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Not many gave the Utah Jazz much of a chance of making a deep run when the playoffs began and here they are, having stolen home court from the Number 1 seeded Houston Rockets after Game 2. After blowing a 19-point lead and trailing by 5, the Jazz roared back in the 4th to tie this series at one apiece.
Joe Ingles led another balanced Utah attack, as they won despite the absence of Ricky Rubio. James Harden scored 32 points and had 11 assists in a losing effort.
Here are the talking points from the game:
#5 Houston's big 3 deliver, but it wasn't enough
The Rockets are probably not gonna lose too many games where Harden, CP3, and Clint Capela all score over 20, but they did this time. Harden scored 32, Chris Paul had 23 and Capela continued his strong showing in these playoffs with 21 points and 11 rebounds. The problem was the rest of the supporting cast did next to nothing apart from Eric Gordon. Gordon had 15 but shot 5/16 and the rest of the Rockets (6 players) scored just 17 points.
The Rockets also committed just 7 turnovers compared to 16 from the Jazz, which makes the loss tougher to swallow. It was the 1st quarter which killed the Rockets in all honesty. The Jazz shot 63.6% and led by 8 and this would have been a completely different ball game if not for that 1st quarter explosion. The Rockets would probably back themselves to win one of the next 2 games in Utah, but they'd be mindful of the fact that the Jazz-Thunder series flipped on its head after Game 2 and they'll have to bring their A-game to win this series.
#4 The 3 ball doesn't fall for Houston
Another reason for the loss was the 3 point shot not falling for Houston. They shot 10-of-37 (27%) from beyond the arc, well below their regular season (36.2%) and Game 1 mark (53.1%) for that matter. Just like in Round 1, Harden followed up an incredible shooting night from 3 in Game 1 to a sub-par one in Game 2. He shot 2/10, Ariza was 1/4 and PJ Tucker was 1/5.
To make matters worse, the Jazz were red hot from 3. They shot 15/32 (47%) with Joe Ingles hitting 7 of them. Every time Houston tried to make a run late, they were thwarted by the 3 ball from the Jazz. The Rockets live-and-die by the 3 and they won't go too far if their 3-pointers not dropping becomes a trend.
It was role reversal from Game 1 really, where Houston went 17/32 and Utah shot poorly at 7/22.
#3 Donovan Mitchell shows some versatility
The one criticism if any of Mitchell has been that he doesn't do much apart from scoring, but he's been proving people wrong these playoffs. Mitchell finished with 17 points and 11 assists for his 3rd double-double in these playoffs. The 11 assists were a career-high, with Mitchell deferring to his teammates, as his shot wasn't falling.
It was the 1st game in these playoffs, where he didn't score 20 points, as he shot just 6/21 from the field. He did make some big plays down the stretch though. He kept drawing the defense in before kicking it out, assisting on all 4 3s that the Jazz hit in the 4th. He also had a monster putback dunk off his own miss, over 3 Rockets defenders. The Jazz and Mitchell would be hoping this was the only cold shooting night he has in this series because they won't win this series if he doesn't carry the load on offense.
#2 Joe Ingles shines
With Donovan Mitchell having a rare off game, up stepped Joe Ingles with a career-night. Ingles scored 27 points, hitting 10/13 shots and 7/9 from beyond the arc. Ingles has had a coming out party in these playoffs and he continued his hot streak. The 7 3s were also a career high and Utah needed every one of them down the stretch. He hit the dagger 3 with 4 minutes remaining, which put Utah up by 12 and all but killed the game.
The Jazz hadn't won a game in the playoffs when Mitchell hadn't been the top scorer, and Quin Snyder would be pleased to see Ingles step up. He had plenty of help too. Alec Burks had 17 off the bench and Jae Crowder chipped in with 15 points and 10 rebounds. If the Jazz can actually get this kind of production from these guys consistently, they might actually pull off the biggest playoff upset we've seen in a while.
#1 Houston's defense has been a mess this series
There's been a lot of talk about how great the Rockets have been defensively, and that being the reason why they'll be able to beat the Golden State Warriors, but I don't see it. The Jazz have shot 50% or above in both the games thus far and a trend is starting to pop up. Going back further, the Rockets have now allowed teams to shoot 50% or more in 4 of their last 5 games and we aren't exactly talking about high powered offenses that they've gone up against in the T-Wolves and the Jazz.
The offense got them back in it, only for some terrible defense late in the game. The Rockets were up 2 with 8 minutes remaining but gave up a 16-2 run as the Jazz just kept hitting wide open shots. A lot of it had to do with Mitchell making good decisions with the ball, but you have to defend better. Utah is arguably the best defensive team in the league and if they keep allowing the Jazz to shoot such a high percentage, this is going to go the distance.
