Re: [Regular Season Game 4] Houston Rockets at Utah Jazz
Nothing better than winning in Utah. 8 players in double figures.
__________________
Start Kyle Lowry
“It is not about height or size,” Landry said. “It’s about heart, courage and toughness.”
Shane_Battier: I try to prepare for my opponent as thoroughly as possible. I want to know every angle on the man I am guarding to give me an edge. I read many, many pages and go over strengths and weaknesses many times before a game. Proper Preparation Prevents Poor Performance. That is a motto I like.
Yao Ming: When I was young, we were taught not to dunk. We were taught not to stand out from the rest of the team. It's different now. The young guys in China are new age. They want to show their stuff. But I am old-school. It was a big adjustment when i frist came here to play at a camp. The coaches told me to dunk, but i would lay the ball in. Finally, the coaches made everyone else on my team run laps when I didn't dunk. I didn't want my teammates to be punished because of me. That's how i learned to dunk.
Yao Ming: I felt that I twisted my ankle when I feel down. If it was a regular-season game, I probably would have come out and told the trainer we need to look at it. But it was a playoff game against the Lakers. The first home game. I twisted it again in the third quarter. then again in the fourth. I can't blame myself. No true player would want to leave the court in that situation. This was not about Chinese culture or American culture. It was about the culture of being a competitor.
Re: [Regular Season Game 4] Houston Rockets at Utah Jazz
Quote:
Houston 113, Utah 96
Houston went into Utah, piled up 121.5 points per 100 possessions, dominated the offensive glass, and basically pushed the Jazz around for 48 minutes.
Now, we know Utah isn't much of a defensive powerhouse, but where the hell did this come from?
Ah, yeah. It's that inexplicable Rockets run that couldn't help but expect in spite of the absence of the team's two All-Stars. Take everything away, and this band still makes it work. They're essentially the Black Knight, from Monty Python and the Holy Grail ...
... except, in this version, the Black Knight kicks Arthur's ***.
29 assists on 42 field goals for Houston tonight, and that was with another team's crew running the scorebook. The team made half its shots and almost 53 percent of its three point looks, but still managed to pull in 15 offensive rebounds. The team just looks ridiculously fluent, and the current core has barely been together a month. Amazing.
Four games in, I know, I should stop. But even if it all falls apart from here, it's been nice to watch. Fun to watch.
The team brings the D, too, but we knew that about them. Pulling off this sort of offensive effort in Utah is something else entirely.
The Jazz just don't have it yet, and Deron Williams (six of 20 shooting) has appeared to catch whatever Carlos Boozer brought to camp. Boozer missed six of seven shots, and appeared to be pretty gun-shy save for the times he got to defend David Andersen.
19 turnovers for Utah, something you just can't do against a team like Houston that owns the glass, and suddenly loves to run. Aaron Brooks (19 points, nine assists in under 30 minutes of play) came through with a terrific floor game and bothered Williams on both ends all night.
Re: [Regular Season Game 4] Houston Rockets at Utah Jazz
Quote:
There has to be something bigger, mathematically, than this. For Trevor Ariza to work out like this? We all trashed that idea! The Rockets were 5.81 points better with Chuck Hayes on the floor before last night, for God’s sake! What is happening?! It’s early, yes. And they’re going to fade, I still believe, because they’re all going to get injured killing themselves like they are right now. You cannot outwork Houston right now. You just can’t. You can bust your *** all you want, they’re going to work harder, be smarter, make every single small play that you need. Teams with potential and no focus always wonder where those little plays are. The answer, as I tweeted last night, is that the Rockets have stolen all of those plays from your team and are keeping them for themselves. Shane Battier was +36 against a predicted playoff team last night. They have no star power! This isn’t supposed to happen! Even if they were to put together a fight and a few wins against overlooking teams or on back to backs, they weren’t supposed to come out and look like a team that could beat anyone, anywhere, any time. This squad has gone “Major League.” As in, “Well, I guess there’s only one thing left. Win the whole ****in’ thing.”
Quote:
Thanks to StatSheet.com, we can see how much the Jazz failed at basic basketball endeavors last night. See that big offensive rebounding advantage? You can’t give a hot shooting team with no star players (guys that can get their own shots on the first possession) multiple possessions. That’s a bad Utah Jazz! Bad!
I’m done with hating on the Jazz and I hope they pull it together (especially if they do so by trading Boozer, the block magnet). But other teams need to pay attention, because this is what happens if you come in and try to out-talent the Rockets.
[Regular Season Game 4] Houston Rockets at Utah Jazz
8 players in double figures.
Linear Mode
