A Missed Opportunity in Game-1

[RonnieBrewer (Reverse Layup)]

A Missed Opportunity in Game-1
  By  Travis Heath
for HOOPSWORLD.com
Apr 22, 2007, 13:11 

The Utah Jazz came out sluggish on Saturday and fell behind 8-0.  After a
quick Jerry Sloan timeout, the Jazz turned things around and dominated the
remaining minutes of the first-half taking a 42-33 lead into the locker room
at halftime.  Things looked to be rolling for Utah in Game-1.

"In the first-half we were so discombobulated and so scattered that they had
us all over the place," said Rockets' head coach Jeff Van Gundy.  "I didn't
even recognize what we were doing, and we were fortunate to only be down nine
at half."

However, behind a hot shooting effort from Tracy McGrady in the second-half,
the Rockets took control of Game-1 and prevented Utah from stealing homecourt
advantage.  So how exactly did a nine-point halftime lead turn into a 9-point
defeat in just 24-minutes of basketball?

"We missed shots," Jazz head coach Jerry Sloan responded succinctly. "I mean,
we had good looks at the basket.  We just missed some shots.  We missed our
free-throws.  I believe we missed six free-throws in the second-half.  Those
things keep you in the ballgame so you hopefully have a chance to finish the
ballgame."

Unfortunately, the Jazz never had a legitimate chance to "finish" the game
the way they would have liked coming down the stretch.  Of course, scoring
just 11-points in the third-quarter didn't help matters.

"We are trying to tell our players to relax and when the shots are there
you've got to be able to knock it down," Sloan said.  "We have to play a full
48-minutes.  We can't have an 11-point quarter like we did."

"I'm sure when they look at their film they're going to see some shots that
were defended well and others ones where they just missed," added Van Gundy.

The biggest adjustment the Rockets made in the second-half was the way they
defended Utah's favorite play, the one-five pick-and-roll.

"We studied," responded Tracy McGrady when asked what defensive adjustments
the Rockets made at the half to hold Utah to just 33 second-half points.
"We prepared ourselves extremely well for that type of situation, because we
knew what they were going to go do.  I thought our guys did a great job of
taking away their pick-and-roll.  Last time we played them they ran the
pick-and-roll with Williams and Boozer and they killed us probably three
consecutive times.  We prepared ourselves extremely well and kind of took
that away.  We did a hell of a job in the fourth quarter."

And whether or not the Rockets like the match-ups defensively, Van Gundy made
it clear the Rockets have no choice but to keep Chuck Hayes and Juwan Howard
on Mehmet Okur and Carlos Boozer on Yao Ming.

"It doesn't matter if I like it or don't, it's what we've got to do. We don't
want Yao out there on the three-point line with Okur.  Obviously, Okur made
those two early which really spreads us out.  They're hard to guard, because
they're so well coached.  Their point-guard play was great."

The turning point of the game came late in the third quarter when veteran
Derek Fisher missed a breakaway lay-up only to see Rafer Alston control the
rebound and push the ball up the court to Yao for an easy dunk.

"Let's face it," Van Gundy said with a smirk, "we got rewarded for bad play
on that one.  You know, Yao didn't run back so he was standing down there.
Sometimes it is luck, and we got lucky on that one.  We got some good breaks
tonight."

"That was huge," added Sloan.  "It looked like our energy level had dropped
when we got to that point.  You know, that's when you've got to keep playing,
when you have a little breakdown.  That didn't happen.  We kind of felt sorry
for ourselves a little bit, and that's when you've got to buckle down and go
harder.  You've got to fight right back.  You can't allow yourselves to think
backwards.  If you miss a shot you've got to come out of there like
gangbusters and compete to not let something else happen.  One thing led to
another."

It's hard to win playoff games in the NBA, and chances to steal games on the
road don't happen that frequently.  The Rockets were ripe for the pickin' on
Saturday and Utah just didn't get it done.

"The (visiting) team really doesn't have that much pressure at all," McGrady
said of Game-1's.  "I think they come out more relaxed, and we were a little
more uptight."

