i know jazz has our numbers, but home court alwyas good, plus arent the jazz bad team on the road?????
I understand why everyone is so concerned about playing the Jazz, but it seems a little over the top. Yes they have knocked us off in the previous 2 years, but yet again we are a different team this year and it seems stupid to try and avoid a team at all costs. Why is everyone so concerned about JUST getting out of the first round? Why not aim a lil higher and try and reach the conference finals, which we are more than capable of doing. Falling down the seedings just to avoid the Jazz will mean we might have to meet them in the second round or even worse meet the Lakers in the second round. Come on people, there is more than just getting out of the first round!! Conference finals....Lets have some positivity!
Take down the Jazz and our team will be feeling pretty high and mighty rolling into the second round. If we're to beat the Jazz in the first round, we need to be firing on all cylinders. And if that's the case, then we've all but punched our ticket to the WCF. The Lakers are another story though.
I was going to say the exact same thing. We are just as tough as the Jazz at home and we are better on the road. We've split the season series and while the Jazz are tough matchups for us I think we are the better overall team. I'm a coach and I was talking to my players last night getting ready for a tournament this weekend. I told them they need to go out and be agressive and not overthink what they are doing. Judo isn't basketball especially at the NBA level but in both being aggressive is just as important. That means you take it to your opponent rather than try to avoid them.
If the Rockets loose against Dallas, they'll probably loose home court, making the first round really difficult against Portland or SA. Plus if they pass they'll face the lakers in 2nd round. They win, they might face the Jazz.... which is playing pretty badly. And if the Rockets beat them, they'll have a good chance to go to the WCF, and I like more their chances at beating LA at this point, instead of in the 2nd round.
If you can't protect home court, you don't deserve to go forward. I'll take home court and whatever comes with it.
heck, I feel terrible about all those avoid Utah discussion. Most Dynasty features a sweep of its nemesis: 90-91 Bulls swept the Pistons 95-96 Bulls swept the Magic 99-00 Lakers worried about the Spurs a lot while swept them in 2001 All three teams accomplished th-repeat While all those swept were Champions or in the Finals in no more than two years. While we scare a non-Final team to death? (Their quality as a non-Final team is far worse than 05-07 Suns) I don't expect a sweep, but enough is enough Go face Utah and beat'em! ANY TIME.
Well, those talks that we must avoid Utah become terrible. Actually, we may have a better chance to beat Utah than Dallas. The Utah jazz are down as the team right now due to the off-court issues, as speculated by the ESPN people, which could be true by just looking their records in last seven or more games.
Excuse me, talent wise are we anywhere close to any of these teams lead by Jordan/Pippen and Shap/Kobe? We are not even a 55-win team for that matter, not to mention a dynasty. If we still have a healthy Tmac, we should be optimistic about facing the Jazz or anyboday at any round. But we don't.
I agree that talent issue, Definitely I am not looking forward to win it all just win a round... Good news is: defending champion and beat you in 3 consecutive years(1991 Pistons), champion and sweep you two years ago (2001 Spurs), beaten in Finals after beat you last year (1996 Magic) , Jazz is none of the above. They just beat us twice in the first round If we want to accomplish something, we must try to make it, Optimistic means something, but it takes a lot more to win
Even w/ ring #3, it won't mean as much w/o climbing over the lifeless corpses of the Utah Jazz. I said it!
This is a post everyone should read. To add to it, Houston's chances are far worse if they lose home court advantage, have to play a tough series against Portland/San Antonio and win on the road and then turn around and play a tough series on the road against the Lakers(who no doubt have been resting after a quick series victory over the 8 seed). I'm telling you - we don't fare well in that scenario. ...the alternative is we finish either in the 2 or 3 spot. Play either the Jazz, Hornets, or Mavs at home in the first round and then Denver in the 2nd round - possibly at home if Portland beats them the last night of the season...then we play the Lakers in the WCF. Basically what I'm saying is it doesn't matter if we play the Jazz or not because playing San Antonio/Portland and Lakers on the road through the first two series is much harder than anything the Jazz can dish on the road(where they are not very good).
No one has addressed this issue yet. Forget about how good they are on their home court. Home or away they know how to neutralize Yao. Yao is not an efficient player when he plays the Jazz. He plays better against the Lakers then he does against the Jazz. Yao is our nucleus, why are you asking for him to be exploited in a series versus the Jazz? I am not saying we should tank a game to avoid the Jazz but don't start getting cocky thinking "we want the jazz, they are down now". We haven't gotten out of the first round in 10 years! Quit being so proud and realize when you see a bad matchup...
Have you all been watching the news? The players don't even want to play the Jazz in the first round. The Jazz have already mentally beaten the Rockets, and they are salivating at getting us in the first round again. The Rockets act like they can't beat the Jazz, so why should I believe they can?
