Learn a lesson from baseball. If the refs won't do it, take care of it yourself!

Rafer is ill-tempered and is one to drop everything and get in your face.

The problem is, the Jazz players were taught how to do their dirt so that the refs would have a small chance of seeing it. I almost believe retaliation is EXACTLY what they want from opponents.

Also, if we try to hide our dirt (elbows on picks, body shoves on rebounds, etc.), the Jazz players would just FLOP. This scheme almost ALWAYS works in Utah, I can't believe it was let go IN Houston in the first half. It really set the tone.

 

Teams like Utah (and duke in NCAA ball) disgust me with this sort of play. Refs see everything as relative, so the jazz figure if they foul constantly--an elbow on every pick and every cut through the lane, a forearm shiver to the back on every rebound, a push on every drive--they won't get called for it. Their style--and sloan's style for years--is to raise the bar for what constitutes a foul.

How do we respond? 3 ways:

1. Fire with Fire--Scola caught on to this after the first bit of the game. Swing your elbows and scream on a rebound barkley style. crash into them driving through the lane. Let them know that YOU AREN'T SCARED and YOU WON'T BE INTIMIDATED. Two empirical examples of this working: 1. Rocky 3 ("You ain't so bad!") 2. The Jordan Bulls (Rodman let both teams know that he was the craziest Mo*****er on the court at any given time. Scola can do this for us) Bullies aren't so bad. They act tough, but kick em in the nuts and they'll show you respect.

2. Speed--the jazz aren't that fast a team. Lets make this a fast paced, transition ballgame Get brooks in there and run the break. You know Scola is itching to run, T-mac can run, Landry would just love to hammer one in Boozers face. Let em loose. A dirty, physical defense can only muck up a half court game--in transition, it's worthless.

3. Ball movement/dribble penetration--switch the ball to the weak side and drive. their defense overpursues and cloggs driving angles. That means with quick ball movement around the perimiter, the defense is out of position to defend a drive on the other side, and good things happen. This also means that the guys who'll catch it on the weakside--shane, Jax, Head, etc, have to be ready and willing to atack. Adleman has preached this all year. Don't attack their strength--make them show their hand, draw them in, and SWEEP THE LEG.

 

I don't really have a problem with Jazz's style of play. In fact, if they didn't flop, I would be perfectly fine with it. In this 'metro' NBA, where everything's a foul, it's refreshing. It's sad that the Rockets back down from that kind of play. Basically, I agree with the OP.

 

Its the hypocritical style of play that irks me. Offense predicated around non-contact so when you do get contact it sticks out and is thus called. Defense predicated around full-contact so that real fouls get drowned out with the ticky-tack stuff that you really dont want to see called.

 

Remember when even Hakeem came down on their style of play? He said something to the effect of: "They like to make everyone think they are choirboys--they aren't." That's as close as Hakeem got to calling them dirty, but it was easy to read between the lines. It was the series that later became infamous for the "bearhug."

The thing is, the Rox never complained about the way the Jazz played the 2 years they stomped them on their way to the trophy. It's only in series that they lost that they complained. See the pattern? I think it's fine for us to b**** about how they play dirty, but I don't want to see our guys whine about it. Just bust them back right in their 'effin mouths!

 

I hate the Jazz as much as anybody, but do you have any film to back up what you are saying?

 

Watch the game tonight. Look for what has been pointed out.

 

We should have de-activated Novak and signed Charles Oakley for some enforcer action.

Seriously, I do want Utah bloodied if they get into the second round. They need to know they were in a war if they get past the Rockets.

 

We do have one player physically capable of knocking the wind out of any jazzhole player: Mike Harris

 

I was incredibly disgusted Sat night with the crap the Jazz were able to get away with. After the ref scandal last summer, you would think Stern would want the games to be reffed squeaky clean. And that the league office would be looking at tapes and reviewing games with the refs. But apparently, that is not a priority.

 

Our players learned jack **** from last year and I highly doubt they'll respond in kind this year.

Prove me wrong, Rockets.

 

how about we flop more..and pretend to get banged up on every foul..like if u get hit somewhere..just fall and wait for a min and pretend like someone just broke your arm.

i used to ref and what i noticed was..if two teams are equally playing thuggish style bball..you let em play..but if you see one team gettin beat up and on the floor a lot..u have this pity for them.

 

I've always been a fan of tough, physical basketball. It separates the men from the boys. I just hate to see it being done to my Rockets.

 

hehe

I think there is the possibility of Scola-Boozer escalating.

 

Several others have commented and I went back and replayed parts of the 1st game in detail Boozer is all about forearms shivs and elbows in people's backs. Some of my old martial arts moves.

If you have a friend or a wife, have them press their forearm in the middle of your back and then keep turning it until they have the point of their elbow in muscle. See how fast you get out of the way. It is a great move for turning someone under the basket so they then jump out of bounds and you are clear to rebound by yourself. A small woman could get muscular Boozer out of the way if she performed this correctly. Works great in the low back and kidneys too.

Korver slamming into Tmac on the inbound pass - Korver is learning fast from Sloan.


But I think the problem is a lack of heart for this type of play by either RA or Les. Remember a few weeks ago vs the Lakers - Harris dealt out some hard retaliatory play - and he rode the bench for quite a few games.