In another of our continuing series, five things to keep an eye out for tonight in the Rockets-Jazz game tonight.1. Home Is Where The Last Stand Is: Let's make this clear. Yes, Utah won Games 1 and 2 in Houston. But that was the old new Houston. This is the new new Houston. With Alston back, a nothing-to-lose attitude, Tracy McGrady resembling an actual player of substance, and a rotation starting to click again, a loss tonight in Utah for the team with the best home record would be an absolute disaster for the Jazz. There seems to be a prevailing current that this is a mere formality. Maybe I'm tempered by some anti-statutory-rape feelings. Maybe I'm tired of kicking dirt on the Rockets and promptly having their hand shoot out of the ground and attack me. Or maybe it's because all season long I've had the same feeling about this Jazz team. Good. Not great. And very succeptible to a hot team. A game seven would be nightmarish pressure for the Jazz, much the same way the Rockets felt (and whithered under) pressure last year in Game 7. The Jazz have to end this, tonight.
2. Bench Evaporation: An excellent article out of the Salt Lake Tribune today brought up an excellent analysis about the Jazz bench: it's completely evaporated. Jerry Sloan is a pretty tight-reined coach. He's not going to let a lot go by. So if you're out there and you're not producing, he's going to yank you. Especially in a series as tense as this one has gotten. But if you're not playing, how do you work out of your slump? The Jazz need to be a force on the boards and on the perimeter. Paul Millsap and Kyle Korver can go a long way in that direction. They need to step it up tonight to end this.
3. Revenge Of Deron Williams: The worst thing for the Houston Rockets happened in Game 5. Deron Williams had a terrible game. 13 points on 5 of 11 shooting, a greatly sub-average 6 assists and 4 turnovers. Why is this bad for the Rockets? Because the odds of Williams having back to back bad games, with this one in a close-out game at home are not exactly stellar. While Williams is no longer killing the Rockets softly, loudly, and everything in-between, he's still capable of it. Rafer Alston can limit Williams, but only Williams can fully stop himself with sloppy play. Expect Deron to get back on track tonight.
4. The Continuing Ballad Of Tracy McFaildy: You know the story. And more and more in this series, it feels like Tracy McGrady is just setting up himself up for another horrid failure. If he fails tonight, he fails to even draw it out to seven games. If he wins tonight and loses in Game 7, that only compounds his failure. You'd think with the Yao injury, he might get a pass this year, but that's not how the world works. What's worse is they can't even win without him performing well in order to get the monkey off his back. In order for this to end well for Tracy McGrady, he has to score 56 points over the next two games, win both, obviously, and score at least 17 in the fourth quarters combined. That's kind of a lot.
5. Scola, Pass The Rock: Some people will tell you that in order for the Rockets to be successful, Luis Scola has to try and score. But in this series, in two wins, Scola had 6 assists. In three losses, he had only two combined. This presents itself pretty easily when you think about it. The Rockets are not a great team for creating their own shots. The more Scola can collapse the paint and get Bobby Jackson and Rafer Alston shots and Carl Landry dunks, the better off the Rockets are going to be. With as disruptive as the Jazz can be in the paint, though, that could be problematic if they flip the switch tonight.
