The Houston Rockets are finally playing a back-to-back.
Long after every other team has already had one (or several), Houston stays on the road to take on the Utah Jazz, a young team that feels like they’re just waiting for someone to throw a preposterous amount of picks at them for Lauri Markkanen. Danny Ainge is hoping that he can find another GM in the Billy King or Nico Harrison mold that will just give him a bunch of assets and then proceed to immediately suck. So far, there have been no takers.
I mention it a lot in our Playback streams, but the Jazz were an incredibly feisty against Houston last season. Christian and I have mentioned that Utah played its two best games of the year against the Rockets and no one else. The teams split those, and it wasn’t until the third and final meeting where the Jazz gave up the ghost and conceded that they were actually a bad team.
Those games were full of “random guy has the night of their life,” which included Keyonte George (who is actually good), Brice Sensabaugh (who probably isn’t), and Isaiah Collier (who definitely isn’t…yet?). Nevertheless, the Jazz try hard and won’t be an easy out, especially at home. Plus, teams rarely get swept in a home-and-stay-home.
Utah plays a Houston-lite style by attacking the offensive glass (sixth in the league) and getting to the free throw line (third). They don’t play a great brand of defense, but they do rebound most of their opponent’s missed (seventh). Basically, this game will come down to rebounding. If Houston keeps doing what they do, they should win.
Dorian Finney-Smith: OUT (ankle)
Kevin Durant: GTD (personal)
Steven Adams: GTD (ankle)
The Line (as of this post)
Looking ahead because we can
Monday night on the road against the Utah Jazz