that first quarter was pretty special. when the team came out and was stomping them right out of the gate, you could feel the electricity coming through the keyboard from the game thread. that was fun. it was all, "crush your enemies," and "kill, kill, kill." good times.
Agree with everything here. If we get this kind of defense for four games against the Warriors we've got a great chance to beat them.
The key is to come out strong early and focus. Hit your first few 3's like Ariza did and you install fear in opposition
Because he isnt handling the ball 100% of the time and he knows he doesn't have to with CP being there. That's a yuuuuuuuuuuuuuge psychological boost.
That game most likely crushed the Jazz confidence. Coming off an upset in game 2 and on top of the world. Houston walked on to the arena floor and reminded the Jazz that they are simply not good enough to beat an engaged Houston team.
I also want to add that last nights Rockets team beats the Warriors in a series if that version shows up 4 times.
Best thing about game 3 was losing game 2. I love how the Jazz fans had hope and in game 3 we went straight for the jugular.
I actually came in here to post something similar. One of my favorite Rockets memories of all time was our championship era team beating the Malone/Stockton Jazz by like 30 points in Salt Lake. All their fans in those days stood for most of their home games, and they just stood there silently, many of their heads bowed, as if listening to a two hour funeral prayer. I think Kenny Smith hit a bunch of threes that game on kick-outs from Hakeem. Just a wonderful, wonderful game.
Great post Will. The Rockets defensive dragnet was impressive. At risk of being a prisoner of the moment, I almost feel that was the best defensive I have ever seen the team play. So connected. So FAST. Arms were everywhere. Everything challenged. Breathtaking, tbh. I loved the offensive diversity. Sure 3's and dunks. But the CP midrange. PJ's jump hooks. Harden's floaters. THE ENTIRE COURT USED. Sure, keep working the 3's and layups, but having that "diversity" in the back pocket is nice to see. Lets take a moment and reflect upon when PJ Tucker got inserted into the starting lineup from Ryan Anderson. And where that has taken us. Just, man.
We can probably say Utah defense to sag Gobert translates into less turnovers vs traps where he tries to split double teams, plus a sagging big would result in more floaters or alley oops vs pocket passes to Clint Does Harden have less turnovers bs Utah on a regular basis?
Couldn't agree more. It was so satisfying watching them on defense last night, honestly we haven't played that good of defense in many years. Now we just need to minimize those crappy effort games like Game 2.
oh man i had to avoid clutch fans for two days after game 2. You knew it was going to be a madhouse with everyone talking about the sky fall.
This. We all smelled "blood in the water" when we saw them come out hard on D an aggressive at the rim. We know in Utah you have to crush their soul early and keep piling on. Nothing worse than going up big early only to have them cut it down to say 8 at the half. That gives them the idea they can come back but down by 30 WE knew THEY knew they weren't coming back from that. We're too good on offense for 24 minutes
We haven't had a game where we shot really well yet. Hopefully that will be happen in game 4. With younger players, you need to demoralize them into thinking they couldn't do anything about it. It's not a coincidence Quin Snyder had Mitchell check into garbage time last night so he didn't end up with 2 points on 1-10 shooting.
