The Utah Jazz | as seen by Basketball John

In an ugly, ugly game, the Jazz came from behind, on the road, to beat the Rockets 86-83.  The scoring was well below both teams’ averages.  I’d like to say it was good defense, but each team only had 8 turnovers.  Rebounds were pretty even as well.  Only Yao could hit anything today.  And even then he shot only 45%.

Complete Box Score
YouTube  Recap (Coming)

After opening a ten-point lead in the first, the Jazz shooting went quickly downhill.    They still led at the half but had to overcome a poor third quarter.  In the last 5-7 minutes of the game, the Jazz started executing again and chipped away at the Rockets lead.  The turning point in the game came when Harpring was fouled and made the basket for the three-point play.  The Jazz were then able to hold off Houston the last minute a change.  McGrady had a chance to tie it at the end thanks to a missed free throw by Okur, but missed.  Those always make you nervous and we’ve seen #1 hit those before.

A couple things that came as a result of this win.  First, the Jazz maintain their lead over the Rockets for home-court advantage.  On a side note, why does Booner always say they’re fighting for the fourth seed?  The Jazz can’t drop any lower than fourth because they’ve won the Northwest title.  They’re fighting for home court.  Anyway, this also goes to show that the Jazz can win on the road in a playoff game against Houston, whether or not they lose home court advantage.  Nd most importantly, I think it gives the Jazz some swagger back, as much as that’s cliched.  I think they were upset at the last loss because they knew they could have won that game.

Overall, they did a great job at keeping McGrady contained.  And they handled Yao pretty well.  He started out hot but was reined in a bit in the second half.  I’d like to see some toughness out of someone.  Someone that can come in and not be afraid to put someone to the floor and make the earn it at the line.  You can be sure that if Mutumbo had elbowed Malone like he did Okur, Karl would have gotten even.  The Jazz were pushed around quite a bit and there were a ton of non-calls on Yao.

Next Game:
Wednesday, Apr. 4, 8:00pm at Trail Blazers