ClutchFans Game Thread: Jazz @ Rockets 4/19/2008 (Playoffs Round 1, Game 1)

You got it. A couple of more layups or foul shots by Scola and a couple of other breaks and we are in the game.

 

Dude, where was Landry tonight?

 

First, I hated the espn reporters, wasting time at the beginning of the game doing human interest stories rather than covering the game. Uh, the ball just changed hands - could you tell us why please?

The refs sucked which is normal. We were quickly thrown out of our offense. Whenever Deke rebounded he could not get the ball back up to the rim with the amount of hits on his arms by the Jazz - and of course, no fouls called.

If we don't play harder and give some hard fouls then this series is over.

Personally I would like to see a tall lineup at times of Mutombo, Tmac, Scola, Landry and Novak/ Battier. Our small lineup is no faster than the Jazz and is giving up a lot of height and weight.

Like to see Scola and Landry and Novak all lift weights this summer and put on 10 lbs of muscle.

 

get the overrated LBJ here and pay a year of luxury tax would be fine

 

A few things i noticed at the game tonight:

The Jazz want what the rockets usually give up. The rockets' defensive philosophy is and has been to make the opposing team take long mid-range jumpshots. Thats what they do. This killed battier. Normally tmac and are PG are getting scored on but we can count on Battier to lock down the guy he's guarding. He didn't.

WE HAVE TO SCORE TO WIN.

We need to go to our small lineup with either Head or BJax at SG ALOT more this puts pressure on their defense. Mutombo is good enough on D and tall enough that he makes up for not being as good at offense but i think a small lineup with Battier and Scola is good for our offense. We would even do better with Harris at the 4 at times. Hayes just isn't good enough at offense to help us against these guys.

We need to worry more about scoring than post defense.

 

Np. We could have used Artest - but I suspect that the Rockets' brass is giving up on "win now" attitude and looking more toward the future (e.g. the BJax trade). We have two extremely injury prone stars and role players - we have to have a lot of luck for us to win a championship with them. And it ain't happen' this year.

 

Reasons we lost

Utah out hustled us for the loose balls/gave them too many second chance pts

BJ was not knocking down shots he usually hits

Landry has fallen off big time, does not produce the way he used to, now he is turning the ball over and he is not finishing around the basket when he first did, this is why coach hesitated to put him back in until late 3rd

Missed way too many FTS

Tmac played GREAT!! in the first half, then in the second half he started going back to shooting low percentage shots, all though some were good looks, they were not going in.

And lastly, nobody on the rockets can hold Deron Williams, he is the quickest guy I seen move with the ball, lmao he mad bjax fall lol


We need Rafer back also ASAP, it showed how we missed him tonight, Rafer would of hit the shots BJ wasnt

 

There's no reason to hate the Jazz this game because we got outhustled, out shot, out boarded, and we couldn't even make out free throws when it mattered. All at home.

Bounce back rockets. It's like we were counting on a 7 game series or something...

 

Houston has a larger payroll than Utah BY FAR. Boozer, Okur, and Deron aren't close to max players in salary.

 

i was there, after bobby jackson threw that pass away and tmac slammed the ball he looked him right in the eye and said "what the *****"

 

we need to be more physical...

 

Tough loss...but thats the awesomeness of a 7 game series, you got a shot to get better and come back at em...

Basically....if AK doesn't ball out his ASS....Utah has a problem...we gotta shut him down....

Good job on Okur (again)....

I think we got game 2....cuz look at the facts....u jump on them early, they'll go away....they got the 1 game they wanted...so if our boys can just get an early jump on the jazz, it'll be an easy win.

 

i think maybe it is time (no pun intended) for some fans here to adjust their expectations.

take the starting pg and center out of any playoff team's lineup (one of them being the best center in the league), all of those teams will struggle big time. we're talking about taking nash and shaq out of the suns, parker and oberto of the spurs, kidd and dampier of the mavs, paul and chandler of the hornets, fisher and gasol of the lakers, etc. it almost makes you feel that only a major break coming your way or a miracle can swing things around.

and this is the very reason i have not been expecting us winning the series (for the 1st time in my life).

the guys still played decent and they sure tried hard. not too many complaints from me. just lay back and be appreciative.

i'm sure adelman will get guys play better as the series moves on. tonight guys just played way too tight (big reason for missed layups).

 

Novak got one decent look at the basket and missed. This is the reason we lost the game? How about 36% shooting by the entire team? Or missing 1o free throws? of 4 for 21 by our PGs?

 

Would have been nice if Francis had even come to the game. I mean come on it is a home playoff game. Just show up.

 

I am not going to blame it all on Novak, but i do have to say that we shouldn't have put him in when we were on our roll...he had to play D against AK-47 and Ashton Kutcher...but other than that, free throws are the key to win a basketball game, if you dont make em, you wont win, and one more thing..tmac gave up early, and what the hell, how many points did he get in the 4th? shots did he take? LBJ scores like 10-20 in the 4th, kobe scores 10-20 in the forth to help their team...geez

 

Yeah, I don't remember Adelman playing T-Mac & Carl together. Landry is most effective at getting to the rack when T-Mac creates for him. Remember all those dunks during the streak?

 

When Novak came on, the Jazz kept on attacking him on their offense, and well all know how great of a defender Novak is.

 

I'm not putting this on anyone in particular.

I'm only going to say this, if Novak is in the game and he's not shooting, then he's useless.

I like the guy, I think he has a terrific shot, but if he's not getting any off, why leave him in the game???



I was there tonight. It was a roller coaster. Ups and downs all around.

Time to bounce back and go for game #2.

 

THE REFS SUCK! im sorry but they drained our momentum.
i swear utah pays those damn refs.

have faith, rafer alston will be back. its not over