I thought so to, until Rubio was injured and possibly not to return, from what I understand, until after this coming series with the Jazz, at the earliest. It's a blow for Utah, on defense particularly, and on offense with Rubio's excellent passing (never been worried about Rubio's personal offensive production, despite his improvement this season - don't trust the "improvement," but trust his passing). Hamstrings are tricky. I couldn't decide if we'd beat them in 5 or in 6, being very impressed with their rookie, and with Gobert. I was leaning towards 5, but now I feel pretty good about taking them in 5 games sans Rubio. A series against OKC might have gone to 6 (that's assuming Westbrook remembered that he had some other guys playing with him that are pretty darn good), fueled by emotion. George and Melo would have been up for that series, considering the history there. Westbrook? If Westbrook got his act together, they could have been a tough out. Now? The Thunder are a quiet rumble, rumbling off the NBA stage, and who knows what that team will be like and who will be on it next season. Not our problem. Our problem, a very old problem for the Rockets, in NBA terms, are the freakin' Jazz. We just need to stay healthy, and getting Luc back at some point sure wouldn't hurt. Rockets in 5.
With Rubio out, they will start swingman Royce Oneale. He is probably a better defender but is a rookie. Their backup PG is Exum and he has been a HUGE, HUGE liability. They benched him in favor of SG Alec Burks in the last game in a large lineup. He can provide them some shooting but he is hit or miss. I don't know why Neto hasn't been used. Without Rubio, that really means Utah could struggle for points. Ingles and Mitchell will have to make plays. If the Rockets can start the game with great 3pt shooting a build a cushion, it could make it really hard for Utah to catch up. Playing at a faster pace could also give Utah some problems since they will be down one ball handler in Rubio.
I really hope we don't underestimate the Jazz. They are peaking at the right time. I really hope we could blow them out for atleast 3 of the games.
lol at all the 7 game predictions and from the usual suspects. isiah also predicted the minny series would go to 6-7 games lol. and most glaring here is not even one anal-yst predicts a sweep. this despite us having demolished this team by double digits in the reg season and them missing the engine to their offense with injury now
Man I’m not sure Rubio being out helps us. They’ll start a shooter and if he gets hot that will hurt us.
AARGH!!... Damn NBA schedulers. I'm not going to be able to see any of the whole games until Game 4...
I know we've owned Utah but I was looking for a game where we all clicked and Paul and Harden also played well this was it. Lovin what I see. Stay hungry Houston.
Donovan Mitchell with more usage probably doesn't help either. I liked watching Harden destroy Rubio in Iso situations.
Not to mention defending Westbrook on the break is really just about throwing up a wall and hoping he doesn’t get to the rim. Against the rockets you need to worry about the guy running the break plus guys going to the corners or wings. Multiple times the jazz just failed to handle a break because they’ve spent the last series dealing with a train wreck
Keep in mind people, teams coming off an emotional series win that the 1st game is always tough, especially considering the time of the game, lack of rest and Rubio being out for the first time. I expect a much better Jazz team in the 2nd game. I'm not worried, but don't expect a sweep with 4 beatdowns all of a sudden. Game 1's usually mean very little to how the rest of the series goes.
cliche for every series for a team that loses the first game. utah already played their best in the 1st round. its not happening this series. theyre just not on houston's level plain and simple
