2019 NBA Playoffs: Houston Rockets vs. Utah Jazz preview
With the 2019 NBA Playoffs starting this weekend, let’s take a dive into looking at the upcoming series between the Houston Rockets and Utah Jazz.
Now that the 2018-19 regular season is officially in the books, that means it’s that time of year to once again kick off the NBA Playoffs.
With postseason action tipping off this weekend, there are multiple matchups in both the Eastern and Western Conferences that will make for an entertaining and action-packed opening round of games.
One matchup that might be more intriguing than the rest of them comes in the middle of the Western Conference between the 4-seeded Houston Rockets and the 5-seeded Utah Jazz, a series that kicks off Sunday ight.
Houston, which has often been viewed and still might be viewed as the second-best team in the West playoff pool behind the Golden State Warriors, comes into the series after putting together a 53-29 regular season.
The Rockets, who are 8-2 in the last 10 games, will have home-court advantage in the series, where they are 31-10 overall this year.
Utah, which has been one of the hottest teams in the entire NBA in the second half of the regular season, enters the series against Houston at 50-32 overall and might be viewed as a potential sleeper in the West this postseason.
The Jazz, who are also 8-2 in the last 10 games, struggle a bit on the road this season and will be forced to change that in this series if they want to advance. They hold a record of 21-20 away from the Vivint Smart Home Arena this season.
The two teams squared off a total of four times during the regular season, splitting the four-game series 2-2. Utah won the first two games of the year, while Houston took the last two contests.
The playoff series is also a rematch of the 2018 Western Conference semifinals, which saw Houston come away with a five-game series victory over Utah.
As the Rockets and Jazz prepare to take on each other once again in the 2019 NBA Playoffs, let’s take a deeper dive into some key aspects of what could very well be a really entertaining series, examining the key matchup of the series, three key questions and our final predictions.