If its the Jazz in the First Round, Will the Rockets Advance?

I say the jazz will come in over confident and we will take advantage of that. Not having Yao will actually help out agains the jazz as some have mentioned. Tmac will go off on them and the fact that they dont have fisher is big. We worry about our shots not falling and going flat, well I expect that they will have the same issues with poor shooting and foul trouble. It will come down to a game 7 with them and I think we will win because I don't expect the role players to suck like last year.

 

the one bright side of having to face Utah would be them not having Fisher, who for some unknown reason gave T-Mac a whole lot of trouble.

 

Low center of gravity + strength + speed + Tmac's inconsistent jumper = ineffective post-ups against Fisher.

I do think we'll at least match last year's performance, even without Yao, which is nothing to be ashamed of, since we're only one defensive rebound away from closing it out. And this time, Mutombo will flash those elbows to make sure we get that rebound.

 

The Rockets can... But I feel they might not.

I want the Lakers or Hornets... but oh well.

I am hoping Yao Theory carries them to the WCF though.

 

If we draw the Jazz, we win. Hornets are probably a win. Other than the #8 (den/gc) ... I dont wanna a piece of nobody else in the west.... we could get lucky against the Lakers, but i think Derek Fisher draining uncontested 3's from the perimeter is more likely. Suns, Spurs, Mavs, - we wont get punked, but we dont have enough healthy horses to win a series.
Hope I'm wrong. Hope we can watch a storybook championship run.
I'd never have bet on the Rox winning 22 straight, so who knows what the future holds.

 

Naw, nuggets is out the picture. Hornets, well I'm more afraid of the Hornets than the Jazz.

The Jazz is a very physical team, but that would only be boozer and williams. No one else. Scola and Landry are also very physical, and Harris who've yet to have good playing minutes is one crazyass physical rebounder. Have you seen his put backs against the bobcats?

Deron's probably our only problem, but I'm confident that bobby can contain him. Why? Cause bobby's also a very physical point guard. Jazz is not a very fast team, but they were fast last year because of Yao. This year, we'll have the speed advantage. If we give T-mac sufficient rest, t-mac could go off like the unofficial game 8 earlier this season.

Also, we must must must exploit brooks speed advantage. We just cannot let his speed go to waste. He can take away deron's energy fast. If Deron is tired, he won't be as physical a player. And I can't see why he can't drive by boozer or okur. These guys can't match up his speed.

As for the no bullet AK47. He is t-mac's bi*ch for so long already, why not again this year? T-mac has been screwing him up so bad last year (and earlier this year) that even I as a rocket fan feel sorry for him. I guess it's because he looks pretty similar to Shawn Bradley.

 

why the first option is yes,"they will be advance"?

 

They better beat any team they play in the first round or I'm out $100 bucks

 

Actually, having Kyle Korver out there as backup SG for the Jazz instead of Gordan Giricek last year may be better for us. IIRC Giricek used his size advantage in the playoffs and totally abused Luther Head. This mismatch completely took our small second-unit backcourt out of much of the series.

I'm not sure if we'd have any better luck with Korver, but Luther at least would have a better chance defensively and offensively. Korver's the same height as Giricek but 10 pounds lighter and his offensive game seems less physical than Giricek, which was what gave Luther headaches.

In fact, if we could keep a reasonable handle on Deron Williams, we have a good chance of winning the overall backcourt battle.

 

What the hell!! These standings are pissing me off. The Jazz lost last night and we still have not moved up in the standings?!? wtf They are 3.5 gms back and were only 2..how many more wins do we need to go ahead of them??!?!?

 

More wins than San Antonio, Lakers or Hornets.

The jazz clinched division title. Who cares about Jazz. They can't play for life without fans behind them. Jerry Sloan only deserves Coach of the year if his team don't screw up so much on road.

 

Good point. Also for some odd reason Giricek played T-Mac pretty tough on the defensive end, crowding T-Mac and denying him the basketball. Weird cuz Giricek is not known for his defense, but he did give T-Mac a hard time.

 

We have to advance if nothing else but to keep a sobbing T-Mac off the podium.

 

The Jazz are probably better than their record. Everyone in the media last year thought that they would be one of the elite teams in the NBA this year. They had a little hiccup this season because of some serious drama between Giricek and Sloan. I don't know if Giricek was really the problem, but the tension between him and Sloan was probably poison in the locker room.

I don't think that anyone outside of maybe Hayes has a good shot against Boozer, and putting him on the floor is going to cripple the offense unless the Rockets move the ball. I have the Jazz in 6. Hope I'm wrong though.

 

Great spirit *clap*clap*. Well the rocket's are more underrated than what their record tells them.
1. They're playing with new players, rookies, new system, new coach, new everything.
2. Name 1 team that has won 50+ games with a newly built lineup, new coach.
3. Name 1 team that went 22 game streak with a new coach. O wait, the rockets are the team with the second longest winning streak in 30 years.
4. T-mac is such an underrated playoff performer. This guy is probably the best playoff performer in NBA right now, and 3th 4th best scorer in NBA playoff history. If only he could get pass the first round....
5. We've lost to the Jazz when Yao was out, but remember, chemistry wasn't installed yet.
6. Adelman should and will use aaron brooks. He is the only guy who can tire out Deron Williams. Williams is incredibly physical, but if he is tired out, there is no way he could go inside the hoop.

Also, people are forgetting the point that the rockets are physical as well. Scola is incredibly physical. Landry dunks like the rim is 4 foot and this guy gets hit like crazy but still finishes like a Jordan. Bobby Jackson is quite althetic for his age, and he isn't a tear dropper, he lays it up and in.

And I have no doubt that T-mac will become incredibly physical in the playoffs, but it tired him out last year, I hope adelman can give him 35 mins per game. As for alston, Im not too sure about him. It just seems like he might choke.

I wanna see Novak though, that guy is tall, and proven clutch player (despite comming off the bench with no minutes played in 4 games). He is performing better than luther head. If we can use him, we can push the big guys like boozer out the paint.

 

As much as I hate Jazzers, I think them and Phoenix are teams to win it all this year.

 

Jazz won't win it all. If you can't go on road there is no way you can win against teams like spurs and celtics. Or even Suns as a matter of fact.

 

When the playoffs start, you're going to see a more focus Jazz team that will win on the road.

 

And I guess that doesn't apply to T-mac, scola, landry? Scola has these experience so he'll show up.

T-mac, well we all know what kind of playoff performer he is.

Seriously, why are clutchfans negative? The warriors went against all odds to beat the dallas, why can't we?

Geeze the warriors made in the playoffs in like 10 years I think and their fans are cheering even though they know they're playing against the best team in the west, and hardly any warriors fan doubt their team will lose.

 

The Jazz have a good team, but won't sniff at a championship. I personally think it's a toss up between the Sun's and Lakers.