Utah Jazz: Why you shouldn’t be scared of the Houston Rockets

The Utah Jazz will be facing the Houston Rockets in the first round of the 2019 NBA Playoffs. Despite panic from fans, the Jazz shouldn’t be scared.

If you’re a Utah Jazz fan, you’d rather not have to deal with one of the best scorers in NBA history in the first round: James Harden. Of course, you’d rather play the Portland Trail Blazers, who (unfortunately) lost Jusuf Nurkic for the season and were swept by the New Orleans Pelicans last year.

However, reality has hit and the Jazz will officially take on the Houston Rockets in the first round of the 2019 NBA Playoffs.

When Utah and Houston faced off in the second round last year, we all knew the Rockets would be the heavy favorites. As much as we wanted to say the Jazz will win, we knew deep down that the probability of that happening was pretty low. This time around, I think you can bet on Utah winning without being called biased.

Why? Because Houston, despite James Harden’s legendary season, has regressed from last year. It all started when they lost a few key role players in Trevor Ariza and Luc Mbah a Moute. Then, they started the season extremely slow. They’ve obviously gotten through that – they’re now a 53-win team. However, last year’s roster was much better when you look up and down.

I already mentioned the loss of Ariza and Mbah a Moute. I’d much rather have those two guys shooting spot-up three-pointers than Austin Rivers and Iman Shumpert.  On top of that, Eric Gordon has had arguably his worst season as a Rocket, Chris Paul played in just 58 games again and had the worst shooting year of his career. And P.J. Tucker could be gassed heading into the Playoffs. He played in all 82 games and averaged over 34 minutes per game!

On another note, I don’t think a Rudy Gobert/Clint Capela matchup would be as one-sided as it was last year. A season ago, I think Gobert was definitely outplayed by Capela. Rudy has improved drastically since then, though. After all, Gobert is the one that is being considered by many to make an All-NBA Team, not Capela. They’re both great players, but I think Gobert has the edge on him this time around.

Speaking of improvement, what about Donovan Mitchell? Mitchell struggled against defenses to begin the year, adjusting to life as a star player. In calendar year 2019, Mitchell has been insanely good, averaging over 26 points per game and shooting over 40 percent from three. I’m quite sure Mitchell will be better than he was in the Jazz/Rockets series last year. Mitchell shot just 36 percent from the field in that series and averaged 19 points per game.

With all this being said, I think the Jazz and their fans should feel confident about their chances. Simply put, I think the Jazz are better than they were last year and I can’t say the same for the Rockets. Remember, the Rockets were a Chris Paul injury away from a potential NBA Finals run. I don’t see that being the case this year.

This series will be frustrating, no doubt. James Harden will get his numbers and the referees will blow their whistles often. That doesn’t change the fact that the Jazz very well could win it.