Will you feel confident this time around if you face the Jazz in the POs?

Let him shoot. I want the ball in the hands of the less likely to light'm uppers.

BTW - up 3-0 with three 20-point wins and I still won't be confident until the last tick goes off the clock in a 4th win. V any team in the playoffs.

 

No no no. As Clutch said yesterday on 1560, the Jazz are probably the worst matchup for the Rockets.

The biggest thing is with Yao. He used to play well against Jazz, but right now they kinda found a game play to slow him down every time we play those idiots. Also, he can't guard Okur or Boozer. They are too quick and have too deep range for Yao to guard them.

But also, we really have NO ANSWER for Deron. He played great against us last year and he will probably eat us alive (especially Aaron) this year.

 

We had a good chance last year ,Rafer and Tmac played good games ,we kick Utah's ass when Rafer was in,we lost it all because of Rafer's injury.

 

I'm tired of seeing the Jazz in the playoffs, I'd prefer to see the Rockets play somebody else.

 

the problem is we can't win in Utah...

they CAN win here.

Let's just avoid this team, k?

 

Only if we had HCA, I would rather them face New Orleans, or Dallas

 

And battier.

But it doesnt matter. If we play the Jazz its over. 5 or 6 games.

 

Well yes, you are right. It would be dissapointing to face them 3rd straight time. And not only because I don't see us beating them... Just because we would play them 3rd straight year.

But as I said. Right now, Utah is probably the worst matchup for Yao and for the Rockets as well. I do belive the best one is New Orleans Hornets because Yao will be matched up against Chandler and Yao has been playing well against him.

What's more, I do think we would be able to slow down Paul because he is not as great shooter/scorer as Williams and he is not that strong. I do belive Lowry/AB would have a lot of success against Paul.

 

lol, if you think we can beat the jazz in 7 games with hca, youre mistaken. i would love some payback vs the mavs and the jazz. however, im more confident we can beat the mavs than the jazz. the jazz have our number.

yao, our best weapon, cant get it done on the defensive side against okur or boozer.

ab/lowry cant guard deron.

artest, our second best weapon, is sporadic in his offensive game. we need tried and true type plays/systems.... like sloan's.

everything in between, i consider a tie. landry/wafer/milsap/brewer/etc.

 

I would have more confidence if we played the Jazz in the 2nd or WCF.

 

beat the first three and then a solid 4-2 will make my day.

 

Hornets seem like a rocky rival for us to cope with according to our matchups with them in recent years, CP now is the world's best PG that is gonna unfold Aaron's polished scape to show the whole world his real value. aaron is a good player but he is still not enough to avoid being blown out by a superstar caliber PG like CP. I would rather leave NO to spurs, though dallas seems like a good option for us.

 

I think the rockets can beat them, though it won't be easy. Artest will play a lot better than he did last game and if we hit the open shots we missed, we'll do much better. Also, getting Landry back will recharge the second unit.

The biggest question naturally is how to stop Deron Williams. Normally, you might say let Williams get his points but don't let him create for others; however, the last game showed the Jazz's motion offense makes that very difficult to accomplish. If Adelman can decrease Williams' assist numbers and the Rockets show patience, they have a chance.

But it definitely won't be easy.

 

With no Injuries, i am confident enough if we have home court advantage.

I think the Jazz are 2 different teams at home and away.

 

No Jazz, please no Jazz... at least not in the first round

 

The problem is not just Deron. Even if we let Deron get his points while trying to keep Boozer/Okur in check, we won't have any luck. Yao can't seem to guard any of them with any luck.

I would support benching Brooks and Battier for Lowry and Wafer though. That would give us an advantage.

A defensive swingman is very useless against the Jazz.

Still, I hate them and I'm a Rockets fan. I wouldn't mind playing them. There's no team able to keep Yao ineffective forever.

The key is to reduce Shane's minutes, or make him a bit more of a scorer on offense (some post-ups, some hook shots). Personally I think Wafer and Brooks would be a nightmare for them if they were attacking the rim constantly.

 

you really just have to ask yourself one question:

Are we championship contenders?


hopefully youre sane and answered no. moving on, if we arent contenders, then the playoffs are pretty much pointless right?

wrong. if we can't be the best by dominating all the teams, we can be the best by using matchups/strategy.

 

Scola did a pretty good job on Okur. He's able to guard Okur on the perimeter. Boozer is coming off an injury and is not 100%, but that may change by the playoffs.

I disagree. Last game, Brooks did a great job penetrating and dishing to shooters, but we were missing open shots. We'll need more of that and his shooting in the playoffs.

Also, Battier can be used to guard Brewer, who was giving Artest fits. I think it's a good matchup for Battier, and leaves the job of guarding more physical forwards (Kirilenko, Milsap) to Artest.

 

Exactly, sorry guys winning in the POs is all about match ups and we don't match up with the Jazz. Their big guys kill Yao because he's to slow to guard any of them and on the flip side Okur looks like Dennis Rodman's playing D on Yao on the other end of the court.

Our role players like Scola and Landry play like semi stars vs many teams yet they also struggle against the Jazz. Rockets need to let another team beat the Jazz just like we let another team eliminate the Sonics back in the day when they were a match up nightmare.

Teams that can beat the Jazz are teams that have up tempo athletic guys that can beat the Jazz down court and take them out of their physical defensive sets. If we had Sam Cassell, Clyde the Glide and Robert Horry then Yeah we could beat them in Utah on their floor.

 

Dream's Rockets could never get past Payton/Kemp.

Jazz are just our worst matchup. Rockets could win a ring if we fell in the right bracket setup (Portland -> Denver -> San Antonio -> Cleveland), unlikely but possible.