Jazz vs Rockets Mar 24

So tonight I didn't have anything to do, so I sat down to watch the Jazz and Rockets basketball game. (OK, even if I had had something to do, I STILL would have sat down and watched the Jazz game) During the second quarter, I kind of started to notice that Houston seemed to be passing the ball a lot less than the Jazz were. This surprised me, because ever since the Rockets' star player Tracy McGrady went down with an injury, all everyone has said is how much better of a team the Rockets are now without him because they pass the ball more and play "team" basketball. (Insinuating that McGrady is a ball hog and tries to do it all by himself)

So, at halftime, I decided to grab a pen and some paper and keep track of some stats for the second half. I kept track of the following stats:

-How many passes the team made before shooting the ball
-How much time was left on the 24 second shot clock when they shot the ball
-Fouls, and how many points each team gave up because of them
-Made/missed shots
-Turnovers

Well, if you're still reading this, you must be interested enough for me to finish; at the end of the game I added up all the stats and decided upon 4 main arguments as to why the Jazz were able to win the game:

A) The Jazz shot 63% in the 2nd half of the game, while the Rockets only shot 40%.
-Of the 26 shots the Jazz made, 21 of them came off assists (passes)
-Of the 18 shots the Rockets made, 12 of them came off assists (passes)
B)While the Jazz turned the ball over 8 times, they remained calm and didn't panic. Meaning, they continued to stick to their game plan, work the shot clock down around 11 seconds left and make the pass needed to score more easily. In contrast, the Rockets turned the ball over 7 times, but decided to panic and go away from their game plan. They started playing a lot more one-on-one, isolation, try to drive it to the hoop every time basketball. As a result, they missed a lot of shots, had a lot of shots blocked, and ended up with a poor shooting percentage.
C)This one was BIG: Yao Ming, the humongous center for the Houston Rockets, is a very tall, muscular presence who can score with ease, and cause lots of pain on defense with tons of blocks. However, I noticed that the Jazz only committed 4 shooting fouls in the second half. This is phenomenal when you consider how good Yao Ming is around the basket. He only went to the free throw line twice in the second half!!! The Jazz did a great job defending him, as well as the perimeter.
D) Finally, the shot clock game: Utah shot 79% with the shot clock between 11 and 15 seconds left (this is the time frame in which Utah took the bulk of their shots; it also proves statistically to be the best time frame in which to score in a basketball game). The Rockets only shot 42% in that same time frame. Also, the Rockets took most of their shots early in the shot clock (16 seconds or more left on the shot clock) and only made 8 out of 19 (42%) of those shots. That they shot most often that early in the shot clock means they were rushing their shots, usually shooting after only 1 or 0 passes per possession. (passing spreads the defense, and allows guys to get open-thus creating better and more scoring opportunities)

OK, well, I'm done. Bottom line: The Jazz did what they've done all season at home, but haven't been able to do on the road. That is, remain calm and stick to the game plan (passing, working the clock, defense) even when things don't go perfectly (turnovers, fouls). The Rockets were the perfect example of how the Jazz have played on the road this season. When things started to go wrong, they started to panic and moved into an individual game, which rarely works in the NBA.

Now, if anyone read all that, WOW!!! And if anyone who is studying statistics or is a mathematician comes across this, please realize I'm only a wannabe. :) See ya!!!