Even though this series stands at 2-2 I believe that the Jazz are clearly the better team here in this matchup and what they have done in all 4 games thus far is expose the Rockets' lack of depth in terms of both offense and player personnel.
We all know that T-Mac and Yao have been the Rockets' offense all season, however it has been the support cast of players like Alston, Head and Howard that have helped improve this team during the regular season. Howard and Head combined for a season's average of 20.6 PPG whereas in the first 4 games they are averaging 7.6 PPG and only shooting 20.4% from the floor.
Yao's FG % has dropped from 51.6% to 43.7% and it is pretty clear from the last 2 games how T-Mac is being frustrated by Sloan simply throwing bodies at him by rotating Fisher, AK47 and Giricek off of him throughout the course of the game. He has not been allowed to attack the hoop instead having to settle for jump shots all series so far.
No question Jazz have stepped up on D since they were leaking in the points towards the back end of the reg season. Lets also not forget, they led the Rockets on both ocassions at Toyota Center at HT before falling away in the second half, they have definitely been the more competitive of the two teams if we are lookin at this series from a home & away perspective. The Rockets also have no answer to Williams' slashing style and energy, he is controlling the games for the Jazz with the big men just feeding off of him. This game clearly is the pivotal one of the series, I'll back the team who seems to want it more and are now playing with more intensity and most importantly, they have all the momentum. If I had to pick which of these teams have the ability to steal a game on the road, it's a no brainer IMO.
Therefore I am taking a shot with them tonight and unloading:
Jazz +6 v Rockets (10)
Jazz ML v Rockets - (+240) (5)
:shake:
We all know that T-Mac and Yao have been the Rockets' offense all season, however it has been the support cast of players like Alston, Head and Howard that have helped improve this team during the regular season. Howard and Head combined for a season's average of 20.6 PPG whereas in the first 4 games they are averaging 7.6 PPG and only shooting 20.4% from the floor.
Yao's FG % has dropped from 51.6% to 43.7% and it is pretty clear from the last 2 games how T-Mac is being frustrated by Sloan simply throwing bodies at him by rotating Fisher, AK47 and Giricek off of him throughout the course of the game. He has not been allowed to attack the hoop instead having to settle for jump shots all series so far.
No question Jazz have stepped up on D since they were leaking in the points towards the back end of the reg season. Lets also not forget, they led the Rockets on both ocassions at Toyota Center at HT before falling away in the second half, they have definitely been the more competitive of the two teams if we are lookin at this series from a home & away perspective. The Rockets also have no answer to Williams' slashing style and energy, he is controlling the games for the Jazz with the big men just feeding off of him. This game clearly is the pivotal one of the series, I'll back the team who seems to want it more and are now playing with more intensity and most importantly, they have all the momentum. If I had to pick which of these teams have the ability to steal a game on the road, it's a no brainer IMO.
Therefore I am taking a shot with them tonight and unloading:
Jazz +6 v Rockets (10)
Jazz ML v Rockets - (+240) (5)
:shake:
