The Jazz has the numbers of this Rockets team. If in the past playoffs the rockets had their chance to beat Jazz, now they do not any more. 1. Jazz has the best on the ball defense. They surround the player who has the ball and block the path of passing. Rick Adelman's offense (read and react) when executed in slow motion (Artest and Yao are among the slowest at their own positions), is Jazz' meat. 2. TMac's absence. You can say all the bad things about him, but his offense was the key of the wins in past playoffs against Jazz. 3. Rafer Alston's gone. High assist/turn over ratio. His experience and ball handling would prevent the guards to fall into the Jazz defense traps. How many of those have you seen tonight? The only leverage that the Rockets did not have in the past playoffs is Ron Artest. He needs to pick up his energy level and have better performance on both ends of the court. Outplayed tonight by Brewer. Conclusion: avoid Jazz at all cost. I will start to monitor the standing of Jazz. The bad news is, if playoff had started yesterday, its Rockets vs. Jazz; and with this loss, if playoff started today, its still Rockets vs. Jazz. I'd rather the Rockets loss home court than play the Jazz. Sounds too pessimistic, but I don't see the Rockets beat Jazz with everyone healthy. I know JVG would hate the idea of selecting opponent, and I was a supporter of his mentality at the time. So I am a little confused. Should the Rockets try to avoid Jazz, or just play for the best standing and not worry about matchups? Update 03/25: If playoffs started today, Jazz would play Denver while Rockets would play NOH. They would not meet until conference finals if both would make it. I hope this would last to the end of the regular season.
The Jazz is a nightmare match up for the Rockets. Only those with half a brain would want us to play against them in the first round.
Technically, it's not in our control, especially if we keep winning. Their schedule is hard, but I don't think they'll drop all of those games, they'll have to win some of them. I just think that as long as we keep winning, we shouldn't have a problem in matching up with them. The Mavs, Blazers are only 1 loss behind all of us (Jazz, Rockets, Nuggets) and two behind the Hornets. I think we can't control what the Jazz do, we just need to keep winning.
Utah Jazz = 90's Seattle Super Sonics. We have a chance to advance if we don't face the Jazz in the playoffs.
This team is beatable. They need to play a JVG style type of game with this team against teh Jazz. RA style isn't successful against the Jazz.
first off the jazz aren't really a great team. they just look that way against us because of the mismatches, meaning they'll most likely drop a lot of games they have left on the road, while we'll continue winning after tonight. i've got a bad feelign that we're going to meet in the playoffs yet again......
Jazz always look like world beaters at their place. We shot horrible turn the ball over miss tons of rebound, but still was a close game. They look better that they actually are at home.
Honestly if we had a healthy T-mac to go along with Artest and Yao, I think we would have matched up better with them...I remember Brewer held McGrady in check in the playoffs, and he also held Artest in check tonight, if we had both, it obviously would have created matchup problems. But I think you are absolutely right...the third time will NOT be the charm, their front court has been killing us with their jumpers and Yao has never matched up well with them. If it was the last day of games and if we had to lose in Dallas to avoid playing the Jazz, I definately would....
I think we totally need a thread like this for the Lakers. I mean, we haven't beaten the Lakers at all this season, right? That means they're TOTALLY INVINCIBLE and we'll never ever win against them either, eh? Grow up, you whiners. The Jazz are a good team, and beating them will be hard. But quit acting like they're this uberpowerful team that you whiny quitters are doing.
denver portland and hornets just don't post the same level of threat to this team than the jazz. Not to say the Jazz is just better than those teams but they do match up so well with rox
i hate all the pessimistic tone here after a road loss to utah. hate it! sure, they aren't our favorable match-up, but "at all cost"? then why contend every year? as long as sloan's jazz team is around, we might as well hold the white flag and give it up since, according to some fans here, we can never win! way to go some clutchfans.
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my vote... AVOID its the smart thing to do. don't let foolish pride lead us to play a team we match up poorly against
I agree that some in this league would not even consider selecting opponents, but for those who do they would try to avoid the Lakers in the first round. I do not understand what you were trying to convey. I guess most of us would agree not playing Jazz, or Lakers in the first round.
why contend every year ??? utah has our number, other teams do not. you think the mavs would have lost in the first round a couple years ago if they didn't play the team they matched up the worst with ? hell no! remember when the sonics were upset by the nuggets ? that helped the rockets finally be able to break through because we couldn't beat the sonics! our best shot at any kind of playoff success is avoiding utah. i hate utah just as much as the next rocket fan, but its obvious to me the odds of us beating them are pretty slim compared to other teams, especially in the first round. we have a better chance in a later round after we get the 1st round monkey off of our backs.
Yao is ignored Ron shows his no-brain ,acting like he is the NO.1 AB can 'secretly 'shot some and no good pass Von is a fly and no discipline Only our scola and Hayes steady The biggest point is our coach ,helpless
