The Utah Jazz lost 110-96 to the Houston Rockets in Game 1 of their second-round series without the help of Ricky Rubio (hamstring).
The Utah Jazz opened their second-round series with the Houston Rockets in less than inspiring fashion on Sunday. After the first quarter, James Harden and Co. led by 13; by halftime, the deficit had nearly doubled. But to quote the wise words of a French philosopher (actually Rudy Gobert), “We will be fine.”
That proved to be a prophetic statement for a team that held a 19-28 record at the time. Utah would go on to finish the regular season at 48-34, after which they defeated reigning MVP Russell Westbrook and Oklahoma City Thunder 4-2 in the first round of postseason play.
Some have said the Jazz were playing with house money as soon as they made the playoffs because they had already achieved more than was expected. That’s probably true, but don’t think for a second that Gobert, Donovan Mitchell, Ricky Rubio, head coach Quin Snyder or anyone else on the squad is content with what they’ve done so far.
This is a team that will battle back and fight for wins.
We will be fine
— Rudy Gobert (@rudygobert27) January 6, 2018
What did we learn?
In the second round of the 2017 NBA Playoffs, you could sense a Jazz team that almost seemed satisfied by a Round 1 victory over the LA Clippers. They settled in against the Golden State Warriors in a way that seemed like they had already accepted their demise.
This team is not that team.
Just like Game 1 against the Thunder, it took a Herculean effort from Houston to claim victory against Utah. Paul George hit 8-of-11 from 3-point range in that game. On Sunday, Harden, likewise, dropped a 41, eight and seven line on 59 percent shooting from the 3-point line. Oh, and he added 10-of-11 from the free-throw line for good measure.
Want to know a secret? Game 1 against the Jazz was the Rockets’ second best 3-point shooting night of the season, including the playoffs. Second only to a 59 percent 3-point shooting night against the Jazz (who else?) in November.
| Team | Team | Team | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rk | Date | Tm | Opp | Result | 3P | 3PA | 3P% ▼ | |
| 1 | 2017-11-05 | HOU | UTA | W 137-110 | 23 | 39 | .590 | |
| 2 | 2018-04-29 | HOU | UTA | W 110-96 | 17 | 32 | .531 | |
| 3 | 2018-03-20 | HOU | @ | POR | W 115-111 | 19 | 36 | .528 |
Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 4/30/2018.
Game 1 does not mean anything. The Jazz are in for a series against the Rockets; a series that will take moves and counter-moves from both head coaches. The Jazz lost Game 1, but fought to the last breath in the second half, trimming a 27 point lead to 11 without Rubio orchestrating the offensive action.
Meanwhile, Royce O’Neale and Dante Exum both showed they can make Harden uncomfortable. Raul Neto also got minutes and may be able to bother Chris Paul. See this defense?
Best defense I’ve seen on Harden yet pic.twitter.com/yTH26qrtWX
— BBALLBREAKDOWN (@bballbreakdown) April 30, 2018
Would it be a long shot for this Utah team to upset the Rockets? Sure.
Did anyone expect the Jazz to make the playoffs? If they did, did they expect higher than the eighth seed? Did they expect Utah to beat OKC?
The Jazz have been counted out since the second Gordon Hayward left the Jazz.
If you’re already counting the current Jazz crew out after a bad half against one of the best offenses the NBA has ever seen (the Jazz won the second half, by the way), Rudy has something to say to you.
Shoutout to Everyone that counted us out!! #ontothenextone #weonlygettingstarted
— Rudy Gobert (@rudygobert27) April 9, 2018
I’m going to avoid making predictions about the outcome of the series because everyone who does that with this Jazz team ends up getting embarrassed. But I will say this — the Jazz will not roll over; they will fight. If the second half of Game 1 shows you anything, it’s that this team can adjust.
Don’t count the Jazz out.