Utah Jazz at Houston Rockets: Keys to the Game

Key Stat – Three-Point Percentage

The Houston Rockets chuck up a lot of threes. So many in fact, that they currently lead the league in three-point attempts per game and it’s not even close. Houston shoots 40.5 three-pointers per game while the Cleveland Cavaliers come in second place with nearly seven less at 33.6.

With the Rockets so trigger-happy behind the arc, it’s absolutely vital to shut them down on the perimeter and keep them from gaining any sort of rhythm or momentum. Despite leading the league in attempts, Houston is just 15th in the league in three-point percentage at 36.4 percent, which is nearly identical to what the 14th ranked Jazz shoot.

Ironically enough, the Jazz have actually won the three-point battle in both of the teams’ contests this year, but their excessive turnovers were what did them in during the first match-up. Nevertheless, with Houston unafraid to launch so many threes, even at a less efficient clip, they’re more than capable of engineering a big comeback or running up the score if they aren’t held in check.

Therefore, not only will Utah likely have to win the three-point battle as they’ve done in the past two meetings, they’ll also need to shore up their own perimeter defense to prevent the Rockets from hitting. Despite the fact that the Jazz won that statistical category in the past two games, Houston was still allowed to shoot over their season average both times and that’s a big reason why they were able to win the first meeting.