6 reasons the sky isn't falling...and 6 reasons why it is...

[sendai91]

Reasons not to worry..

1. We've won the last three times we've played in Houston.

2. The Jazz had 12 to's, 13 missed ft's, Can the Jazz play much worse - can Houston play much better?

3. It shouldn't be this way, but the Jazz seem to play better in must-have games than in less pressure-filled games. Last year's game 7 against Houston, Golden State games 2 and 4 last year.

4. 5-22 shooting from AK, Memo and Milsap and only lost by 2 pts. That won't happen again.

5. 5 points from AK and Korver in the same game won't happen again.

6. We won't be outscored in the paint by more than 10 points again.


6 reasons to worry..

1. Houston is plain tough. McGrady is kind of a wuss, but Battier was limping around on one leg in the 4th quarter and Landry suffered a missing tooth, a possible broken nose and still came up with the game-saving block.

2. For whatever reason, the Jazz don't go after players about to foul out or that are obviously injured. Scola had 5 fouls for the last several minutes and Boozer didn't challenge him. Battier was clearly limping around and AK didn't go after him either.

3. Having Alston back clearly gives the Rockets some mojo. Deron needs to clamp down and outplay him even more than he did last night.

4. Houston has beat us 2 of the last three times they've played in SLC.

5. Houston had more offensive rebounds (16) than either Memo (11) or Booze (13) had overall.

and another...

6. Despite the fact that Price has been playing wonderfully lately, he only got 4 minutes of pt last night. Deron seemed to tire in the 2nd half, only scoring 7 points. It would have been better to rest Deron for a few more minutes or at least put Price on the floor with D-Will when both Jackson and Alston are in.

[BiggMann]

Good post. Can't really disagree with any of those. It's just frustrating to see Haynes, Landry and Scrotum out hustle us. Every loose ball, every rebound, i mean damn Jazz show some heart and go after those loose balls.

[erudite23]

The best indications for the future is that the Jazz haven't come close to playing their best game yet....while the Rockets have played at or near their best each of the last two games. I don't see them playing much better than they have in game 2 or 3, no matter what. While that is impressive in itself, the percentages will likely catch up sometime in the near future. I'm still not worried about the outcome, but I am a little disappointed that we squandered a chance to put them away quickly and get a leg up on the Lake Show for next round.

[carrottop12]

The good news...

1. If someone had told you the Jazz would be up 2-1 in the series playing game 4 in Utah you would have taken those odds in a heartbeat.

2. In 7 game series the best team almost always wins, the Jazz have shown they are obviously the better team.

3. The Jazz are a great bounce back team, and they take things seriously. Game 4 will be a massacre in favor of the Jazz.

The bad news...

We still have to go back to Houston for game 5 and it will be an elimination game for them (most likely) so they will be playing tough. But that didn't help them last year.