MY Take: Jazz vs Rockets Game 3

Posted by David Locke on April 24, 2008

‘White Out’ (Melissa Majchrzak -NBAE/Getty Images)

FINAL SCORE — ROCKETS 94 JAZZ 92
McGrady throws up a terrible shot and the Jazz have a chance with the ball Deron brings it to the front court and runs a high pick and roll with Boozer. Though Boozer looked open the play never developed, Deron goes to the corner for Kyle he is guarded tightly. Did Deron anticipate rather than see? The ball comes back to Deron and he drives to the teeth and gets his shot blocked.
The series just took a dramatic turn. The series is going back to Houston and the Jazz now are in must win situations at Energy Solutions arena
The Jazz left to many open possessions. Boozer misses two free throws with 5:00 left, both Korver and Boozer lose balls out of bounds in the 4th quarter
The Jazz go 5 straight possessions offensively not scoring from the 4:29 mark to the 1:05 mark,
The bottom line is that the Rockets play very hard and are a much better team with Alston on the floor and they never relented all game. The Jazz did a decent job of matching it but never got the knock out punch.
Jazz lead by 6 to open the quarter – but the Rockets scored the first 5 of the first 6 points and then the Jazz never lead by more than 3.

:37.4 4th Quarter — Rockets 93 Jazz 92
McGrady has come to the party. He has 7 points in the final 3 minutes
Jazz trailed 93-86 and D-Will found Korver for a 3, then McGrady got a offensive foul and on the next possession McGrady left Okur and he hit a three. One point game.
The Jazz left way to many plays on the table, missed free throws, dropped balls and now they need a miracle.

2:50 4th Quarter — Jazz 86 Rockets 86
Jazz are running the same play over and over the double high pick and roll and getting very little out of it.
McGrady hit a free throw for his first point of the quarter.
Korver is struggling.
Okur is 2 for 12 today.
Does McGrady hit a buzzer beater to quiet his critics?

6:31 4th Quarter — Jazz 81 Rockets 81
It is a slow down possessions by possession game.
McGrady is 0 for 3 in the quarter
Alston has returned to close the game.
Jazz have their starting five with Korver rather than Brewer.
Jazz are 2 for 8 in the quarter,
Rockets are getting good looks on offense. Jazz haven’t slowed them down on the defensive end today.

End of 3rd Quarter — Jazz 76 Rockets 70
Rockets are 2-24 when they are trailing going into the 4th Quarter.
Jazz are 34-1 when leading after 3 at home
Great offensive quarter by the Jazz.
Ronnie Price scored on the final two possessions pulling off a 2 for 1
McGrady scored his last point at the 3:30 mark of the 3rd Quarter

2:53 3rd Quarter — Jazz 67 Rockets 61
Jazz have scored on 8 of last 9 possessions and 11 of the last 14.
Ronnie Brewer is playing great. He is coming off the pick and roll better than he has all year.
McGrady just got his first field in the final 20 minutes of a playoff game in this series

6:25 3rd Quarter — Jazz 58 Rockets 55
9-0 run by the Jazz. Rockets lead 55-49.
Ronnie Brewer was the catalyst – he has 6 points in Quarter and two great lay-ups.
AK hits a big three from D-Will and then Deron goes to the rack and the Jazz have the crowd hoping.

Halftime Stats
Pace: 40
Jazz Offensive Efficiency Rating: 108 (league average)
Jazz Defensive Efficiency Rating: 108
Jazz Offensive Rebounding Percentage: 38%
Jazz Defensive Rebounding Percentage: 56%

Halftime — Jazz 44 Rockets 44
Deron Williams has 21 first half points.
Jazz closed on a 11-4 run. Big three’s by Deron and Harpring.
McGrady has 12 points on 13 attempts.

5:54 2nd Quarter — Rockets 35 Jazz 30
This is the Rockets game. The Jazz are shooting all non paint two’s
They are not hitting. The Rockets are forcing Deron to be the offense and not leaving anyone else.
The Jazz have been at the line and have the Rockets in the penalty – but have just one field goal in the Quarter at the 6:51 mark.
Rockets may look back at this as a missed opportunity.

1st Quarter Stats
Jazz Offensive Efficiency Rating: 110 (below season avg )
Jazz Defensive Efficiency Rating: 132 (2nd worst quarter of playoffs)
Jazz Offensive Rebounding %: 54%
Jazz Defensive Rebounding %: 55%

End of 1st Quarter — Rockets 27 Jazz 23
Boozer goes 0 for 3 with Mutombo in the game and then he scored the minute Hayes came in
McGrady 9 points on 4 of 10 shooting
Alston was the difference in the quarter. Rockets had as many three’s as they had in the entire game 2
Rockets GM Daryl Morey told us — “Deron’s good at everything, so you try and minimize the damage. [The Jazz are] most effective when he’s passing the ball to cutters, and passing the ball to spot-up shooters like Okur, so what you want to do is get Deron going for his own offense. He’s still effective, but that’s usually the least bad of the options.”
that is clearly the rockets plan tonight. Deron has 5 shot attempts. He is 4 of 5
Jazz were -3 with Deron on the bench.
Jazz bench didn’t give the Jazz the usual bump.

4:46 1st Quarter — Rockets 16 Jazz 10
Everyone with the Rockets said a fast start was a must and that was happened
Rafer Alston has been great – he makes an impact – he is 3 for 3 with 8 points
Boozer is 0 for 3.
The Rockets want Deron to shoot and he is 3 for 4.

Notes
Battier is 6 for 8 from three the rest of the Rockets are 4 of 22
Carlos Boozer has taken just two free throws in the series
43 times the Jazz have come down and had an empty possession. Twenty–one times on the next possession the Jazz have scored and on 33 of those times they have scored after only two empty possessions.
Rafer Alston will start for the Rockets.

Rate this post

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

3 Comments

carl h on April 24, 2008 said:

is there a reason mehmet okur was playing like a baby, or was he upset he had to play the end of the third quarter and decided not to give any effort in the fourth, from what i saw, his lack of effort being directly responsible for the jazz losing. after seeing his lack of effort in a freakin play off game, it’s going to be hard to respect him again. but why was he even on the floor, we would’ve been better off with millsap. i’m pretty pissed. i wonder what his teammates think about him now, does he realize millions of people were watching him, and jazz fans get to go home upset, while rocket fans rejoice and find hope–he probably wasn’t thinking about that, it looked like he was thinking he didn’t have to play defense, that’s what it looked like he was thinking.

MIKE on April 25, 2008 said:

Why would you change the shooting background of your home court after 41 games? (white out) Anything there with that thought(poor shooting)?

Kevin Swiss on April 25, 2008 said:

What Jazz Fans and anyone who really knows NBA bball history thinks about the Rockets.

Check out this awesome video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DmCHLCOJms
It looks like it was made by the NBA. Click the view in high
quality button.

Leave Your Comment

How do I get an avatar for my comments?
It is easy and completely free. Just go to Gravatar.com and sign-up with your email address. Gravatar is globally recognized, so your avatar will show on every Gravatar-enabled website or blog.