Utah Jazz-Rockets Game 5: Can the Jazz stave off elimination?

The Utah Jazz find themselves in a 3-1 hole to the Houston Rockets. In order to stave off elimination, there are a few adjustments that must be made.

I’m going to get this out of the way early: The fact that the Utah Jazz are playing meaningful basketball in May is an amazing accomplishment, and something that every Jazz fan should be proud of.

It seems like many Jazz fans have forgotten that this team had a 19-28 record mid-way through January. They had just lost to the Atlanta Hawks in embarrassing fashion, and all but the most faithful of fans had moved on from the idea of going to the playoffs. The Jazz may lose in five games to the Rockets, but the future is still extremely bright.

Now onto the series at hand. After stealing home court advantage from the Rockets with a 116-108 victory in Game 2, it seemed as though the Jazz may be able to make this series interesting. Most everyone believed the Jazz could get one game at home, and this series could go six or seven games.

Unfortunately, the Jazz were not able to protect their home court, and lost both games with uninspiring efforts.

With a healthy Ricky Rubio in tow, I believe they would have been able to win at least one of their home games. His steadying presence, solid decision making and constant intensity would have been a big help to the Jazz. It also would have relieved the pressure that was placed on Donovan Mitchell‘s shoulders, and allowed Mitchell to focus more on his scoring.

Rubio and Dante Exum have already been ruled out for Game 5, which means Donovan Mitchell will once again have to handle a larger workload as both a facilitator and scorer. There are a few keys to the game that if accomplished, could help the Jazz extend this series, and bring another playoff game back to Utah.