The Rockets certainly weren't better than the '05 Mavs. On a complete talent level, they were approximately on par with the Jazz.
i would have given a slight to moderate edge in talent to the Jazz. Deron is a top 4 or 5 pg while Tmac is a top 4 or 5 Shooting guard. Yao is pretty much number 2 at his positiong. and everyone else is pure **** while the Jazz have solid players from Fisher, to Harpring, to Okur, and Boozer who should be all Nba 1st or 2nd team. Not many other players as efficient scoring as he is.
I think in overall talent the Jazz were deeper, but they had absolutely nothing close talent wise to a Yao and T-Mac. When you have Rafer Alston leading you in minutes played, your going to have problems. This team became too 3pt dependant and needed more players besides T-Mac to attack the basket. I still think Snyders athletism and slashing ability should have been given a shot at some point in this series.
This is a meaningless poll. We lost to both of them, so we were the worse team. That doesn't mean we have better or less individual talent, just not as good a team in those 7-game series. Individual talent doesn't mean team quality, just look at the Mavs, the Nuggets, the 03' Lakers, they all lost to teams with less individual talent. Your poll should be, can we be a better team, and beat Mavs & Jazz with a different coach? My answer is yes, there are quite a few coaches who could have got us win the last home game against the Jazz.
IMHO We should have beaten the Jazz in that series. We will not get another opportunity like that for a long time.
Lets go position by position SF AK47 > Shane PF Boozer >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Hayes C Yao >>>>>>> Okur SG Tmac >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> harpring PG Dwill>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>alston They had three positional advantages and their bench was a lot better than ours.
It's sort of an obvious answer... if the Rox were better than either of those teams, we would have won the series in each case.
The same guy who cried after Game 1 and wasn't a factor in the series? Bottom line, Rockets didn't defend the home court.
We were definitly better against Mavs. Why? Bacause JVG said he would play only defense...In regular season we had won 52 games but in the playoffs we were awful at the offensive end...that's all. We lost beacuse of our attack
I think we were pretty even with both teams. Each series could have gone either way, as evidenced by the length of both. It's a shame we couldn't get past either team, but hey, the soap opera continues.
Now who's the one who doesn't watch the games? Finley not being called out of bounds was the entire difference between the teams. Juwan was having a solid season before he was hurt. The Rockets were on par with the Jazz? The same Rockets who had HCA advantage but lost 4 more WC games than did the Jazz...the same Rockets that have a 40+year backup Center...the same Rockets who have no perimeter slashers....the same Rockets that lost the season series 1-3 to Utah...those Rockets? Who'd of thunk it.....
There is no question that Utah was better than us. They could have easily beat us in 5-6 games. They just had bad luck in the games in Houston. The Dallas-Houston series was incredibly even for the first 6 games. So up to that point the teams are the same. But at the end, the judgement comes to a single game 7. And then they lose by 40. So Dallas was also superior, but not as clear cut as Utah.
That and a 40-point blowout loss in game 7. ... the same Rockets who were up by 5 with 6 minutes to go in game 7, despite subpar play from the two stars and key role players slumping at the wrong time. Yes, those Rockets.
Game 7 which was in Dallas, not in Houston. I also remember us making NBA history this series by only having 4 players scoring. Tmac did not have a "sub-par" game. Actually Yao also scored 15 points in the 4th quarter, when we lost our lead. Our "key role players" slumped the entire series. As soon as Kirilenko got going, the Jazz were a significantly better team. If Kirilenko was a non-factor like he was in Games 1 and 2, it could've been anyone's series.
I would say the Rox were better than the Jazz, and starting from the same position I would give the Rox a better shot at winning the title. Unfortunately, the Jazz are a bad matchup for the Rox because they have big men that can shoot, and a lot of team speed. Yao has to guard someone, and there is no one on the Jazz that I would feel comfortable putting Yao on.
Rockets had leads in both serials especially in '05. The opponents made changes, JVG just isn't talent enough to respond.
