RealGM

ESPN GameDay link:
https://www.espn.com/nba/game/_/gameId/401307823

Game preview:
https://www.espn.com/nba/preview?gameId=401307823

Expected Houston/Utah lineups at time of this post from Rotowire:
https://www.rotowire.com/basketball/nba-lineups.php

Who will be the first to say it?

Do the Rockets even have 8 guys eligible?

Real lively thread we've got here...

first for 50. Let's hope we are fully healthy play off time.

red4hf wrote:Who will be the first to say it?

Say what? That the Jazz played like crap against a team consisting of 8 players who are all end of bench/G-League players, who's tallest player was 6'6", and wouldn't have lost ugly vs most teams with that display? Should have been a game where they were resting starters nearly the entire 2nd half.

Me, me! I'll say it!

And no, I don't buy into the BS that those are the hardest games to play. The talent (and size) differential was so vast that there's no excuse, especially after 2 recent embarrassing losses to the Timberpuppies. The Jazz are down their All Star backcourt, and still winning, I get it. But there needs to be more focus. Too many mental errors, whether they be on D or TO's, are not just going to go away when the playoffs start. At this point they may even find themselves the first ever 1st seed to be underdogs, if the Lakers somehow find themselves sliding back to 8 and LBJ + Davis become healthy for the playoffs.

Time to play like champions no matter who you're up against.

zero24gravity wrote:

red4hf wrote:Who will be the first to say it?

Say what? That the Jazz played like crap against a team consisting of 8 players who are all end of bench/G-League players, who's tallest player was 6'6", and wouldn't have lost ugly vs most teams with that display? Should have been a game where they were resting starters nearly the entire 2nd half.

Me, me! I'll say it!

And no, I don't buy into the BS that those are the hardest games to play. The talent (and size) differential was so vast that there's no excuse, especially after 2 recent embarrassing losses to the Timberpuppies. The Jazz are down their All Star backcourt, and still winning, I get it. But there needs to be more focus. Too many mental errors, whether they be on D or TO's, are not just going to go away when the playoffs start. At this point they may even find themselves the first ever 1st seed to be underdogs, if the Lakers somehow find themselves sliding back to 8 and LBJ + Davis become healthy for the playoffs.

Time to play like champions no matter who you're up against.

Well, I was going for, who will be the first to say that the game was a trap..... Which it almost turned out to be......

Can't argue with anything you said......

It has long been established that the Jazz face 82 trap games in a normal-length regular season.

zero24gravity wrote:

red4hf wrote:Who will be the first to say it?

Say what? That the Jazz played like crap against a team consisting of 8 players who are all end of bench/G-League players, who's tallest player was 6'6", and wouldn't have lost ugly vs most teams with that display? Should have been a game where they were resting starters nearly the entire 2nd half.

Me, me! I'll say it!

And no, I don't buy into the BS that those are the hardest games to play. The talent (and size) differential was so vast that there's no excuse, especially after 2 recent embarrassing losses to the Timberpuppies. The Jazz are down their All Star backcourt, and still winning, I get it. But there needs to be more focus. Too many mental errors, whether they be on D or TO's, are not just going to go away when the playoffs start. At this point they may even find themselves the first ever 1st seed to be underdogs, if the Lakers somehow find themselves sliding back to 8 and LBJ + Davis become healthy for the playoffs.

Time to play like champions no matter who you're up against.

Dude, the Jazz just won a hard-fought emotional game against the Nuggets the night before. The Jazz were exhausted and playing at half speed all night. They just needed about 6 - 8 solid minutes to open an 18-point lead and win the game, which is what they did.

Jazz were up by 18 pts with under 6 mins to play, and they just cruised from there.

Catchall wrote:

zero24gravity wrote:

red4hf wrote:Who will be the first to say it?

Say what? That the Jazz played like crap against a team consisting of 8 players who are all end of bench/G-League players, who's tallest player was 6'6", and wouldn't have lost ugly vs most teams with that display? Should have been a game where they were resting starters nearly the entire 2nd half.

Me, me! I'll say it!

And no, I don't buy into the BS that those are the hardest games to play. The talent (and size) differential was so vast that there's no excuse, especially after 2 recent embarrassing losses to the Timberpuppies. The Jazz are down their All Star backcourt, and still winning, I get it. But there needs to be more focus. Too many mental errors, whether they be on D or TO's, are not just going to go away when the playoffs start. At this point they may even find themselves the first ever 1st seed to be underdogs, if the Lakers somehow find themselves sliding back to 8 and LBJ + Davis become healthy for the playoffs.

Time to play like champions no matter who you're up against.

Dude, the Jazz just won a hard-fought emotional game against the Nuggets the night before. The Jazz were exhausted and playing at half speed all night. They just needed about 6 - 8 solid minutes to open an 18-point lead and win the game, which is what they did.

Jazz were up by 18 pts with under 6 mins to play, and they just cruised from there.

Agree to disagree.

Against a team that wasn't using 8 players, many of which aren't even NBA caliber, and had a 6'6" SF playing center ... then there's leeway for playing a tough 1st game on a back to back. But nope, not giving them credit for that one. It's a loss everywhere except the standings, IMO. (And yeah, that standings are what matters most, I get it.) The Jazz's bottom 8 should have been able to win that one, as opposed to taking 30+ minutes from Bogy, Rudy, Joe & Royce, plus a career high scoring game from Niang, and still only squeaking out an 8 point win and giving up 116 points to what was essentially a practice squad. They wouldn't beat a single playoff team with a game like that, and that's a problem. I have higher expectations of them, and don't think that's unreasonable.