Utah Jazz at Houston Rockets Game Thread: Star calls will be a significant obstacle, not fatigue

Ed. Sorry this is so late, my browser kept crashing.

Tonight the Utah Jazz face the Houston Rockets on the last of a three game road trip. Utah flew into my snowy land and beat the Chicago Bulls 97-77, then had a for practice. Last night they failed to survive a 4th quarter comeback by the Oklahoma City Thunder, and lost 99-94. This stretch was supposed to be rough on the injured squad, but the seem to have risen to the challenge of their opponents. The Houston Rockets will be tough, even if they inherently suck.

There is some good news, Enes Kanter is going to play tonight, he had missed the last few games to a right ankle sprain -- but allowed for Rudy Gobert to start and to start dominating. Kanter is going to have limited minutes tonight, but his offensive ability off the bench (I suspect) will be something our team greatly needs. Alec Burks and Rodney Hood will still both miss this game. Meaning that there will be more opportunistic for Joe Ingles, Dante Exum, and Elijah Millsap at the wing spot alongside potential All-Star snub Gordon Hayward.

Houston has won three of their last four games and are 3rd best in the West. They play at a Top 10 pace (8th), and despite that, only three teams surrender fewer points per game than their 97.2 (4th). Their defense (101.4 pts/100) is 3rd best in the league, and a team with Trevor Ariza and Dwight Howard should be solid, even with sieve James Harden on the court.

Last night you can say that the Jazz lost because of star players. While Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook are stars, they didn't predate upon the Jazz because of star calls -- they made star plays. Tonight I expect the opposite, the Rockets will get star calls / bail-out calls. James Harden is notorious for this, and has had many big games against our Jazz before. Going up against a bunch of rookie SGs will make his life all that more easier tonight.

Beyond Harden, the Rockets are the #1 ORB% team in the league, but don't take care of the ball that well on offense. They make up for it by being the 3rd best team at getting a turn over, and the 4th best team for defending shots.

It's going to be a tough game, but we are turning into a pretty tough team.

Starters:

• PG: Trey Burke vs. Patrick Beverley
• SG: Joe Ingles vs. James Harden
• SF: Gordon Hayward vs. Trevor Ariza
• PF: Derrick Favors vs. Donatas Motiejunas
• C: Rudy Gobert vs. Dwight Howard

Bench:

• Dante Exum vs. Isaiah Canaan
• Trevor Booker vs. Terrence Jones
• Enes Kanter vs. Josh Smith
• people vs. Corey Brewer, and Jason Terry

They are less injured and have more depth. They still suck.

GO JAZZ GO!