The start of something
If it felt like something was building Saturday night at Energy Solutions Arena, you weren't the only one. All you had to do was listen to Jerry Sloan talk about how his team had gotten better from Game 1 to Game 2, then from Game 2 to Game 3, to know what was coming.
The Jazz put it all together in whipping the Rockets 98-85 in Game 4, a game they led by as many as 25 points in the fourth quarter. That was after a Game 3 victory that Houston coach Jeff Van Gundy noted could have and should have been decided by 30 points in Utah's favor.
The best-of-seven series is tied 2-2 but you wouldn't have known the Rockets were still in it listening to their post-game comments. The stat of the night was this: The Jazz scored 64 points in the second and third quarters, only three points shy of the 67 the Rockets scored in all 48 minutes of Game 3.
Going back a couple of days, Sloan wanted to see how his young team would respond, coming home down 0-2 with their backs against the wall. He got the answer he wanted and now the Jazz have shortened this to a three-game series.
"They've responded very well," Sloan said. "I couldn't ask for them to play any better defensively. I think they probably played their best defense in the last couple games that we've played all year long, for whatever reason."
Van Gundy said: "They're making it a heck of a lot harder on us than we're making it on them." Tracy McGrady, meanwhile, took inventory of the Rockets trailing at halftime in all four games and said: "We're been playing behind the whole freaking series."
Next up for the Jazz is to take the lessons learned from the first four games and see if they can't make the big breakthrough and win a playoff game on the road. It's hard to argue that the Jazz players aren't filling their roles about as well as you could imagine right now.
(I'm sure Jazz fans also are daring to dream with Golden State leading Dallas 2-1 on the same side of the Western Conference playoff bracket. If the Warriors win Sunday night, it's hard to overestimate the opportunity in front of the Jazz.)
"We were kind of inexperienced coming into this series," forward Matt Harpring said, "and the first two games, we missed a lot of shots we could easily make and now we've got our legs under us and we're going to go into Houston with a lot more confidence."
The Jazz won Saturday because they grabbed every offensive rebound in sight in the first quarter. They won because Deron Williams looked like a playoff veteran, schooling Rafer Alston off the drive and posting him up for a sweet turnaround jumper.
They won because they went for the kill at the start of the third quarter. They won because they bottled up McGrady and because Mehmet Okur not only blocked and stripped Yao Ming but he got into an offensive rhythm at the other end.
And they won because of a five-point swing at the end of the third quarter. Derek Fisher broke up a two-on-one fast break led by Luther Head and Alston, then fed ahead to Gordan Giricek for a buzzer-beating three-pointer. Just an exceptional play.
"They competed at a much higher level than we did in the third quarter, throughout the second half," Van Gundy said. "We had no defensive presence tonight from the start to the finish."
The Jazz have taken McGrady so far out of his game that he no longer seems like Houston's first scoring option. The Rockets' only scoring option, in fact, seems to be getting the ball to Yao as close as humanly possible to the basket.
Even after Van Gundy disputed the premise of a question about getting McGrady back in gear - - saying that far more is amiss with the Rockets than just one player, no matter how big a star - - McGrady said he must "inspire" his teammates for Game 5.
He wasn't able to do that with his play in Game 4 and you have to wonder when and if McGrady will start feeling the pressure of blowing another playoff series. Sloan, meanwhile, wasn't willing to take credit for the Jazz's defense taking McGrady out of his game.
"We've had to play a lot of different guys to try to stay with him," Sloan said. "But I don't think that was the answer. I think Tracy McGrady's too good a player. He's a terrific player that we've faced for a number of years and we've never been able to stop him. I think he missed some shots."
Consider this: McGrady and Yao are shooting a combined 39.9 percent this series, the rest of the Rockets are shooting 35.1 percent and the team has gone 25-of-90 from three-point range. The Rockets were the NBA's fifth-best three-point shooting team this season.
As long as Houston shoots like that, the Jazz should extend them every opportunity to continue doing so. That means aggressively sending a second defender whenever Yao gets the ball inside and committing two defenders to McGrady on every screen and roll.
McGrady was at a loss, having spent Friday afternoon in a film session with his teammates going over all the mistakes that dogged them in Game 3. As McGrady put it in summing up Game 4: "Really nothing changed."
* * *
More Van Gundy: "It's not just about getting one guy (McGrady) in gear. We have to get our team competing at a higher level. When your point guard (Alston) is your leading rebounder at halftime, it certainly says a lot about what he did to rebound but very little for our others in pursuit of the ball."
"They (the Jazz) played exceptionally well tonight. Give them all the credit. Just because the venue changes, the results won't change unless we pay a higher price to win."
* * *
Good to see Rafael Araujo, Ronnie Brewer and Dee Brown get in the game. Araujo was joking in the locker room beforehand that he had hash marks next to his stats while Brown had the preferred zeroes after getting in for six seconds before halftime in Game 2.
None of the three scored but they at least will have real numbers by their names in the game notes for Monday. Hoffa was taking some ribbing from Brown before the game that his new nickname was going to be "Slash."
* * *
You never know what'll happen when you write a letter to a team. The Jazz have a letter posted in their locker room from a fan named Linda D. Wagstaff, who faxed it to the team on April 10 and claims to be old enough to be the players' mothers.
Wagstaff wrote when the Jazz were down in the dumps before the playoffs: "This stretch of games has to be tough for you but they say adversity builds strength. With effort and determination, showing support for one another, you'll come through this and turn back around.
"Just turn a deaf ear to your own doubts - - sometimes the mind exercises too much control. I'll be watching and cheering and clapping and knowing that the way you started out this season is the way you'll end it."
