[ad_1]
SALT LAKE CITY – In the end, the list of missed opportunities was long.
The Jazz opened up looked up 3 points – and missed them. They regularly went to the free throw line but missed 13 attempts. They had the chance to get defensive stops in the stretch – and they did not have any decisive rebounds. And they forced James Harden to miss his first 15 shots of the match – and still could not build a double-digit lead.
Utah dominated Houston on Saturday. The score just does not reflect that.
The Rockets beat the 104-101 Jazz in the third game at the Vivint Arena to take a 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven series. No team came back from a 3-0 deficit.
The first bucket of James Harden arrived with 7:32 remaining in the fourth quarter. After what he did to Jazz in this series, you would have thought it meant Utah was big. And the Jazz should probably have been.
Since the defeat of the second game, Utah has spoken of the need to be the aggressors. The Jazz was Saturday. Utah took a seven-point lead in the opening minutes of the match, which was approved by the crowd.
After battling for three days for his second game performance, Mitchell scored 13 points in the first quarter, including a high-alley-oop dunk and a 3-point bet.
And backed by a raging crowd and a defensive strategy that seemed to finally cause Harden's attacks, it seemed like the Jazz could put some room for maneuver between them and the Rockets.
But then the miss came. And never stopped.
Jazz shot 41.6% of the field, 29.3% of the 3-point range and 65.8% of the free throw line.
These failures made it difficult to create an advance. Even with Harden struggling early in the pack (22 points and 10 assists), the Jazz could not escape.
In the first period, while the Jazz lacked 3 open points and 3 open points, Rockets players such as Gerald Green, Austin Rivers and Eric Gordon made disputed pitches.
And in the third quarter, while the Jazz were stopped, they also missed free kick after free kick. It kept the game tight throughout the match and allowed the Rockets to play enough to steal the match.
"We have not capitalized as much as needed," said Jazz head coach Quin Snyder. "Whether from the foul line or at a stretch in the third quarter, where I thought we had a chance to build a bit of a lead."
Harden did not just fight off the field because he was just missing. The defensive scheme of the Jazz they use since the first match has finally worked.
"The will," said Ricky Rubio. "We played the same defense, but we played with will, we were aggressive and we changed the shots."
They pushed him to the right and Rudy Gobert was phenomenal.
"I missed two or three," joked Harden at the end of the match.
"Gobert started two or three," interrupted Chris Paul.
Gobert had seven blocks in the night to go with 10 points and eight rebounds.
The defensive performance should have been enough for the Jazz to win. Players know it, coaches know it, even the Rockets know they stole one in Salt Lake City on Saturday.
"We have found a way to win," said Houston coach Mike D'Antoni. "We just did not play well, we did not do it."
Harden has made three of his last five shots, including three deep in the final minutes. And his passage on the line, which provokes controversy with Gobert who was called for a foul when Harden's hand fell and touched the center of Jazz, allowed the Rockets to have a two-handed lead late in the game. match.
After his excellent first quarter, Mitchell had only 4 points out of 20 in the last three quarters, but still finished with a high of 34 points. His last defeat, however, a three-pointer with eight seconds to go, would have created equality.
But this shot was only the last of the many opportunities the Jazz had to win the game. And that's why Saturday did so badly. They were the best team. They just did not win.
"I thought we really competed and did a lot of things that we decided to do," said Snyder. "I was proud of the way we played and the way we finished, we just did not win that night to reflect that."
[ad_2]
Source link