[Salt Lake Tribune] Ask the Expert: Could Utah make it past Houston in a first-round

He said Yao and Tracy are two top ten players in the game then he goes and pick the Jazz what a dumbass.

 

First off, well written article, even by a jazzhole. That said his prediction doesn't seem to match the rest of it. I guess he has to do that.

Now to my point. The j*zz stand no chance against us healthy. No chance. Zero. rarely am I so confident, but look at last year. Had Rafer played all the games we would've won. Don't think so? Who else beat them in salt lake city? No one did it twice. Rafer had a big role in that. He goes out and we lose. Not even factoring in Yao's absence or Mac and Shane's injury.

If we're eighty percent healthy, I still think we win in six or so. If we have everyone, we could potentially sweep them. The only ones I would seriously be concerned with are deron willams and boozer. This is not homerism, just fact. There is a reason we had that little streak last year. Signs of what's to come.

Saying that, I can see how Yao doesn't match up well with them. I don't think its enough to hinder us. His negatives with that series don't outweigh his positives.

I pray to God for three things this season. One that we're relatively healthy all year. Two that we meet the j*zz in the playoffs. Last, that we take it all.

 

ideally i would want the mavs in round one, jazz in round two, and the lakers in the conference finals then the celtics in the finals... take on the best to be the best

 

If healthy Yao, Scola, Artest, Tmac, Alston with bench Hayes, Landry, Dorsey, Battier, Barry, Francis, Head n Brooks looks much stronger than the Jazz Okur, Boozer, Krylinko, Brewer, Deron with bench of Harpring, Krover, Knight n Millsap. I like Rockets bench better than the Jazz. Also addition of Artest n Barry makes this team completely different than last year plus Scola's second year I see him even better than last year as he did average good number last year 10ppg n 6.4rpg. Second year for Rick Adelman. Last years playoffs would have been different if Yao was playing, even though I think rocket would have still lost the series but could have gone to game 7. But with Yao n addition of Artest n improved bench with the Jazz same team, Rockets got the edge on paper. Time will tell.

 

He's right about two things Deron Williams is going to give someone on the Rockets the blues and Yao can't check Boozer, Kirlenko, or Okur. I'm just being honest.

If we sit Rafer for being unable to guard Williams then we have no point who can get us in the offense. Yao definitely gets exploited, unless we make them pay on the offensive end. Tmac, Artest, and Scola must put in work and we need to give boozer all the shots he can handle. I prefer him scoring 30 than williams scoring 30 and handing out 10 assists

 

We difintely have more talent than Utah, however, they play better as a team in close games. Give them credit for what they do.

 

I understand it's kinga wired to say we will beat them without problems, after losing 2 straight years. I agree, if Rafer goes down we don't have a solid backup who can run our offense. But look at Jazz situation. Do they really have a good pg backup who can handle the team when D-Will goes down? I don't think so.

With McGrady, Yao and Artest being 100% healthly there is no way we can lose to Utah, really. You can't win game having only better pg. We have McGrady, Artest, Yao, Scola. They have Boozer, D-Will, Okur, Kirilenko. There is no way they are a better team.

We can also talk about bench. Well 2 seasons ago it was a big adventage for Utah but right now we don't have problem with that. Shane, probably Landry, Dorsey...And now we can put a great shooter Barry who is probably the right answer for Korver.

 

You are right about Yao. We will probably need some kind of plan to help on Boozer. I think we are fine just guarding Deron straight up and letting him try to beat us. But really, defense isn't the problem. We've held them to a lower than average percentage for them the two years we played them. The key is our offense. And considering the pieces we added since last year, I think they have some things to worry about.

They played team defense on McGrady. Ran 4 guards at him and just wore him out. If we are going to play Artest 36 minutes a game, they are going to run out of guards to throw at both players. Or actually, this is probably one of those teams where you could start Artest at the 4 and have him guard Okur. On defense he could keep him from lighting it up outside, he's strong enough to keep him from posting you up, and on offense you are going to make Boozer or Okur play defense. One is going to have to guard Yao, the other Artest. Good luck with that Utah.

 

We nearly have beaten them two years ago without Scola, Landry, Artest or Brent Barry.

This year we failed due to injuries, 80% of our first lineup went under the knife and now with healthy team, Big Three, chemistry, all around players like Battier, Scola, Barry and with support of other players Jazz are no match for us. Heck, Celtics don't have better team on the paper.

 

As already mentioned, he didnt diss the Rox, and he did praise the team in his own way. With all that said, the Rox play hard against the Jazz. Where does he get a 50+ win prediction from? We did that last year, with no Ya towards the end, and we did that the year before. That was a pretty easy assessment.

there's no need to repeat what has been said. No way in hell the Jazz beat us this year if healthy.

 

There are two players that unless we take a crowbar to their legs we can't stop them: Deron and Boozer. True, there are games where we stop them, but never both at the same time. No one can guard Deron, he's too fast and too strong. Cbooz always gets the calls. I think the only way we can beat these fools is if we fight fire with fire. If we light them up and try and be more offense oriented we might have a chance. Then again, how Artest fits into all this will be intriguing. I still think the advantage is in the Jazz's corner, but, but, but, we can still beat them. I don't think it's clear cut at all.

 

I thought what he said was pretty fair. Until we show something in the post-season, no one will say the Rockets are favored. People made that mistake two playoff series ago against the Jazz. No injuries there. We lost. Last year, we lost. People will say we didn't have Yao. These are the same poeple saying we won 22 straight without Yao.

Now, of course I believe in our team. I believe they would win a series given all players from both teams are healthy. I also understand when anyone outside of Houston just doesn't believe they can win until they actually do.

 

and with the addition of Artest and role players like Battier, Scola, Mutumbo...we really shouldn't be just talking about trying to get out of the first round. I think this will be labeled by the media as one of the most under-achieved team in the history of the NBA if we can't get out of the first round again this season.

 

Good point all around. Artest and/or Scola is going to have to make Okur and Boozer pay. Shane shouldn't start against these guys. Bring Shane in to replace Scola and force Okur or Boozer outside.

 

signed,

the LA Lakers and Boston Celtics

 

Boozer has to play D. It will wear him down offensively. Not only that, but Boozer is among the most foul prone players in the league. Having to guard either Scola or Yao, he will foul them at a very high rate. When playing Chuck Hayes you don't even have to worry about his position on the court cause he'll either blow the easy layup or fumble the easy pass on his own.

 

I don't know, he has a lot of good points. I mean, of course he's going to pick the Jazz, that's a given. But I like the props he gave the Rockets, he seems to really enjoy watching them play. He had to justify his pick of the Jazz with some weak intangible arguments, like too much pressure or the inevitable Artest implosion, but all in all, it seemed like a good article. If he was a writer for the Rockets, I guarantee we'd all be singing him JCF praise.

 

Rockets should sweep them now. Artest = no layups.

 

Im hoping Rox can acquire a PG with some size to contain Deron, he punished our lil guards. Maybe Ron will guard him, I wonder how he would do, pretty sure thats what they might do

 

Not a bad article, but it focuses on why the Rockets would lose, not why the Jazz would win. Not much Jazz content for a Jazz article.