ClutchFans Game Thread: Jazz @ Rockets 4/30/2007 (Playoffs Round 1, Game 5)

It's a civil rights issue when TMac continuously get mugged by white guys Harpring and Giricek?

Whatever works... as long as it helps Rockets win, I don't care if TMac is talking to Jesse Jackson or the Dalai Lama.

 

i was at the game tonight. the biggest key was that our bench came to play tonight. JuHo...HUGE tonight. Head began the night like he was the whole series but hit some key three's....

officiating was horrendous. we were up in section 401 and still could see yao and t-mac getting hacked. but the effin refs continually called ticky tacky fouls on us every time the j*zz flopped.

another disappointing thing..there were about 40% of the crowd who didn't wear red. that's pathetic.

 

we're doomed.

 

I would find it objectionable if Condoleeza was talking to T Mac. She is too old for him, and besides he is married and I assume a Democrat.

However, if the Rockets won, it would be good that they won.

 

Please no more statistics, our Rockets were no strangers to make history before.

 

Sweet win!!! Still gotta close 'em out though! It's fun reading the board again...

Haters (you know who you are)...STFU, about Yao, about Mac about everyone..y'all b*****s!! Start cheering and stop hating!

 

Actually, whether we win really depends on referees. In their HC, referees are harsh on us, so we lose. At Toyota center, the referees is a little bit better or fair, then we win. But there are still plenty of calls that are not good for us. Why this f**ing referees always treat us badly? Let's finish them at their HC! Go Rockets!!!

 

Very nice to finally see the dominant T-Mac back again.

I now understand what T-Mac is really about. He has been on cruise control for the most part of this series but now he is taking over the driver seat. I think he look ahead of himself and thought to save the energy for the Dallas series but since GS is whoopin them boys and us getting raped by Utah only meant one thing for him. Its go time and he must play like there is no tommorow to get this win and finish the Jazz in 6.

 

Yeah, trade yao.

You people don't f-ing deserve Yao.

 

i agree.

but at least it's not as bad as ppl bashing tmac. this is only 50%.

 

Am I the only person who noticed Battier guarding Williams during certain possessions? If that was by design -- brilliant move by JVG. I'd like to see that more ... have Rafer instead of T-Mac on Fisher when they're doing their two-PG thing and let Battier work on Williams. At the very least Williams loses his size advantage and is less effective with his outside shot, and the help defense can contain penetration.

 

yao plays not so well tonite,but he still got 21-15 +2 assistant + 1 block.

which included Rockets last 6 points in 4th quatar. so just stop your F whining .

 

Message to yao: get in the PAINT!!!! why the heck don't u????? we know u get pushed around but just push them back!! he backs them down like so far from the basket , when he should be get closer inside!

 

I wasn't fortunate enough to watch the whole entire game.. I saw some parts of it and from what I saw the team STILL give Yao low passes! This is really aggravating to watch!

Our guards are throwing the ball to Yao at knee level. I really don't understand this because:

1. This highly increases the chances of a turnover

2. It gets Yao off rhythm even if he catches the ball successfully.

It's hard enough for Yao to be pushing Okur and 7 other Jazz players to gain a good post up position, and now he has to bend down and fetch the ball?

It's mind bottling!

 

You people are so freaking greedy. Tonight Yao played well. Do you see how Duncan being screwed by refs?
Do you want Yao shoting ball first 2 quarter with 20pts and disappear in 4th? Come on, in a winning team there is no losers!

 

Yeah, but when Yao pushes back, Okur flops and it's automatic offensive foul.

 

I think Yao is just getting fatigued

playing all out every 2nd day does a number on ya when ya 300lbs!

 

It's seems to be more mental than physical fatigue.

 

With Yao, we need to stop feeding him the ball 5 feet outside the paint, where he has to take several dribbles to get into his move. If he gets it out there, he needs to pass it back out and repost, because more often then not, those possesions become turnovers or very bad shots. Other then that, we played a great game, as did Utah. Our bench finally showed up, and what makes it even more encouraging is that the only diffeance was Tmac being aggresive and everyone else making WIDE OPEN shots, thats all it takes, so lets get it done.