When it was all over, though, Utah was the team feeling uptight and perhaps a
little nauseous thinking about the one that got away.


Backing Down to Physical Play?

The Jazz are a team that rely on precise ball movement offensively with the
ultimate goal of getting as many lay-ups as possible.  They are also known as
a team that inflicts their will on opponents regardless of their style or
personnel.  However, the approach seems to be a bit different after one game
of this particular series against the Rockets.

"I thought we executed all night pretty well," Sloan said.  "I mean, we got
good looks at the basket.  We're not going to get as many lay-ups, obviously,
with their size.  They're a great defensive team.  They put a lot of pressure
on you, and you've got to be able to make some shots."

Okay, so Sloan is right about one thing: the Jazz have to make shots.  But
what's most interesting about what he said above is that Utah is "obvioulsy"
not going to get many easy lay-ups inside.

Why not?

Yes, Yao can make it tough to score inside and Houston plays good team
defense, but isn't Utah's entire strategy to get easy baskets?

And if the Jazz exhibit trepidation in attacking the basket, how can they
expect to get Yao or any of the rest of Houston's bigs into foul trouble?

It it possible that this timid approach led to the combined 6-31 shooting
effort from Okur and Boozer?

"Some of those shots were wide-open right out on the perimeter," Sloan said
of the looks his starting big men got throughout the game.  "I felt pretty
good all year long when they had those kind of shots, because those are the
shots they've made over the year.  We're not always going to get a power play
to get the ball inside because of their size, and we knew that going in."

Again, an interesting assumption.  Sure, it's not going to be easy for Utah
to go inside, but if they intend to shy away from playing their game in the
post -- as Sloan insinuated with his comments -- they are not going to win
the series.

And just for the record, the Rockets don't even view themselves as that
physical of a team down-low.

"You know what?  We're not bullies," said McGrady.  "That's not who we are.
We don't play like that.  We get the job done however we play, and that's
what's most important."

Doesn't exactly sound like the words of a guy playing for a modern-day
version of "The Bad Boys," huh?

The bottom-line is that Utah can use every excuse in the book, but they must
develop an attack mentality down-low.  If not, this series won't last nearly
as long as Jazz fans would like it to.


Guarding McGrady

Don't say you weren't warned.  Just a couple of weeks back, your friendly
neighborhood columnist questioned how the Jazz were going to contain Tracy
McGrady.  And you can say all you want about McGrady's 0-6 first half, but
when he wanted to get it going, he got it going.  Moreover, as you read in
this space previously, sticking Derek Fisher on McGrady just isn't a recipe
for long-term success.

Many Jazz fans challenged that assertion, and indicated that it's better to
have Fisher starting on McGrady and then bring Harpring off the bench to
defend him.  The problem with that is that once McGrady gets hot, no one can
stop him.  The Jazz have to make it a priority to stop McGrady from start to
finish, and putting Fisher on him just doesn't send that message.

"That's a mismatch," Sloan conceded after the game.  "We know that to start
with, but (Fisher) gets up and tries to make him work as much as he can.  But
he's going to break loose somewhere.  We know that.  When that happens we've
got to try and do a couple of different things, but we were very sluggish
coming out and trying to get the ball out of his hands.  We didn't seem to
have the desire to try and make it work.  We've got a young team and they've
got to learn that.  We went through a stretch where it looked like to me that
we kind of lost our ability to compete."

Kudos to Fisher for working hard, and it's not his fault he's being asked to
stick McGrady.  However, this is the NBA playoffs which means there is no
time to tinker around with different match-ups or rotations.  Sloan needs to
start the guy he believes has the best chance of defending McGrady
effectively.  That could be Harpring, Andrei Kirilenko or anyone else, but
whoever it is, that guy should be hounding McGrady from the opening tip.
There's no time to get cute and start someone else on McGrady only to put
you best defender on him in crunch time.  This is a recipe for not being in
the game come crunch time, and ultimately, for a quick first-round exit.


                                http://www.hoopsworld.com/article_21726.shtml 

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