I don't know if I'd say it was a good analysis. As Htown said, the keys to our victory were more possessions and more foul shots. Rosen spends all his time talking about the good defense on Yao and Tracy and the bad offense of the Jazz, and spends very little time talking about how Utah got whipped on the boards and committed fouls on every other posession. Utah's offense was good -- better than ours. Their defense was not good. They may have kept us from shooting well from the field, but it doesn't matter when you send your opponent to the line 20 times more than you get to go. And, the possession inequity resulting from the Rockets' lopsided rebounding victory (especially on the offensive end) pretty much negates any good defense you can play. Playing shutdown defense for 24 seconds does you no good if you can't get the rebound. He makes passing mention of these factors, but they were the story of the game. And I don't think, as he says, it was because of the Rockets' athleticism (lol) -- Sloan's team didn't box out enough, and didn't maintain defensive position and they got burned.
Agree with JV et al. If you did not see the game yourself, you'd have few clues how Rockets won last night after reading Rosen's one-sided analysis.
But he's right in many ways. The Jazz are simply overmatched in this series. They have to foul because they can't contain 111. They have to be physical because that's the only way they know how to play defense. People talk about Sloan being a good defensive coach, but if you look at the defensive efficiency numbers you'll see that they have been worse than mediocre the entire season. Utah relies on their offensive execution to win games. When you take that away, and you sic two unstoppable superstars on them, they're just overmatched. And that's the way it is. They can't be encouraged by the fact that they did pretty much what they wanted to do, Houston shot 36% from the floor, our subs did practically nothing and yet they lost. And it wasn't even a last second decision either. The Rockets are just a superior team.
I don't think Jazz's defence is that good. We still have a lot open looks, but we just can't sink them. Hopefully, we'll do better next time. This is a learning procedure since guys like Head have no play off experience and Battier has never won any play off game before his present in Rockets.
True. True. Also, they were forced to foul us repeatedly b/c they can't gaurd Yao/tmac. We will either shoot 50% or end up on the free throw line. Pick your poison.
Will you guys stop saying that? Those three teams aren't nearly as brutally physical as the Jazz are. The reason Yao and McGrady haven't shot too well so far is because of the physical beating they've both taken, not to mention the double-teams they've seen from the defense. This bad shooting won't hold true against any of the other teams you mentioned. The Jazz have 'goons' in Harpering and Giricik whose sole job is to put a body on McGrady and rough him up; that takes an enormous toll over the duration of a game. Of course, I haven't even mentioned the way the Jazz defend Mcgrady by 'shadowing' him with two or three guys intent on preventing him from driving/penetrating and thus forcing him to take outside shots. The Jazz are a terrific defensive team and they play a very physical game on both ends of the court.
