Utah Jazz vs. Houston Rockets: Who has the edge at each position?
By Tyler Thorpe
The Utah Jazz advanced to round two of the playoffs after defeating the Oklahoma City Thunder in six games. The Jazz will face the top-seeded Houston rockets in their second-round matchup. At which positional matchups do the Jazz have an advantage?
The Houston Rockets, behind All-Stars Chris Paul and James Harden, will present many of the same challenges to the Jazz that the Oklahoma City Thunder presented. They rely heavily on their stars to create offense. While Utah is accustomed to this style of play, Houston takes it to another level. Their small-ball offense contrasts heavily with Utah’s more traditional lineups.
They have been the league’s best team all season long and their strengths go far beyond their two future Hall of Famers. Utah will need to play to their strengths and exploit Houston’s weaknesses if they want to be competitive in this series.
Despite being a heavy underdog, the Jazz have given us few reasons to ever truly count them out. What positional matchups can Utah most take advantage of in hopes of upsetting the West’s top seed and advance to the Conference Finals?
Houston’s small-ball lineup presents a challenge to actually predict who will match up with who, however, we will just look at each starting lineup based on each team’s 2018 playoff starting fives.
Let’s take a look…