Game Preview: Utah Jazz up against the young Houston Rockets

Tonight, the Utah Jazz square off against the Houston Rockets. If Tuesday night’s contest vs the Denver Nuggets represented the Jazz’s most difficult challenge of the season thus far, this contest may be the exact opposite. 

Indeed, the Rockets (1-3) have struggled as mightily as one might expect for a team so heavily reliant on teenagers. They’re committing the second-most turnovers per game in the NBA so far (19.2). Quin Snyder and his Utah Jazz may feel as though they’ve got a clear advantage heading into this matchup, but they’ll still need to execute their gameplan in order to come away from the Toyota Center with a victory.

The Utah Jazz need to contain Jalen Green

Jalen Green, the 19-year-old rookie sensation, has been wildly inconsistent so far this season. It’s entirely possible that the Utah Jazz won’t need to worry about him: he may contain himself. On the other hand, this is a kid who clearly has immense talent, and is capable of using it.

He’s generally looked unexceptional through the Rockets’ first four games, but when he made an exception against the Boston Celtics, he made a significant one. Against the Cs, Green went for 30 points on 11/18 shooting, included a scorching 8/10 from the three-point line.

Of course, the Rockets lost to the Celtics 107-97 anyway. Nonetheless, the Utah Jazz can’t afford to assume they’ll see the same outcome in the event that Green puts up a similar statline against them. He is Houston’s most talented player, and therefore, the Jazz’s game plan has to involve stopping him.

The Utah Jazz need to exploit mismatches

The Utah Jazz roster one of the best centers in the National Basketball Association in Rudy Gobert, and he’s in the midst of what could be a career year. His matchup with Rockets big man Christian Wood makes for an interesting style clash.

Wood, at 6’10 and 215 pounds, is not nearly as physically imposing as the Stifle Tower, but he does possess one quality that Gobert doesn’t: the ability to shoot the 3. So far this season, Wood is averaging 20.8 points per game while shooting 45.5% on 5.5 three-point attempts per game.

We’ve seen what can happen when Gobert is dragged away from the paint to guard the three-point arc. Perhaps Snyder will seek to mitigate that issue by assigning a different defender to Wood, but the Rockets frequently run five-out spacing: Gobert may be stuck guarding three-point attempts no matter who his assignment is.

Rudy Gobert and the Utah Jazz need to make this mismatch into an advantage. The Rockets do not roster a big man capable of tussling for rebounds and inside positioning with either Rudy Gobert or Hassan Whiteside. At 6’9 and 235 pounds, rookie Alperen Sengun may come the closest, but he’s only seen 17.5 minutes of action per contest so far in 2021-22.

The Utah Jazz should dominate the paint in this matchup.

The Utah Jazz can’t get overconfident

Yes, this Houston Rockets team projects as one of the worst in the National Basketball Association this season, and yes, the Utah Jazz project as one of the best. Nonetheless, the Rockets are a professional basketball team in the NBA. They’re equipped with plenty of talent: it just happens to be extremely young and inexperienced.

If the Utah Jazz can contain Jalen Green and exploit their mismatches at the 5 spot, they should walk away with an easy victory in tonight’s matchup with Houston.