The Houston Rockets came into the 2018 postseason confident and ready to build off of their best regular season in franchise history. Led by Chris Paul and James Harden, Houston logged the 10th best offensive rating in NBA history, topping their last year's mark of 111.8, and their defense improved from 106.4 to 103.8 points allowed per 100 possessions. So, after a historic season, is it possible for Utah to knock off Houston like in the late 90's and mid 00's? If possible, how will it happen? What is Houston's kryptonite?
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Game one is over, and the Jazz were effectively blown out by a hot shooting Paul George, a cold shooting Ricky Rubio, and a 13 rebound, 8 assist, 29 point performance by Russell Westbrook. So what do the Jazz need to change in game 2 to steal one on the road? Well, not much exactly. What we saw on Sunday hit 2 of the major extremes which should have been expected to happen at one point in the series; a rough shooting night for Ricky Rubio and a monsterous statline from Paul George. Both of these should not be expected to happen again.
You may or may not have heard of NPR (Net Prediction Rating). It's a statistical projection system based off of Net Rating, Strength of Schedule, Home/Road Success, and Pace. I use it in plenty of different ways. In the short term, I use it to predict games - their final scores, chance to win, and margin of victory -, playoff series, or even the entire playoffs bracket. In the long term, I use it to predict the final standings. Historically, over more than 300 games, it's proved to be more accurate than Las Vegas odds, predicting games within 9.4 points of the final MOV, and correctly choosing the winning team 69.4% of the time. I haven't yet compared the long term odds with Vegas odds.
Call me crazy. The Utah Jazz ARE the Memphis Grizzlies. Let me show you into my insane brain.
In 2013, the Jazz decided to take a nose dive into the world of tanking and decided to trust a couple young guys to take over the future of the franchise. Now this franchise looks to be a perennial playoff contender for years to come.
What can we expect out of Dante Exum in the coming season? What is he best at? What might he improve?
Rudy Gobert burst into national headlines by leading the Jazz to a 18-10 record since the all-star break, and guiding the league's best defense.
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AuthorMy name is Riley Gisseman, I'm an avid Jazz fan. I'm going to go into graphic design or journalism in the future, and I love writing about, and expressing my love and knowledge of the Jazz, the NBA, and basketball in general. As a self proclaimed stats geek, I love using stats (and video clips) to compliment my writing. Archives
April 2018
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