Jazz look to ground Rockets tonight!

  The Utah Jazz come in to tonight's game feeling good after securing their first road win of the season.  Time to temper your excitement, the Houston Rockets are in town and they are riding a 6 game winning streak!  The Rockets are hot and will be a difficult match-up for the Jazz.  The Rockets come in averaging 111.6 pts a game, 51.2% from the field and 44.1% from three, with a league leading True Shooting percentage of 59.4%.  This will be a huge test for the Jazz team defense and defensive rebounding, as the Rockets are 2nd in the league in offensive rebounding.  Lets take a look at tonight's match-up....


Defensively- Number one, is going to be the defensive glass.  This is not something that should be left to the Jazz bigs.  This will need to be a team effort.  Trey Burke has been really good on the boards, considering size and position.  Again, goes to show rebounding is about effort.  If the Jazz are getting beat on the boards early, it could be a long night. If you look at Houston's road shot chart, http://stats.nba.com/teamStats.html?TeamID=1610612745&SeasonType=Regular%20Season, they shoot two shots, the 3 or in the paint.  This team does not take any long twos, and they don't take that many corner threes. They actually have more makes from the 3 from the wings and the top of the key than they do attempts on the corner 3.  The Jazz wings must run the Rockets shooters off the 3 point line and the big's will need to stay home and clog the lane.  Easier said than done....The majority of Houston's offense comes out of the draw and kick.  They will run some pick and roll with Harden and Howard.  The Jazz bigs don't need to worry about the pick an pop game with Houston as they don't really have player that is capable or consistent enough to cause problems.  Houston is full of shooters, this one will be tough for the Jazz, although the first match-up of the season the Jazz dominated the first half and were right there in the 3rd quarter, Jazz will be looking for redemption.

Offensively- Trey Burke is really emerging as a leader and good point guard on this Jazz team.  I think the offense will go as Trey goes.  He has been playing really well the last 3 games.  He is not afraid of the big moment and is showing some toughness that the Jazz had been lacking.  I also feel that the offense is transitioning a bit with the bigs getting more post-ups and shots in the paint.  This could be do to the fact that Hayward is still struggling mightily with his shot.  I think this is a good strategy for now and the future.  Teams have to double Favors and Kanter and that is creating open shots for Marvin, Jefferson and Hayward.  Houston will be a little different as they can match-up Howard with Favors/Kanter.  Houston has been starting Terrence Jones at the power forward, so the Jazz could have an advantage there if the run 2 bigs.  Also Marvin is quicker than Jones and should be able to get to the basket.  Against Phoenix, I felt Ty did a great job with his rotations and situationals.  There will need to be more of that tonight from the staff.

  Jazz will need to win the 3 critical categories (free-throws, rebounds, turnovers) if they want to give themselves a shot at their first 2 game winning streak.  Effort and toughness are a must for tonight.  Bring it.....GO JAZZ!

http://www.nba.com/gamenotes/rockets.pdf

http://www.nba.com/gamenotes/jazz.pdf

Rockets hit orbit in the 2nd half...Jazz stay grounded....

  Utah Jazz fall to the Houston Rockets 104-93.  Jazz now 0-3 on the season.  This game was a lot closer than the final score reads.  The Jazz controlled nearly 3 quarters of the game and held a lead of 19 points at one time.  Houston had a strong second half and really took the Jazz out of what they wanted to do.  Lets take a look....

• Early in the game, the crowd was in to the game and the players really need to feed off that.
• First quarter, Favors had a great steal in the post and came out leading the break, made a pass to Jefferson and he fumble the ball.
• Defense in the first half was just about perfect.
• The Jazz may lead the league in offensive rebounding.  Great job on the offensive boards.
• Jazz are getting no respect from their opponent or the officials.
• Gordon Hayward dunked on Aaron Brooks and was clearly fouled.....no call.
• Chandler Parsons is really underrated.  Had 20 pts in the first half/
• Mike Harris is not afraid of anyone in this league.  Went right at Howard and Asik.
• Jazz were up 12 at one point gave up 2 quick buckets. Ty made a good time out call and the Jazz came out and scored the next possession.
• Jazz did run some "FLEX" offense and did so effectively.
• John Lucas really struggled from deep tonight.  Seem to only make difficult 2's.
• As a team, the Jazz were aggressive taking the ball to the hoop and challenging Houston's bigs.
• Gordon Hayward missed a close out on Parsons with 5:30 left in the fourth that lead to a Jeremy Lin 3.  The game was lost at that point.
• Burks has to be better at the Free-throw line 2-4
• As a team the Jazz were better from the line 21-27 77.8%, other than Hayward 0-2 and Burks.
• Jazz fans leaving with 3 minutes left, need to stick around and support this team better.  This was not a blow out!  Stick around!
• Jeremy Lin was really good the last 6 minutes.  Ran the pick and roll really well and kept dribble alive.
• Jazz limited their turnover tonight 15
• Houston shot 35 free-throws to the Jazz 27....no home cooking, no respect.
• Omer Asik has bad hair.

  

The Jazz battled hard.  These are the growing pains that Jazz fans knew they would have to endure.  That being said this team needs those fans to support them, not bail early.  Yeah, maybe the support may not change the outcome of the game.  But it does effect the players mentality and the kind of effort they will put out.  I guess if you want to look at something positive, the Jazz have been in every game, just haven't been able to close it out.  These games will help the team as the season progresses.  Oh and Philadelphia is 3-0.  Looks like we are in the drivers seat....