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Utah Jazz needed a few games to get there, but they finally managed to make their way through the Houston Rockets' combat zone during their first-round playoff series. The hilarious strategy of defending James Harden's buttocks started to pay off, and the Rockets offense that scored 122 and 118 points in the first two games of the series generated an average of just over 98 points per game in the last three games. No team is likely to defeat a 3-1 deficit, but in the middle of the fifth game, while the Jazz was good in Houston, it was possible to imagine that it would become a real series.
And then, in the last 90 seconds of regulation around, with the game out there to take, Utah is just choked. It was a one-possession game, and over three possessions, the Jazz stumbled and fumbled and fired until their exit from the play and the series. Just how things became interesting!
First, about this end-to-end defense. I realize that Harden's step backward is devastating and that forcing him to leave the three-point line is an absolute imperative, but there must be a more dignified way to take this into account than anything:
As hard to believe as he was to believe, shaving his body on James Harden's back in a defensive possession was not the worst part of Ricky Rubio's night. No, it happened about 75 seconds later, when the Jazz made the race in transition and Donovan Mitchell found it wide open in the corner for what would have been the three pointer. In the old possession, Rubio had knocked down a clutch jumper to make it a one-point match. It was his moment. Time has slowed; the music was growing. Here is what happened:
Yeesh. But the Jazz was not a chance! PJ Tucker of Houston was the victim of a foul on the defensive rebound and missed the next two free throws, making the ball to Jazz with the same deficit of one point and more than a minute to counter. Utah sent the ball to Mitchell at the top of the key and used a Royce O'Neale screen to put him on James Harden, author of five personal fouls. Advantage: Utah! Another great moment, another great opportunity to take a late advance:
Eric Gordon made a fantastic game by digging with O 'Neale to dismiss Mitchell's ball, but it's also true that Mitchell, who shot 4 goals out of 22 in that game and had five turnovers, was so determined to Forcibly He missed the opportunity to touch O 'Neale or Jae Crowder, both widely open along the bow. It is a bit unfair to blame Mitchell a lot for Gordon's excellent defense, but getting defensive help from the perimeter is a good reason in the modern NBA to make his way in painting as well as just about everyone you generate at the end of your journey.
Tucker was again fouled in the backcourt, stopping the clock and forcing free throws. This time, Tucker concocted the two goals, but it was still a match to a possession with a lot of time at the clock. Jazz does not have need a three, but anything other than a three should be done very quickly in order to retain enough time for another chance to win a draw or win. The good news is that what happened happened quickly; The bad news is that here is what happened:
And it was more or less that. O'Neale made a mistake on Harden on the play – ruled on a block and not on a turnaround, but on the functional side, on a turnaround – and Harden sank both freebies and the Rockets won. For the Jazz, the half-naked shots on the glass indicate that the Rockets have won two of the last three games in this series despite Harden shooting 21 points out of 65 on the floor and 11 out of 37 on the bow, which means Jazz was less close than it appeared there. The half full glass indicates that the Jazz really put the right combination of defensive looks to turn Harden into an angry, frustrated and ineffective scorer, and if they'd been able to get a higher percentage of their own looks open … according to my account, they missed something like nine billion open points from this series in the series – they could be headed to Utah with the series leader and a chance to # 39; advance. There is probably some truth in both perspectives, but it will be difficult for the Jazz to console itself for this result when its last good chances have been ruined so brutally.
The good news is that this series produced what it was supposed to produce, namely a team of healthy rockets that would face the Warriors in the second round of the playoffs. Yes, that assumes that the Warriors will overtake the boring Clippers later on Wednesday night or in a 6 or 7 match, but despite their uneven history with a 3-to-1-run lead, it's a pretty safe assumption. The Warriors will not make the same favors for Houston as Utah in this series, but it remains to be seen whether they will defend Harden's buttocks with the same enthusiasm.
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