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.

Last night's Houston-Utah Game 5 will get little play this morning, for three reasons: 1) D'Antoni's exit is a league-rattling event; 2) Dallas's loss will lead to a league-rattling shake-up; and 3) no one cares about defense. If Tracy McGrady had dropped 49 points, or Luis Scola earned a triple double? Then we'd hear about it. But if Houston holds the league's best offense to 69 points in 90 possessions (a pro-rated offensive rating of 76.7, which is about 20 points worse than the Knicks offense), forcing the Jazz to shoot 37% from the field and 22% from three, causing 18 turnovers? We should hear about this.

Houston's defense has been unbelievable all season (it finished second in the league behind Boston); but this work is likely the Rockets' best game of the season. The Game 3 win in SLC was solid, but it didn't remind you of Houston's 22-game win streak. This one did. The offense of McGrady and Scola got the bulk of the credit for the midseason roll. In actuality, the defense sparked the streak ... and that's largely in the hands of Shane Battier (who shot 1-for-8 and was still a +12), Rafer Alston, Dikembe Mutombo, and the bench duo of Chuck Hayes and Carl Landry. (Not to diminish Mac and Scola's roles in the defense -- they do their jobs, and McGrady's man D can be downright awe-striking in moments.)

Most may shrug at Houston's Game 5 victory -- even the Associated Press game story (linked above) leads the fourth paragraph with "Now, the Jazz can end the series at home, where they went 37-4 during the regular season." What a relief, a Game 6 at home! Whew, glad we just got out of Houston alive! Earth to ... um, Earth: Houston just destroyed Utah. Let's hold off on foregone conclusions for a minute, yes?

If Houston's defense plays like that again, Utah's going down.

In another of our continuing series, five things to keep an eye out for tonight in the Rockets-Jazz Game 4 tonight.

1. Sustainable resources. Houston's one of the best offensive rebounding teams in the league; Utah is the absolutely worst on the defensive glass. In Games 1 and 3, Houston was able to exploit this for tons of second-chance opportunities -- it didn't matter in Game 1, when the Rockets couldn't hit the broadside of Charles Barkley's ass; it was the difference, however, in Game 3 as Houston earned an almost remarkable 16 o-boards in 42 opportunities. Carl Landry and Luis Scola are the culprits here; Carlos Boozer and friends need to box out much better to keep Houston's wayfaring offense from bolstering it with easy buckets.

2. Retrospective exploration. Houston's vaunted defense (second best in the league this season) has had trouble slowing down Utah's vaunted offense. The Rockets are well equipped to contain an offense with a star wing scorer or a lanky post stud. But the Jazz offense is too diverse for easy solutions, and it's showed. Even in Houston's Thursday win, Utah's offense was strong, scoring 92 points in just 82 possessions. Rafer Alston's offense in Game 3 was beautiful, but he needs to make Deron Williams look less lovely to keep Utah's offense from romping.

Three more, after the jump.