Rockets Playoff Report: Game 2 vs Utah

|| Game Date: April 23, 2007
|| Game Location: Toyota Center, Houston
|| Playoff Round: One
|| Series Record: Rockets 2 - Utah 0
|| Final Score: 98 HOU - 90 UTAH
|| Box Score: Utah @ Rockets Info from NBA.com

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First Quarter: It was all Boozer. I never wanted someone to miss a shot so much in my life. Bozo, Boozer would not miss. Finally at about seven minutes into the game he did and ended up with fifteen points for the quarter (he would finish the game matching his career high 41.) The Rockets only shot 30% in the first and trailed by nine when the buzzer sounded. 26-17

Second Quarter: Utah started out strong and kept their lead well into this quarter but Rafer hit a key three and that started a slow creep for the Rockets to close up the gap with Utah. The Rockets kept it on cruise control until late in the second when Yao got pegged with his third foul. Even with Yao on the bench the Rockets continued on their trajectory to catch up. They finally tied it at 39 points but too many three point attempts would keep Utah on top at halftime, 41-39.

Third Quarter: It was time for the Rockets to take charge and they took the lead in the third while their defense started to kick in. Both teams began to trade leads while the Rockets started to heat up. Cut to the TV and there's our own Mayor Bill White with his Rockets prediction and he calls on TMac to take over which is pretty much what he did. A late, hard, foul on Dikembe put him at the line where he made two big free throws. Also keeping us in the lead was Deke's strong end of the quarter defense. The Rockets were up by five as the third quarter came to an end, 67-62.

Fourth Quarter: The Rockets turned on the afterburners and kept the lead into the fourth. Yao started to wear down Okur and the Rockets went on a 12-2 run with 9:17 in the fourth. Yao picked up his fourth foul with 6:15 left in the game and JVG kept him in the game. Meanwhile Shane Battier dropped Darren Williams to the floor from a solid shoulder straight to the face during a loose ball entanglement. At 2:11 left in the game, Yao got his fifth foul but continued on and stayed in the game until the very end when Utah committed some garish, bloody, foul attempts on Yao that still couldn't stop the Rockets from also taking this game from Utah. The Rockets had won two at home, closing this one out at 98-90.

Everyone stepped up tonight to get the job done. Yao had 27 points and 9 rebounds while TMac shined with 31 points and 10 rebounds. Chucky Hayes had 12 points. Rafer Alston with 11 and Shane Battier chipped in 10 and one solid shoulder. Free throw shooting was deadly tonight. The Rockets made 34 of 38 attempts.

Any clue as to what else helped the Rockets? The fans. Once again, they were noisy and did their part to help this team win two in the Toyota Center.

Next up, Game Three on Thursday as the Rockets travel to Utah, whose state state cooking pot is the dutch oven!? A dutch oven. I kid you not.

Oh and Utah has never come back from an 0-2 deficit to win a playoff series. So we got that going for us.

LET'S GO ROCKETS!