Not a bad perspective from a fan. I'd be interested to hear what she thinks of the turnaround the Jazz have made here in the last two games.
--Ross Siler
The Jazz put it all together in whipping the Rockets 98-85 in Game 4, a game they led by as many as 25 points in the fourth quarter. That was after a Game 3 victory that Houston coach Jeff Van Gundy noted could have and should have been decided by 30 points in Utah's favor.
The best-of-seven series is tied 2-2 but you wouldn't have known the Rockets were still in it listening to their post-game comments. The stat of the night was this: The Jazz scored 64 points in the second and third quarters, only three points shy of the 67 the Rockets scored in all 48 minutes of Game 3.
Going back a couple of days, Sloan wanted to see how his young team would respond, coming home down 0-2 with their backs against the wall. He got the answer he wanted and now the Jazz have shortened this to a three-game series.
"They've responded very well," Sloan said. "I couldn't ask for them to play any better defensively. I think they probably played their best defense in the last couple games that we've played all year long, for whatever reason."
Van Gundy said: "They're making it a heck of a lot harder on us than we're making it on them." Tracy McGrady, meanwhile, took inventory of the Rockets trailing at halftime in all four games and said: "We're been playing behind the whole freaking series."
Next up for the Jazz is to take the lessons learned from the first four games and see if they can't make the big breakthrough and win a playoff game on the road. It's hard to argue that the Jazz players aren't filling their roles about as well as you could imagine right now.
(I'm sure Jazz fans also are daring to dream with Golden State leading Dallas 2-1 on the same side of the Western Conference playoff bracket. If the Warriors win Sunday night, it's hard to overestimate the opportunity in front of the Jazz.)
"We were kind of inexperienced coming into this series," forward Matt Harpring said, "and the first two games, we missed a lot of shots we could easily make and now we've got our legs under us and we're going to go into Houston with a lot more confidence."
The Jazz won Saturday because they grabbed every offensive rebound in sight in the first quarter. They won because Deron Williams looked like a playoff veteran, schooling Rafer Alston off the drive and posting him up for a sweet turnaround jumper.
They won because they went for the kill at the start of the third quarter. They won because they bottled up McGrady and because Mehmet Okur not only blocked and stripped Yao Ming but he got into an offensive rhythm at the other end.
And they won because of a five-point swing at the end of the third quarter. Derek Fisher broke up a two-on-one fast break led by Luther Head and Alston, then fed ahead to Gordan Giricek for a buzzer-beating three-pointer. Just an exceptional play.
"They competed at a much higher level than we did in the third quarter, throughout the second half," Van Gundy said. "We had no defensive presence tonight from the start to the finish."
The Jazz have taken McGrady so far out of his game that he no longer seems like Houston's first scoring option. The Rockets' only scoring option, in fact, seems to be getting the ball to Yao as close as humanly possible to the basket.
Even after Van Gundy disputed the premise of a question about getting McGrady back in gear - - saying that far more is amiss with the Rockets than just one player, no matter how big a star - - McGrady said he must "inspire" his teammates for Game 5.
He wasn't able to do that with his play in Game 4 and you have to wonder when and if McGrady will start feeling the pressure of blowing another playoff series. Sloan, meanwhile, wasn't willing to take credit for the Jazz's defense taking McGrady out of his game.
"We've had to play a lot of different guys to try to stay with him," Sloan said. "But I don't think that was the answer. I think Tracy McGrady's too good a player. He's a terrific player that we've faced for a number of years and we've never been able to stop him. I think he missed some shots."
Consider this: McGrady and Yao are shooting a combined 39.9 percent this series, the rest of the Rockets are shooting 35.1 percent and the team has gone 25-of-90 from three-point range. The Rockets were the NBA's fifth-best three-point shooting team this season.
As long as Houston shoots like that, the Jazz should extend them every opportunity to continue doing so. That means aggressively sending a second defender whenever Yao gets the ball inside and committing two defenders to McGrady on every screen and roll.
McGrady was at a loss, having spent Friday afternoon in a film session with his teammates going over all the mistakes that dogged them in Game 3. As McGrady put it in summing up Game 4: "Really nothing changed."
* * *
More Van Gundy: "It's not just about getting one guy (McGrady) in gear. We have to get our team competing at a higher level. When your point guard (Alston) is your leading rebounder at halftime, it certainly says a lot about what he did to rebound but very little for our others in pursuit of the ball."
"They (the Jazz) played exceptionally well tonight. Give them all the credit. Just because the venue changes, the results won't change unless we pay a higher price to win."
* * *
Good to see Rafael Araujo, Ronnie Brewer and Dee Brown get in the game. Araujo was joking in the locker room beforehand that he had hash marks next to his stats while Brown had the preferred zeroes after getting in for six seconds before halftime in Game 2.
None of the three scored but they at least will have real numbers by their names in the game notes for Monday. Hoffa was taking some ribbing from Brown before the game that his new nickname was going to be "Slash."
* * *
You never know what'll happen when you write a letter to a team. The Jazz have a letter posted in their locker room from a fan named Linda D. Wagstaff, who faxed it to the team on April 10 and claims to be old enough to be the players' mothers.
Wagstaff wrote when the Jazz were down in the dumps before the playoffs: "This stretch of games has to be tough for you but they say adversity builds strength. With effort and determination, showing support for one another, you'll come through this and turn back around.
"Just turn a deaf ear to your own doubts - - sometimes the mind exercises too much control. I'll be watching and cheering and clapping and knowing that the way you started out this season is the way you'll end it."
Not a bad perspective from a fan. I'd be interested to hear what she thinks of the turnaround the Jazz have made here in the last two games.
--Ross Siler
12:27 PM
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