Here’s the thing. You knew McGrady wasn’t going to repeat his 0-6 with 1 point in the second half. But you didn’t figure on 16 in the third. There wasn’t a thing the Jazz could do to stop it. Here’s what killed the Jazz. Forget the poor free throw shooting the 4-17 and 2-14 from Boozer and Okur, Okur’s only points coming on two three pointers early. The Jazz still had a nine-point lead at the half. The thing that killed them is that as soon as the Rockets came out in the third and started hitting some shots and making a run, as you know they’d do, the Jazz stopped playing. Now it’s very tough to win on the road, especially when you play fairly good defense and they get a couple lucky threes to go; unbelievably hard and demoralizing when you’re playing tough and everything still goes in for them. But here’s the thing. Who on the team feeds on that situation and comes back down and answers with a three or a dunk or some kind of statement play that says we’re not going down. Here’s something to shut you the hell up. Who is it that sees those times when the crowd is going wild and looks at that as an opportunity to rise to the top and stop the bleeding? The perfect example of this was Jordan. When the other team started heating up and making a run and getting their confidence back, Jordan would come out and make a statement that would kill any hope. The Jazz don’t have that right now. I think the closest is Deron Williams. And right now I don’t see it in Boozer’s or Okur’s eyes or their body language. Who’s it going to be? I don’t know.

Now for the fan rant part of me. I don’t know what to do when we’re taking it in the post and not getting any foul calls. The Jazz only went to the line 4 times in the first half. You can’t tell me that all the times they were in the paint, that the Rockets defended perfectly.

Also, the last time the Jazz were in the playoffs, their offense was just as bad. The Rockets were defending the pick and roll well for most of the night When do we go away from the PNR? We obviously have the talent and athleticism now that we didn’t have in 2003. When the PNR is working, it’s great, but when it’s not, it’s ugly. And right now it’s Carrot Top ugly.

I still think we can win one in Houston and obviously we need to win one there to win the series. If we can win on Monday, not only would it be a huge boost, but that momentum would carry over to the first home game. If we lose the next one, put a fork in us.