The Dream Shake - a Houston Rockets blog: Well how about THAT!

Friday, April 25, 2008

Well how about THAT!

From a commenter this morning "Just about every questionable call went Utah's way, and the Rockets still pulled it out. "

I for one agree with that sentiment to a large extent. I had a unique perspective on the game last night as I went into the lion's den and tried to represent The Dream Shake on MyUtahJazz's live blog. (FYI, if they do it again, can some of y'all please come over and help me? Don't be jackasses, represent the Rockets fans well, but help me keep their heads out of the clouds.) And all game there was constant bitching about the officials and how the Jazz were not getting a fair shake in the game. Let me preface the rest of this with this tidbit: I have to give them credit that when I called them out on said bitching, they did watch replays and most of the time agreed with my assessment that either the proper call was made or the proper no call was made. I too ate crow a couple of times with my mis-analysis on the replays.

Okay, with that out of the way; every fan base thinks they are getting hosed. I for one cannot look at the free throw discrepancy and believe any Utah fan could think they didn't get the better of the calls last night. In that crazy fourth quarter stretch where the Jazz were called for 3 fouls on one series, they questioned every single one (Hell I would have too if it happened to the Rockets), but every single one was a completely legitimate call and I would have been furious if any of them were not called. For CB Jack, Ron Boone and UtesFan, read it back, y'all were crazy with a few last night. I don't point this out to say that there is anything wrong with the craziness, I just find it funny how different one can see it with Red or with Hideous Blue tinted glasses on.

Anyway, the Rockets played very well and didn't make mistakes. They only had a 22 game winning streak-esque 9 turnovers. And Rafer was a huge key to the game (He still sucks, don't worry loyal Dream Shake readers, I'm not going to jinx him!), his 5 assists to 1 turnover ratio was great and was exactly what the Rockets needed. Just to insure I don't jinx him, he did end the game on a 1-5 streak from behind the arc. He only played about 3 minutes of defense on Deron Williams, but honestly, that was probably the biggest key to the game. Locking up D-Will late turned the game in the Rockets favor. I liked that he didn't overexert the hamstring and used it when he absolutely had to.

Enough has been said about Tracy here lately, but it looked to me like he figured out how to properly help the team without killing himself through the first 3 quarters. He played defense in short spurts and didn't waste energy chasing someone unnecessarily, it really was pretty impressive. His fourth quarter was actually borderline good, mind you it didn't get all the way there, but it wasn't even in the realm of horrible like the first two games. His two last shots were not good (for the horrible almost missed everything last shot that is an understatement), but his defense on the other end made up for it both times immediately following the misses.

As Dave said earlier, Luis Landry is back! The Luis part hasn't gone anywhere, but the Landry part was a sight for sore eyes. He was everywhere, getting rebounds, chasing lose balls, willing the Rockets to a victory. Jazz fans that didn't get to see him during the streak, that is almost exactly what he was like every minute on the court. I say almost because his explosiveness isn't there yet, but he finally realized that he can still hustle and help the team.

All in all, I'm not getting my hopes up too much, but this is the Rockets team I thought would win the series in 7. A guy can still hope, right? Win Game 4 and I promise to bring my We Believe sign to the game!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

The officiating had some bad calls go both ways, but the fouls on contact in the lane clearly favored Utah. TMac had contact just about every time he took it in from Boozer or Okur and very rarely got the whistle, but Scola, Landry and Hayes all had five fouls, mostly on drives from Deron Williams into the lane. I really don't think I'm wearing red-tinted glasses when I say that.

I do want to say that the Luis from the streak has not been playing that well in this series. He's scoring ok, but he's got 8 turnovers in the three games and he's shooting 36%. He shoot 52% in the regular season, and he just seems to be hurried and uncomfortable. I'm still waiting for one of those 9-11 from the field nights that I feel like we're going to need. I actually think Chuck's defense on Boozer has warranted more playing time for Chuck and Landry should get his fair share from here on out too. We'll see what happens though.

Neil Christensen said...

Jazz fan here. I have no problem saying I saw a lot of the calls go our way, but thats just what happens when you play at home. I felt like you guys were getting the majority of the calls on your home court.

All that said, I take my hat off to your team. They played awesome defense and completely took us out of our offense. It seemed like our guys couldn't get into a rhythm thanks to your defense. I'm a season ticket holder and I'm constantly amazed at how loud our arena gets, but again to your team's credit they didn't get rattled by it as most teams do. They played hard and they deserved the win, which is more than I can say for our team. I felt the only person who played well was DWill.

Fredo Teabaggins said...

I would be very surprised to see the Jazz lose game four. In fact, if I was a betting man, I'd bet this will be a much more focused Jazz team and will probably be the only blowout of the series.

Anonymous said...

Jazz fan here and in recent years the flopping and bitching by the Jazz players, namely Okur, Kirilenko, Harpring, and Boozer is getting out of hand. I hated Malone and Stockton and I have intensely, immensely hated Sloan since he became coach in 88 I believe. They are destroying basketball and yet I absolutely love Deron Williams and his desire and drive. I am just angry that the NBA has not intervened and stopped those guys from playing so dirty. It sickens me that no one respects Jazz fans because of the notion that we are a dirty team.

First time commenting on your blog. Rockets suck!

Anonymous said...

My name is Bernard... sorry for the typo

Unknown said...

Jazz fan here, it really seemed to me comming down the stretch each team was doing their best to not win the game. The Jazz and Rockets both missed free throws to begin to put the game on ice.

Alston was big for you. I gotta say this.... bank shot 3 to start the night??? cmon rafer, i need you to wake up and realize your not that good when game 4 rolls around.

I dont think i can stand this series going 7 so please Jazz take care of business on saturday!