The Houston Rockets (46-13) extended their winning streak and beat the Utah Jazz (31-29) with 96:85 (BOXSCORE). After a weak first half, the rockets turn up in a foreign arena and celebrate 13th place thanks to a strong defence and a push from the role-players. Victory in series.
In Clint Capela (disease) the rockets lacked their most important big, but Tarik Black started. Coach Mike D’ Antoni had only nine players available. But that was not a problem at first. The guests forced fast (and often bad) jazz finishes and forced Rudy Gobert on the defensive into many isolation against Chris Paul and James Harden. Only in the middle of the first quarter did jazz begin to attack the guests’ switches with penetration and were successful.
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In addition, the rockets stayed cold from the outside, while the hosts found a good mix and were able to win a two-digit lead with a 16:3 run thanks to the reservists. It got rougher after Alec Burk’s Paul slammed his shoulder against the jaw on a screen. P.J. Tucker later retaliated with a hard block. But before the break the offense of jazz stagnated, ball losses (already 12) and bad throws were produced. Thus, the rockets kept the damage within reasonable bounds (44:39 jazz) with a 10:0 run.
After the break the rockets showed a clear improvement, also because the threesome fell again. Trevor Ariza, with two triples in the middle of the third quarter, provided the first guest tour in a long time. All of a sudden they were inverse signs, the rockets defense was now elitist, Utah lost the rhythm. Harden dominated the action and scored with ease (11 points in the third section).
Despite a double-digit gap, the hosts did not give up, but the small lineup of the rockets (Mbah a Moute on Center) was a big problem for Utah with Gobert on the field. Nevertheless, the jazz came back to 6 points four minutes before the end, but a throw from Mbah a Moute suffocated all the momentum and finished in 13th place. Rockets victory in series perfect.
The top scorer of the rockets was of course Harden, who scored 26 points and 11 rebounds. CP3 supported his backcourt colleague with 15 points and 6 assists, and Mbah a Moute (17) was particularly convincing in the second half. Gobert scored the most points for the hosts, while Donovan Mitchell (16.6/15 FG, 8 Turnover) scored well. Ricky Rubio (14) and Jae Crowder (12) also finished the game in double digits.
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James Harden. The bearded man was defended for over 48 minutes, but especially in the second half of the game he managed to find solutions after winning almost exclusively from the free-throw line. The Guard didn’t let himself be intimidated by Gobert’s presence in the zone and stayed almost perfect with his drives to the basket.
Joe Ingles. The Australian tried everything against Harden, but could rarely stop the shooting guard. Things went even worse for the forward but in attack. Only in the fourth quarter was he able to make his first throw after five failed attempts, and bad decisions were made as a ball handler in the pick-n-roll. He finished the game with only 6 points (1/6 FG), 3 assists and 3 turnovers. Also weak: The overexcited playing Mitchell.
How do you stop a James Harden? Jazz couldn’t answer that question either, but at least they made it as difficult as possible for him. Most of the time Joe Ingles was given this task, but Ricky Rubio and Mitchell were also allowed to try. Initially, the rockets could easily force a switch to Gobert, but Utah corrected this. There were only a few open throws for the front runner in the MVP race, every point was worked hard. After the break, the bearded man snacks, but Ingles scored a few easy basket shots.