We will see a glimpse of it Tues. I think we have a team better suited to beat Utah than previous years. Artest plays better def than Tmac and he takes it to the basket more which force Utah's defenders to play defense. Brooks and Lowry are better at scoring than Rafer. Lowry can be our Deron's stopper at the end. Don't make him play Deron the whole game, save him for crucial time. Wafer, Barry can score. Scola is becoming a beast. And last but not least, no Head.
I'll believe it when I see it. The Jazz manage to turn Yao Ming into a liability. Their strengths play right into our weaknesses. After seeing Okur successfully guard Yao one-on-one two years ago while Boozer was annihilating him at the other end of the court, after watching us lose game 7 on our own home court, I can scarcely envision beating the Jazz in a 7-game series. I'll watch and cheer like always but with little hope.
we might be able to beat them, but why take the chance? playoffs should start off with an easy opponent and utah is imo one of the toughest. just hope rockets dont repeat the same mistake when they won meaningless games to match up with the mavs when we could have played the sonics.
we can win 2 or 3 games in a 7 game series against them but chances of beating them 4 times are very slim. Remember they have beaten us two straight times in the playoffs with us having home court advantage with I don't get cause they are a bad road team. All this put this together means one thing, JAZZ are a BAD MATCHUP.
CAN we beat them? Hell yes! Do I want to see them in the first round... Hell NO!! I don't think there is any team I want to see less in the first round than the Jazz. Saying that, we need to knock this monkey off our back sooner or later. IF this is the matchup we draw, we'll go in confident, guns blazing, Scola's hair flapping in the wind, united and playing inspired team ball!
I voted no. I think it will be a closely contested series. I just feel like Deron Williams, Boozer, Okur, and AK are too good/crafty to lose a closely contested series. If we straight up were better than them, then their "tricks" wouldn't matter. But when it's close...if they can fool the refs, we'll be back here complaining about flopping and stuff. That is why I voted no. I do think the Rockets have some problems, but my vote was more about how Utah plays, and how it is like kryptonite to some of our players.
i don't think there are any easy outs for us, look how tight the standings are. i'm leary of utah and can't wait for the game on tues. i think this game will be a huge confidence boost or else expose us as the jazz's b****es. c'mon rockets, let's get it done.
Hell Yes! I think we can beat them in a series especially if we got home court! They are a tough team to beat in Utah so home court is a must for us if we play them so tomorrows game is crucial! F#$% Utah!!
Come on people. Champions and Tru Wariers fear no team. Spanking the Jazz in the first round would give a boatload of confidence to players and fans alike. Besides, the Rockets would have won last year had Rafer played in all the games. Think about that not so insignificant fact before you all freak out about the Jazz.
no doubt but there's a lot of bad history and even more hate you gotta throw into the equation. it's nerve-racking playing those guys and nothing comes easy. for some reason they seem to always play their best vs. us.
as others mentioned I have no issues about facing the jazz but I do not want to face them in the first round..why? kind of sick of seeing them only in the first round and honestly they are a matchup nightmare for us. if the rockets can face a different team in the first round and advance it does a few things: a)confidence from everyone the major pieces to this team outside of Ron haven't been out of the first round this would be a huge boost to them. b)refs --the fewer playoff games there are the chances are we get better refs being sent to do the games. this lowers a huge jazz advantage ..and more importantly when we advance at least a round the team will be given a lot more respect from the media and the refs which will only help our causes against the jazz. if we face them in the first round so be it, i think the team is strong enough to beat them but the ref factor will be much greater in the first round than the second round.
I hope we win, but if we lose I want ARTEST to simply just bust someone's grill in this dirty mother f***in team.
We have Lowry to slow down Deron Williams. We have a healthy Yao Ming. I KNOW for a FACT that he would want revenge for getting taken to the back of the woodshed by Boozer and Okur 2 years ago and not being able to do anything last year since he was injured. We have Scola, Landry and Hayes to defend against Boozer, Okur, Millsap. We have Artest and Battier to defend against Kirlenko/Harpring/Brewer. We have veteran playoff leadership in Brent Barry. We have home court advantage. We have a new dimension of toughness added with Tru Warier. Most importantly however WE DON'T HAVE LUTHER HEAD!
I third the motion. Some great comments in this thread. We're Rockets fans - we are dedicated and confident. We're going to beat Satan's team, the Utah Jazz, once and for all.
