving. Thats the only way they know how to play defense. We have had enough energy and just enough shooting to win the 1st 2 games.

I see a completely different jazz team in game 3. I hope we come out with the same type of energy to match theirs. Same hustle. And on the road we will have to make a few more 3s than we did in the 1st 2 games because their defense will definitely give us a different look. I wouldnt be surprised if they double or triple yao as soon as he touches the ball, trap mcgrady as soon as he touches the ball and let rafer, battier and head attempt more shots than the 1st 2 games.

 

What encourages me about this series is that we're not nearly playing as well as we can offensively and yet we're up 2-0. And neither game was that close ... the ending was never really in doubt during the last 2 minutes of either game.

If we can really execute offensively, we'll roll over these guys. But no matter what, we've got to keep the pedal to the metal. No letting up until it's done.

 

I think it was a good win. To me this post is basically saying that the Rockets need to shoot the ball better, because I don't see anything else to complain about. But I'm not complaining, because sometimes you just don't make your shots. They will have nights when they do, and things will flow better. But they played a hard game, outplayed Utah and 41 points by Carlos Boozer (!). Don't think Derron Williams wasn't playing hard either. Utah did what they could and the Rockets held them off. This was a very good win.

 

I'm proud of the way our guys played in games 1 and 2; they were easily our guttiest efforts of the year. We certainly have cause for concern as well as some adjustments to make going forward in the series. I don't care how pumped you are over the fact much of our worst beat their best in game 2, you can't disagree that we need to need to get our FG% over at least 40%, we have got hit some open 3's, Yao needs to have better position in the post, and we have got to more effectively defend Carlos Boozer. Kudos to Coach for making the neccessary adjustments in game 2 to account for all of the long rebounds that come as a result of Utah's reliance on jump shooting (we got killed on offensive rebounds in game 1). The good news is that JVG can adjust our schemes to solve the majority of our problems. The bottom line, though, is that our guys are going to have to hit more shots; thats something that JVG can't fix.

 

-We have shot an atrocious 13 out of 51 threes.

-Yao has had uncharacteristic two sub 50% shooting nights.

-Yet we are 2-0 in playoffs against a good team who has played really hard.

Comparisons to performances against freewheeling offensive teams in the regular season to these kind of playoff games against a hard nosed team are meaningless.

We are doing great. Get our 3 pointers on track (really like to see Luther get his sea legs soon) and at worst game 5 is an oppertunnity at home to close out the series and get some rest.

 

It was an ugly win but I take that win anytime. We were not doing well because both games we were trailing. This is not the Rockets that we know. Therefore, when we go on the road we will see the Rockets comes back to it ownself with early lead.

 

My sentiments exactly.

The Jazz perspective should be that they have to do better on Yao and T-Mac defensively. Even though they are missing shots, they are beating their defenders to the rim and are getting fouled. The Jazz have to be frustrated because the Rockets cant hit an open 3 to save their life and are ahead 2-0. The bench for the Rockets has been nonexistent and the Jazz couldnt steal a game.