Yao blocks the shot of Mehmet Okur Saturday night in an 84-75 victory over the Utah Jazz. Yao led all scorers with 28 points and 13 rebounds. Click here for more photos from the game. Click here for photos of Yao & T-Mac getting ready for the game. Click here for photos from Yao’s pregame shootaround.

I was lucky enough to go to Game 1 of the Rockets-Jazz series in Houston. Since many of you may have seen the game on ESPN, streamed online, or many of the highlights by now, I won’t go into a ton of details about the game. Instead, I’ll focus on some of the things you might have missed by not being at the arena.

And tomorrow (Sunday), I will post another blog entry with some of the comments and observations I gathered from the interview areas that you might not be able to read or see anywhere else (it’s so late, I don’t have enough time to do it tonight).

So let’s get things started…I don’t know if the Rockets do this before every game, or just the playoff games. But right before the pregame warmup drills, they showed on the big screen the Rockets in their huddle just outside the locker room area before they run out on the court.

That was cool to see because the fans got a chance to see the players get hyped up beforehand, and they responded with a roar of anticipation. Then when the players ran on to the court, each one of them had a small, red ball (I assume with a Rockets logo on it) and threw them into the stands as they transitioned directly into their layup drill.

The players never had thrown balls into the stands in past seasons. I had heard the team has done a lot of new and different things this season that was much better than in the past. Even the new public address announcer, who I know Van Gundy likes more than last season’s, got on the mic in the middle of the court before the warm-ups began to get everyone fired up and wave their “Red Rowdy” towels. He has a very impressive, booming voice and did a good job.

The introduction of the players was very well done, with imposing music and inspirational videos of the Rockets played on the screen leading up to the intros. The crowd got amped and the response from them was deafening!

Not only was the crowd’s decibel levels impressive, but I would say over 80% of them were wearing red. I have never seen that before at a Rockets game. It was like a college game the way the fans were all united in one color. They definitely were holding up their end of the bargain in not letting Utah get comfortable.

As you may know by now, the first half was full of scoring runs. The Rockets got off to a hot 8-0 start, thanks to the Jazz missing their first 7 shots. The crowd was loving it as Yao scored 6 of the first 8 points and grabbed 3 offensive rebounds to get those points. It looked like it was going to be a long night for the Jazz to try to guard Yao.

Of course, everyone at Toyota Center was full of adrenaline, including the bench players. Normally the bench sits down after the Rockets score their first point, but for playoff game #1, they were still standing at the 8:00 minute mark when the game was 8-0!

But then Houston went cold and it was Utah’s turn to go on a scoring run, this time 7 points in a row themselves. Shortly thereafter they went on a 10-0 took a 17-11 lead. But then Rafer Alston of all people (he made only 3-of-10 treys on the night) hit two three-pointers in a row to tie it at 17-17.

Then Juwan Howard hit a jumper from the elbow of the lane at the first quarter buzzer to make it 20-19, Houston.

The second quarter is when things started falling apart for the Rockets. They only made 2-of-13 shots while Utah hit 11-of-24 to outscore them 23-13 in the quarter. As Van Gundy said afterwards, Utah’s defense made them ‘discombobulated’ and he didn’t even recognize what his own team was doing on the court offensively.

The Rockets were lucky to only be down 42-33 at halftime, shooting only 29% in the first half, and T-Mac only having scored 1 point and missing all 6 field goals. He also didn’t take a shot in the last six minutes of the first half. You could tell the crowd in Toyota Center was stunned, like all the air had been let out of the building after it was so hyped up before the game and in the beginning.

The Rockets were also pounded on the boards 27-20 at the half. If it hadn’t been for Yao’s 15 points and 9 rebounds, it could have been a lot worse.

I had a TV monitor next to me and I was able to hear ESPN”s Bill Walton (and other talking heads on ESPN) getting on T-Mac for disappearing scoring-wise. But I knew it was only going to be temporary. We have seen him several times this season not do much in the first half, only to light it up in the second. And that’s exactly what he did.

As many of you saw, T-Mac absolutely took over in the third quarter and turned around the Rockets’ malaise in the first half by hitting 7-of-8 shots, most of them outside jumpers including 2-of-2 makes from the three-point line.

It was an absolute incredible thing to watch as the world watched T-Mac’s greatness, too. The pivotal play of the game, I believe, happened around the 2:00 minute mark of the third. I made a special note when it happened that it was the play of the game, and later everyone seemed to agree.

The Jazz had three guys running an uncontested fast break and Derek Fisher missed an easy layup! Then Alston grabbed the rebound and threw a full-court pass to Yao underneath the goal for a slam dunk that gave the Rockets the lead again at 54-53, a lead they would never relinquish.

The crowd was back into the game rocking the rafters. Then about a minute later, Fisher turned the ball over by doing a reverse pivot into McGrady for an offensive foul. On the ensuing Rockets’ possession, T-Mac capped off his incredible quarter with a long jumper to raise the roof even more.

By the time the quarter was over, the Rockets had outscored the Jazz 26-11 to take a 59-53 lead. Utah only made 4-of-22 shots, with Mehmet Okur going 0-for-4 and Carlos Boozer 0-for-6. I think the Rockets got lucky they had such a bad shooting night. You just can’t expect both of them collectively will have an 0-for-10 shooting quarter again.

At least this time around, everyone in Toyota Center could breath a sigh of relief that at least the Rockets had the lead and regained some of their confidence heading into the fourth quarter.

After Alston hit a big 3-pointer to make it 68-63, the second most important play of the game occurred. With just under 7 minutes remaining, Luther Head was handling the ball on one possession more than he normally does, and it was kind of helter-skelter since he lost the handle on it for a second, regained possession, and with the shot-clock was winding down, he dribbled into the corner of the court behind the 3-point line. It looked like it was going to be a shot-clock violation, but Luther was able to get his man to fly past him on a pump fake, and he then launched it for an off-balance three-point attempt that hit the bottom of the net!

That shot made it 71-63 with 6:41 remaining, and you had a feeling the Rockets were going to hold on for the win.

With 3:33 remaining, they ran the lead to 14 points with the help of 2 missed free throws by Okur, a T-Mac three-pointer (Yao pumped his fist after that one), and a fast break layup.

For good measure, on the next possession, T-Mac was manning up Matt Harpring in the post, and emphatically blocked his shot.

Takeaways from the game

With Houston now up 1-0 in the series, I think the Rockets got a little lucky. I think they still would have won this game if Okur and Boozer hadn’t shot 6-of-31 together, but it would have been much tougher.

I think the Rockets’ defense was good holding Utah to 35.6% shooting and 4-of-17 from downtown, but you just have a feeling the Utah bigs aren’t going to miss that many shots again, especially on Utah’s home floor.

To counteract better shooting from Utah, I think Yao (28 points, 8-of-18 shooting, 13 boards) and T-Mac (8-of-17 for 23 points, 4 boards, 7 assists) can score even more than they did. They will have to do that to make up for another night from Rafer if he shoots 3-of-10 shooting from 3-point territory again.

I also think both teams were able to get out some of the Game 1 playoff jitters that naturally comes from two relatively young teams. Look for a higher scoring game on Monday night.

Like I mentioned earlier, since it’s so late, I’m going to post some of the comments I recorded in the locker room and post-game interviews on Sunday. So make sure to come back late in the day tomorrow for those comments as well as observations you might not have read anywhere else.

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 22nd, 2007 at 4:15 am and is filed under 2007 NBA playoffs, vs. Utah. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.