The Rockets are on somewhat of a roll going up 2-0 in the Jazz series, and all Rocket and Yao fans are feeling pretty good with tip-off for Game 3 in about 3 hours.

However, the chances of the Rockets pulling out a ‘W’ in Game 3 is fairly low. Utah fans are going to be fired up, and I predict Mehmet Okur will finally have a big game.

We also know the Rockets, and most Houston teams, can’t stand prosperity. Just when you think they are going to cruise, they lose a big game or go on a losing streak, with the Astros’ 5-game skid the latest example.

So don’t be surprised if the Rockets lose Game 3. The bright side of losing is the following:

* more focus for Game 4
* another game at Toyota Center will be played Monday night
* last but not least, if the Rockets were to sweep the Jazz on Saturday (4/28) in four games, they may not play again for over a week!

About that last point…I believe the Dallas-Golden State series is going to go at least 6 games, maybe 7. Game 6 of that series isn’t until Thursday, May 3rd, and Game 7 is Saturday, May 5th. Then tack on 2-3 days for the next series to start, and we could be talking May 7th or 8th, a total 9 or 10 days before Houston would play again!

That is just way too much time for Houston to get rusty. Although it’s always nice to have some extra rest, I think 3-4 days rest is ideal for this team. Heck, even with 3 days rest during the regular season, I believe the Rockets’ record was pretty lousy. They need to keep playing to keep the momentum going. It was like that during the 1994 and ’95 championship season when most of those series went 6 or 7 games.

So I’m not advocating the Rockets should lose Game 3 or 4, but there is a bright side to losing if Houston can take care of business the remaining games of the series.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 26th, 2007 at 4:34 pm and is filed under 2007 NBA playoffs, vs. Utah. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.