Game 65: Houston Rockets At Utah Jazz Preview

Wow.

What a tough loss by the Houston Rockets last night.

For a team that stuck with the Portland Trail Blazers all the way to the end despite the match up disadvantages, I still have to partially tip my hat off to them.

Why partial?

Because they cannot make excuses for Dwight Howard being out, they have to find ways to win with the resources in place to which they’ve done fairly well so far.

But the Blazers removed James Harden out of the equation and took away the three-pointer, which is what they live and die by.

But despite all of that, Corey Brewer willed the Rockets to almost beating Blazers late in the game, scoring 17 of his 23 points in the 4th quarter.

They can’t win them all but that would’ve been nice to see if the comeback was seen all the way through!

Any way, the Rockets will have a bit of an easier time making sure that the things taken away from them are not even a factor tonight.

They face the 27-36 Utah Jazz, who are poised to be getting a pretty darn good draft pick in June and are obviously in rebuild mode, swapping a few assets such Enes Kanter before the NBA trade deadline last month.

But they have won eight of their last 10 games beating the Blazers, San Antonio Spurs and Memphis Grizzlies within that stretch beating those talented teams by marginal average of 12 points.

They have a solid nucleus of young talent, can use the draft to add talent and if they keep it together the sky’s the limit for that team under the tutelage of Quin Snyder.

The Rockets last faced them Jan. 10th, before the trade deadline and had an relatively moderate challenge defeating them 97-82. It was a game that they proudly forced 30 turnovers off the Jazz so we can only hope that they continue their tenacious defense against this team. No NBA team had forced 30 turnovers in the last 10 years!

For the Jazz, Gordon Hayward leads the team in scoring (19.5 PPG) and steals (1.40 SPG). While Derrick Favors is the lead board-getter (8.3 RPG), Trey Burke in dimes although Dante Exum has been the starter as of late (4.5 APG) and Rudy Gobert in shot-blocking (2.30 BPG).

But let’s talk about what the Jazz do well.

They wipe the glass clean. The Jazz are 1st in the league in rebound rate with a whopping 52.7 percent of missed shots being snagged by the team.

They fight hard for the second chance. The Jazz are also 1st in the NBA in offensive rebound rate (28.9).

The match up to watch the closest is between Hayward and Trevor Ariza.

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For the past two meetings, he has held Hayward to 17 points and 5-for-21 shooting.

Not bad if I say so myself and I hope it continues!

However, Hayward has averaged 20.8 PPG and 6.2 RPG in the last five games.

It will also be interesting to see how Donatas Motiejunas, Terrence Jones and Josh Smith match up with Favors and Gobert.

Favors has been averaging 20.6 PPG/8.2 RPG while Gobert has been putting up 16 RPG in the last five games.

This Jazz team is a lot different from earlier in the season and I suspect that they will give the Rockets all they can handle but they should be able to still get the “W” despite of. But I see no blowout victory tonight.

Three Things to Watch:

1. Ariza vs. Hayward

2. TJones vs. Favors

3. D-Mo vs. Gobert

Prediction:

100-95 in a Rockets’ win!

The Rockets take on the Utah Jazz tonight at EnergySolutions Arena.

Tip-off is scheduled for 8 p.m. CDT.

The game will be televised on ROOT Sports Southwest and broadcast on SportsTalk 790 AM (KBME).

Go Rockets!

Next: Disrespecting King James Harden

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