Rockets Ain't ****

[colton]

If the Rockets were actually that good, they wouldn't have finished 4th.

This is exactly what I was thinking the whole time during Locke's podcast explaining how great the Rockets are and how bad the Jazz's chances are again them in the series.

 

[JimLes]

This is exactly what I was thinking the whole time during Locke's podcast explaining how great the Rockets are and how bad the Jazz's chances are again them in the series.

Of course people will say how the Rockets only lost 5 games since the AS break, but the Jazz only lost 6 in the same period. And the 6th one was with everyone being rested and Grayson being given the keys to the team for the night.

I mean, we're all Jazz fans here and by definition biased, but objectively, the teams are fairly evenly matched.

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

This is exactly what I was thinking the whole time during Locke's podcast explaining how great the Rockets are and how bad the Jazz's chances are again them in the series.

He gets kinda overly skeptical sometimes... I think he may have thought we'd lose to the Clips and Thunder last couple years too.

There is no doubt we are an underdog and I think we are likely to lose, buuuuuuuuuut I want to be hopeful and optimistic and I think we have a decent chance here.

 

[Ferguson_Mellochill]

Um... Rubio?

The way the Rockets switch on defense makes our ball movement and Ricky less effective. Look for Mitchell to play a lot at the 1 and attack Chris Paul relentlessly.

 

[Ferguson_Mellochill]

Also, the game where we blew them out this year was the game when Rudy got ejected early. Derrick Favors went off for 24 pts. We may want to give Favs beaucoup minutes.

 

[Ellipse]

This is exactly what I was thinking the whole time during Locke's podcast explaining how great the Rockets are and how bad the Jazz's chances are again them in the series.

Locke thinks statistics will win the series. To paraphrase:

"The Jazz are 1st in getting open shots, but the Rockets are 4th -- not much of an advantage to the Jazz. The Jazz are 1st in defending the pick and roll, but Houston is last in running pick and rolls; hence, this Jazz defensive stat is meaningless when playing Houston. Harden is the best in thee league in running iso's, and the Jazz are piss poor at defending iso's. Blah, blah, blah; therefore, the Jazz have no chance against Houston."

Lordy, how did the Jazz manage to split the series with Houston?

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

I'm also just not sure CP can get and stay healthy with playoff intensity and ramped up minutes. He took a step back this year... has looked better but still not as consistent with his great play.

To me... he was nearly as important to their success against us as Harden was.

 

[Alfalfa]

I'm also just not sure CP can get and stay healthy with playoff intensity and ramped up minutes. He took a step back this year... has looked better but still not as consistent with his great play.

To me... he was nearly as important to their success against us as Harden was.

We'll see if Harden can carry that load against an elite defense over a series.

The more I think about this matchup, the more optimistic I become.

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

Locke thinks statistics will win the series. To paraphrase:

"The Jazz are 1st in getting open shots, but the Rockets are 4th -- not much of an advantage to the Jazz. The Jazz are 1st in defending the pick and roll, but Houston is last in running pick and rolls; hence, this Jazz defensive stat is meaningless when playing Houston. Harden is the best in thee league in running iso's, and the Jazz are piss poor at defending iso's. Blah, blah, blah; therefore, the Jazz have no chance against Houston."

Lordy, how did the Jazz manage to split the series with Houston?

Locke thinks stats win everything. Over a large sample it is correct... but playoffs are a smaller sample and weird things can happen. CP pulls a hammy, Harden hits the wall, we have a couple guys get hot... You just don't know.

They have some clear advantages... some of the stuff they do works better in the regular season though because they are different than a lot of teams and in the regular season opponents have limited chances to gameplan.

I think we have intelligent committed players and coaching staff that will be able to cover some of those warts... i trust the gameplan and execution to give us a shot at this.

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

We'll see if Harden can carry that load against an elite defense over a series.

The more I think about this matchup, the more optimistic I become.

We need to make him work more on defense too. He's hit the wall a few times and his workload has been big.

I wonder if Kyle will help much this series... guarding him is a bitch. The DM/Korver lineups haven't been great... but I wonder if putting Ingles/DM/Korver on the floor when Harden is out there and making him work a lot would help wear him out.

 

[NAOS]

The way the Rockets switch on defense makes our ball movement and Ricky less effective. Look for Mitchell to play a lot at the 1 and attack Chris Paul relentlessly.

my comment was simple: any decent, remotely comprehensive list of the differences between this year and last year has to include Rubio. His importance in this series is being drastically underestimated, IMO.

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

my comment was simple: any decent, remotely comprehensive list of the differences between this year and last year has to include Rubio. His importance in this series is being drastically underestimated, IMO.

Even if his offense isn't great... we ran out Neto and Exum last year who both struggled... and when he is engaged he's quite helpful on defense. If he has a Rick Curry night then great.