 

Just something to think about with the Mavs and Heat on the wrong end of a pair of one-sided affairs, and while Steve Nash is allowed to dribble circles around a porous Laker defense: the Jazz and Rockets might be playing the most entertaining basketball of the opening round. It's become cliché at this point, but it's also worth pointing out that both teams are employing a heady brand of defensive basketball that keeps games close and makes each basket seem worth its weight in gold. Why do I love this series? Let me count the ways. All five of them.

# Utah's ability to play its own brand of basketball. It might not always be legal, but the whistles tend to go away during the playoffs. The Jazz were 18th in defensive efficiency during the regular season, but they probably would have been a top 10 defensive outfit had they not insisted on sending their opponents to the free-throw line at every given instance. In spite of the league's crackdown on hand-checking and dislodging in the low post, the Jazz continue to party like it's 1999 on the defensive end. In the playoffs for the first time since 2003, Utah is lucky that the refs are looking the other way, while the team is allowed to pull weak-side guard help out of the lane away from the ball, or use both arms while defending the post. Nobody is saying that Utah is getting all the calls, or that the non-calls are the reason this series is so close -- this is just a throwback seven-game tilt of the highest order.

# Jerry Sloan's play-calling. It's predictable, it might not always win games, but you feel like John Tesh should be cranking out the theme music for this stuff. These are the same ... exact ... plays that the Jazz employed during their '90s heyday. Derek Fisher missed a 3-pointer in the fourth quarter off a flex-cut pass that I swore I saw Jeff Hornacek hit about 400 times from 1994 to 2000. We're seeing Matt Harpring get post-up looks that Shandon Anderson used to take advantage of as a rookie in 1997. The only wrinkle I'd like to see more of, as I was reminded of by this writer on Monday afternoon, would be to see Andrei Kirilenko initiate the offense as a passer more often. AK garnered an assist on 23.5 percent of the possessions he used up during the regular season, so he has the touch.

# The ways in which Carlos Boozer is able to score on Yao Ming, even with Yao playing superb defense. It would make sense that Yao's length would frustrate Boozer into taking the sort of face-up jumpers most big men are uncomfortable with, but that hasn't been the case. Boozer has been taking, and making, a series of impossibly tough jumpers since Game 2, and somehow the shots keep falling. And whenever Yao seals off the jumper, Boozer is quick to drive and finish with his off hand.

With Boozer playing out of his mind, and Yao having seemingly employed every trick in his defensive arsenal, it's time to make a change. Put Chuck Hayes, that noted defensive demon, on Boozer. Though undersized, Hayes has played darn well against Boozer in limited looks, even snuffing one of his jump hooks late in the third quarter Monday. Hayes has been instrumental in taking Mehmet Okur out of this series (offensively, at least, because Okur has nine blocks in five games), but it might be time to let Yao chase Okur around the perimeter. Yao's been matched up with Okur a few times in this series already, and his considerable length prevented Mehmet from getting off a shot. And, with Okur guarding Yao on the other end, Houston won't be in danger of being scored on in the sort of cross-matches that happen in transition, when defenders have to switch off of the guy that's been defending them, while on the run.

The Rockets switched Hayes onto Boozer during the game's final minute tonight, he picked up a foul (bad call) while moving through a screen, and he earned an offensive foul after denying Boozer the ball and switching in front of a driving Derek Fisher on Utah's next offensive possession.

# Tracy McGrady's insistence on attacking what little space the Utah defense left him. T-Mac was amazing, warming the hands of his teammates with 10 first-half assists (he finished with 16), easing his Rockets out of the team's turnover issues with a calm dribble and superior court vision. In the second half, McGrady decided against trying to win this game with the bomb, as he's done so far in this series. McGrady attacked the rim, finished in the lane, and didn't mind absorbing the contact even with a bum hip. 26 points for T-Mac, who finished with just four turnovers in 42 minutes, in spite of having the ball in his hands nearly every time down the floor.

# Role players. Utah's Paul Millsap had six points and five rebounds in just 10 minutes of action. Houston's Juwan Howard didn't miss from the field, scoring 12 points with six rebounds, three assists, and two steals in 25 minutes. Rocket second-year guard Luther Head finally woke up, and Shane Battier scored 15 points on just seven shots, to go with his always-dominant defense.

THE JAZZ ARE GETTING AWAY W/ TOO MUCH. HANDCHECK ON TMAC. TWO HANDS ON YAO IN THE POST.

CALL THEM REFS DAMMIT. THIS IS 07 W/ HANDCHECK RULES YOU DAMN FOOLS