Jonathan Feigen , Houston Chronicle April 15, 2019 Updated: April 15, 2019 9:11 p.m.
Open shots were rare for the Jazz in Game 1 , including forward Georges Niang’s bid against guard Gerald Green.
Jazz star Donovan Mitchell was not angry at the shot clock. It was not the clock’s fault that when he received the ball nearly 40 feet from the basket, the clock offered him only a few final ticks to get off a shot with the Rockets’ lead having reached 17 barely two minutes into the fourth quarter.
The Rockets would not, however, treat their defensive success as special, much less anything out of the ordinary.
It led to them matching the second-largest postseason blowout in franchise history. It held the Jazz to 39 percent shooting with 19 turnovers. It never allowed the Jazz to retake the lead after the Rockets went in front to stay five minutes into the game. But it was not more than they expected.
“We’ve been doing that for a while now,” coach Mike D’Antoni said, almost sounding defensive about the Rockets’ defense. “I don’t think it’s particularly against them. I just think for the last two months since everybody got healthy, locked in, had the same rotation more or less, the same guys in that mix that understand exactly what we want to do.
The Jazz had the second-ranked defense in the NBA this season; the Rockets 18th. But since the All-Star break, when the Rockets’ starting lineup was together and healthy for the first time since Dec. 19, the last game in a five-game winning streak that included a win at Utah, they ranked second, behind only the Jazz.
The starting lineup that included Eric Gordon went 21-5 this season in the regular-season. The defensive rating in the 39 games that group - with Clint Capela, Chris Paul, Harden, Tucker and Gordon - shared the floor would have ranked first in the NBA for a full team, allowing 103.5 points per 100 possessions.
It did considerably better than that Sunday, giving up 95.1 points per 100 possessions. When matched up with Mitchell Gordon allowed just one field goal in five attempts with three turnovers.
But even when the Rockets switched, they were consistently aggressive and disruptive.
As much attention was paid to the Jazz defensive schemes, forcing James Harden to his right and into traffic in the lane, the Rockets adjusted to the initial Jazz burst, when they were rapidly slipping screens to get the ball quickly to the rim.
The Jazz made 8 of 10 shots to start the game, all but one in the lane, before the Rockets’ defense tightened. The Jazz made 22 of 67 shots the rest of the way. After scoring 14 points in the paint in 6½ minutes, they scored 28 in the paint the remainder of the game.
That’s where the defensive improvement starts. The communication on switches was loud and visible. More than that, after that poor start, when the Rockets switched, they defended with force.
To the Rockets, that was nothing new. They expect a tougher test on Wednesday, with the Jazz likely to move the ball from side to side more often and Mitchell in particular to drive more decisively. But more than ever, the Rockets seemed happy to pin their hopes on their defense.