The amount of open 3's they missed makes me feel a bit uneasy too, but even if Ingles/Mitchell hit 50% from 3 last night we still win by 10. I'm hoping this is just more of a scheme against the Jazz. Can't give the Warriors that many open looks.
Utah outscored the Rockets in only one Quarter last night The Fourth: 31-23. - We had the Second and Third units in for extensive minutes. I thought the Jazz came out blazing in the third .. . some partial concern but the Rocket Still won the quarter by 2 I have some minor concerns about Game 3 but I am not ready to wig out about it Rocket River
The scary thing is the Rockets can play better than they did last night. There were a lot of careless turnovers, especially in the 2nd half.
Mental focus is what is needed most for road games. Got to keep on fighting as a team when you go down. The Clippers game 2 vs GS is the best example of that. Go Houston Rockets!
Would love to see a sweep but would be totally surprised not to see the Jazz win at least one in Utah. Would be great to see the defense just consistently lock down the Utah offense over 4 games with 2 being in an extremely tough environment.
Harden doesn’t do well with too many days off. I’m ok with Jazz taking one at home so Harden won’t be getting out of rhythm by the time Warriors finish off the Clips.
Trap game as in we lose? no Trap game as in the Jazz show humility and send a second defender to help poor rubio guard haden? maybe
I mean we are likely to get Foster Brothers at least once right? On twitter a few days ago I said I hoped the league would just go ahead and do it in Utah since weird stuff happens there anyway.
Nah. The Jazz are at home and it's a must-win game for them. Plus the Rockets haven't swept a series in 22 years.
1) Sweeping is hard 2) Jazz were missing open shots in Gm2 3) Role players/shooters tend to play better at home 4) Rockets aren't going to be scorching hot all playoffs from 3 You sprinkle in a little Referee Dust and boom...things change quickly.
Last night's second half defense was much more physical, specifically on Harden and CP. Harden eventually broke thru it and literally waved them off. A tad worried on how it might force CP to overexert, but I think we're still good. I'm expecting that and more in Utah. They know they'll be able to get away with stuff.
I really don't see the NBA trying to "extend" this series via the referees. Especially given how the first 2 games have played out. If anything the best case scenario for the league is for both the Rockets and Warriors to win their series in 5 games on April 24, so they can play Game 1 on either Saturday or Sunday prime time. Game 3 can be a trap game. i really want the Rockets to just stay at this intensity with a bit more focus to get the 3-0 series lead and effectively end this series.
It's always hard to extrapolate a ton from games in which one team leads by 20+ for about 90% of the sample. Some complacency is inevitable. They did turn the ball over too much and gave up too many open 3s, but I have a really hard time seeing those things happen to the same magnitude if they game was actually competitive. For example, I thought the quality of 3s Utah got in the first 8 minutes or so of the first quarter was their lowest of the game... and not coincidentally, that's the only period in which the result was actually in doubt.
Not sure about a trap game but I do expect Utah to play much better, especially their role players. The wide open shots they were missing in the first two games, I expect those to go in. Rockets just need to minikize turnovers and keep up the defense and all else will fall into place.
1. They'd have looked a lot better in the first 2 games if the shots would have fallen for them. 2. Harden's ridiculous talent for not caring what the defense is doing to him and just draining the step-back 3 anyway can sometimes just take a night off. 3. Harden especially gets lazy and sloppy with big leads. 4. But, all of our guys are looking pretty good. Capela, Faried, Gordon, Paul, Tucker all looking pretty good. 5. I take the contrarian view that I want a hard fought first round to get the team playing at a high playoff intensity. So, I wouldn't be unhappy with a couple of losses, honestly. Right now, they're playing well but they aren't really hustling at a playoff level. They'll have to be on a different plane of intensity next round. Getting embarrassed in Game 3 might be just what the doctor ordered.
