The Jazz Stole Homecourt Advantage On A Hot Shooting Night From Joe Ingles In Houston

The Utah Jazz struggled in Game 1 of their semifinals series with the Rockets in Houston coming off just one day of rest between series, but on Wednesday night they brought their usual energy on both ends of the floor, and the result was a resounding win to even the series at 1-1 and steal homecourt advantage.

Utah’s defense was much improved in Game 2, holding the Rockets to 40 percent shooting from the field and 27 percent from three-point range, doing a much better job closing out on shooters and rotating to the basket to prevent layups.

On the offensive end, it was Joe Ingles who led the way with 27 points on 10-of-13 shooting and 7-of-9 from downtown, as the entire Jazz team shot the ball incredibly well. Utah as a team shot 51.2 percent from the field and 46.9 percent from three as they hit five more shots from distance than the Rockets, who led the NBA in that category. Ingles was the spark, with 11 first-quarter points and some critical threes in the fourth.

The Jazz led by as many as 18 in the second quarter, but the Rockets closed the gap to nine at the half and even took a brief fourth-quarter lead. In that moment, it looked like the Rockets would go on a run and possibly overwhelm the Jazz, but Utah showed a lot of resilience to not get rattled by a hot stretch from Houston and continue to play their game and execute on both ends.

Donovan Mitchell didn’t have a huge scoring night, but the rookie took control of the game as a playmaker with 11 assists to go with 17 points and the play of the game with his insane putback dunk off his own miss in the fourth quarter.

Utah also got strong contributions from its bench in Game 2, which gave them a big boost as Alec Burks had 17 points, Jae Crowder had 15 points, and Dante Exum provided a spark at point guard with nine points, four rebounds, and two assists while being a plus-10 in his time on the court.

The Rockets had the Utah lead down to as few as six with under two minutes to play, but they simply couldn’t get a jump shot to fall down the stretch as the Jazz’s defense held strong. Harden (32 points) and Paul (23 points) got theirs, while Capela (21 points) did his thing in the paint, but outside of Capela, it was a wildly inefficient shooting night from everyone on the squad. Some of that was simply missing open shots, while some of it was the Jazz doing well to force Houston into extra passes and closing out hard on those shooters.

In any case, I wouldn’t expect any wild changes from Houston because this is simply what they do, but what will be more compelling is how the Rockets adjust on defense because the Jazz were regularly getting wide open looks from three or fairly clean opportunities at the rim in Game 2.