-Boozer did what your franchise player has to do, he came out and owned the 1st quarter, 15 pts, hitting 7 of his first 9 shots, most 15 foot jumpers over Yao Ming. He was a stud, with his 41 points. Had he gotten the "T-Mac treatment" (more on this later) he would have approached 50. Maybe his best game ever.
-TMac and Yao again played/shot awful in the first half, and Houston was only down by 2. The uglier and lower scoring the game, the better for Houston. If Utah can get this series in the 100's, I really don't think Houston can keep pace.
-Jazz continue to let Houston lull them to sleep in a half-court, late 90's grind-it-out game. If they would look to push the tempo they would leave Yao, Mutombo and Juwan Howard in their dust
-Mehmet Okur continues to struggle. Just 4-23 in the first two games. It appears he's gonna be our "Casper" (disappearing act) player this year, much to my worst fears. More on this in the coming days. If he give us nothing besides tough defense, he did play Yao really tough and was on the bad end of alot of tough if not horrible calls, but Utah can't win if he doesn't give us double digits.
-Virtually every 2nd-half call went the Rockets way, some good calls, some close and others absolutely horrendous. The fact that Utah shot ZERO free throws in the 3rd quarter doesn't begin to tell the story. Yao can do whatever he wants (travel, dislodge with his shoulder (didn't he used to complain Shaq did this?), sprout roots in the paint) and he gets away with it. You can't touch T-Mac without a foul being called, and sometimes you don't even touch him and it's a foul. No doubt in my mind the League wants Houston and it's "Stars" to advance, so they'll do their best to see that happens. The fact that Utah's first home playoff game in 3 years was one of only two to get the NBATV-diss should tell you what they think about the Jazz.
-Houston Rockets fans are absolutely classless. As Deron Williams lay on the cort with what looked to be a serious head-injury, the derogatory chants revealed their true colors. It's tough when you show less class than Utah fans, congratulations Houston you just did. Classless classless Rockets fans. The only more noteworthy item to take note of is 87 year old TNT announcer DickStockton saying it was good sportsmanship of the Rockets to give him an ovation. How you confuse an ovation boo's and "Utah Sucks" chants is beyond me.
-Finally this was some great experience for Utah. Now they know what to expect in the playoffs, the physical play and more importantly they "Star Treatment" and the tough calls that go against you. Now they can go home and protect their homecourt, where I expect Okur, Kirilenko and Deron Williams to play/shoot much better.
Boozer had a helleva game,you're right about that.Some of those shots he made over Yao were sweet.Especially since he probably couldn't see the hoop.This series will go six or seven probably.I think Utah will win the series.
Boozer had a great game.Have to disagree on the officiating though.
I've always been critical of NBA officiating because they are the worst of any sport.With that said in this case Houston drove to the basket more while Utah for the most part settled for jumpers(even Boozer his just fell).
Yao gets raked across the arm by double teams or undermatched players reaching in more times than not with no call;in this case they are making the call because Okur was caught reaching in and slapping Yao across the hands too much).
You will not win a game when only one of your all stars show up;where's Okur and Kirilenko.
Also Houston beat Phoenix in the last week of the reg.season and the score was well in the 100s,so I don't think it makes too much difference if Utah tries to speed up the game;their all-stars just need to stop crying and play ball.
Remember Utah's owner even said they suck and more than once.
In all fairness,I will say that I firmly believe that the league manipulates games to create better match-ups/storylines for the next series.A potential Dallas-Houston matchup looks better than Dallas-Utah and even if you put GS in Dallas's place Houston still makes for a more compelling matchup.
I can probably say that Houston may have gotten one or 2 extra calls(not as extreme as you make it out).I also think Utah will be the beneficiaries of the extra same thing in Utah and they will be shooting 30 freethrows to Houston 18.
All in all though blatant manipulation would be the finals last year,the year of Portland's so-called collapsed against the Lakers in the 4th quarter of a conference final's game 7 or even the Cavs-Detroit series from last year but this series just doesn't fall under that category to me.
ha ha rockets wcc....yes the game is fixed... the playoffs are about superstars because they get the calls...rockets have 2 superstars, utah O. It is a question of marketing the utah market is going nowhere because the franchise never has...new blog on this topic check it out, peace.
Sliceman is an under the radar closet sports writer and sportsjunkie. Read his blog now before it becomes the next big thing and there's no room left on the bandwagon.
