Utah Jazz coach Jerry Sloan can’t praise his defense enough. It was largely due to the rock solid defense that the Jazz managed to get past Houston 81-67 Thursday night to reduce the Rocket’s lead to 2-1 in their playoff series.
The dour Jazz defense kept the Rockets at bay, denying them a field goal in the first 10 minutes of the second half. Though Yao Ming scored 26 and Tracy McGrady chipped in 24, the rest of Houston managed just 17 in the match.
An elated Sloan later said
I don’t think you’re going to stop those guys. I thought we tried harder and that’s all you can do.
It was also the Rockets’ lowest total in a playoff, three less than their 84-70 defeat against the Jazz in 1998.
The Jazz were 33-for-85 from the field but they had 15 offensive rebounds compared to Houston’s nine and they also forced their opponents into 19 turnovers. They were even more impressive in the paint, outscoring Houston 40-10.
Matt Harpring, who lead the Jazz reserves with 13 points, said
It’s all about energy and I think we had it tonight. When we’re good we get in the paint. We shoot free throws and we rebound. When we have those three things going for us, we’re a tough team to beat.
Teammate Deron Williams said
It was a great defensive night for us. Memo stepped up a lot. I think defense won the game for us tonight.
After winning the first two games of the series at home, the Rockets looked rusty and McGrady admitted
It was sloppy. Our offense was terrible. We did a fairly good job on the defensive end, but offensively we were out of sync.
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