Utah Jazz(10-6) at Houston Rockets(9-7), 7:30 CST Season Stats <u>Utah Jazz</u> Record: 10 - 6 ( .625) Standings: Third, Midwest At Home: 9 - 1 On Road: 1 - 5 PPG: 93.0 Opp PPG: 91.8 FG%: .451 Opp FG%: .438 RPG: 42.4 Opp RPG: 35.4 <u>Rockets</u> Record: 9 - 7 ( .563) Standings: Fourth, Midwest At Home: 5 - 1 On Road: 4 - 6 PPG: 87.3 Opp PPG: 84.3 FG%: .419 Opp FG%: .386 RPG: 42.9 Opp RPG: 40.8 Probable Starters vs. Jim Jackson/Matt Harpring vs. Kelvin Cato/Andrei Kirlenko vs. Yao Ming/Greg Ostertag vs. Steve Francis/Paul Lopez vs. Cuttino Mobley/DeShawn Stevenson Utah Jazz The Utah Jazz have been one of the suprise teams this season. Everyone expected them to be horrible after they lost Karl Malone and John Stockton. Everyone was wrong. This team has played fantastic basketball through the season so far, to the amazement of everyone. This team is lead by their star player Andrei Kirilenko, who scored 23 points in the last game against the Rockets, and Matt Harpring, who scored 9 points while grabbing 10 rebounds. A key for the Jazz tonight will be to control Yao Ming. He scored 20 points last game and that was only on 20% shooting. The Jazz must not allow him to get going tonight especially since the Rockets will be playing at home. Greg Ostertag will have his hands full tonight. Steve Francis will be another main area of concern for the Jazz. He leads the Rockets in scoring averaging just over 18 points a game. As for offense, the Jazz must get Matt Harpring shots tonight. The Rockets did a good job last game of controlling him on the offensive end of the court. Him and Andrei will need to make their shots tonight for the Jazz to be successful. Houston Rockets This past road trip for the Rockets has been nothing but disappointing (1-4). Having the past few days off should really benefit the Rockets tonight. The will come out fresh tonight and look to take control of the game from the opening tip. Steve Francis played horrible in the game earlier this year against Utah. Despite facing Jazz rookie point guard Raul Lopez in what all honestly was a match-up the veteran Francis should have dominated, Lopez outplayed Francis down the stretch of last week's loss. Steve Francis will have his game face on tonight so look for him to have a huge game. The Rockets have a much deeper bench then the Jazz do. Maurice Talyor and Eric Piatkowski will need to play especially well tonight so they can exploit the bench of the Jazz, which has been crippled with injuries. The Rockets must play excellent defense tonight, and really get after it on the boards. Andrei Kirilenko should be the focus tonight on defense. He is much quicker then Kelvin Cato so it will be imperative that the Rockets do a good job of helping on defense. As for as offense, the Rockets must make shots. They shot 33% from the field the last time these two teams squared off. 33% didn't cut it then and it certainly wont cut it tonight. X- Factor The X - Factor tonight for both teams will be rebounding. The Jazz lead the league in rebounding, only allowing the opposing team to get 36 rebounds a game. Houston will need extra help tonight rebounding from Yao Ming, Mo Taylor, Kelvin Cato and Jim Jackson. Game Prediction The Rockets controlled the last game between these teams all the way up until the 4th quarter where they simply "died" and Utah came back to win the game. I don?t expect the same thing to happen tonight. The Rockets know they should have beaten the Jazz last week, so they will make an extra effort to beat them tonight. This game will turn into a half-court game tonight with both teams grinding it out on defense. I expect the Rockets to win tonight. Yao put up 20 points last game on 20% shooting, imagine what he will do if he shoots well tonight.
I can't stress this enough, give the ball to Yao Ming. Give it to him again. And then again. Well, just make it all night. These are 2 teams that are playing opposite brands of basketball right now. I have to favor the Jazz in this one till the Rockets show up with a better gameplan.
The Rockets should get the game tape of last night's Wake Forest v Indiana game.Wake threw the ball to Eric Williams on EVERY SINGLE PLAY he was too much for Indy to handle.Nothing could stop him in the post..If only Rockets did that with Ming they would be far more successful.Lets face it no one on the Jazz can stop him.
Awesome line by AK with his 8 steals and 5 blocks, but he choked at the end and missed the FT that would have won the game.
Yay we win =D..it's kinda hard to give it to Yao Ming with two ball hog guards in point guard wannabe steve francis and in sg cuttino mobley. Don't we all agree that francis should play sg?!?! A scrubby point guard is supposed to have at least 5 assists per game. Francis is averaging less...
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting drm2dnk:</div><div class="quote_post">Yay we win =D..it's kinda hard to give it to Yao Ming with two ball hog guards in point guard wannabe steve francis and in sg cuttino mobley. Don't we all agree that francis should play sg?!?! A scrubby point guard is supposed to have at least 5 assists per game. Francis is averaging less...</div> There is no question that Steve Francis is a natural SG. He is forced to play the point because Houston lacks a true PG. I would much rather see him run the point the Cuttino Mobley. He isn't that bad of a PG, I just think at times he gets caught up in the "I have to do everything mode" As for the game, Houston played great in overtime when they jumped out to an early 8 point lead. Cuttino Mobley had a huge night, scoring a career high 32 points. Yao Ming scored 20 points and Francis chipped in 18. Matt Harpring had 19 points while Andrei Kirilenko had 19 points and 8 steals. Jim Jackson did not play do to the flu. Bostjan Nachbar started in his place. Houston committed a total of 23 turnovers which is something that needs to be worked on. Yao Ming made a bucket giving the Rockets a 94-93 lead with 17 seconds to go. Andrei Kirilenko toed the game at 87 with 5.7 seconds to go. (He made only one of his two free throws) Raul Lopez hurt his right ankle in the final seconds of the 4th quarter. He is listed as day-to-day. Here is the complete box score: http://www.nba.com/games/20031203/UTAHOU/boxscore.html
