First Round Preview on ESPN - 猶他爵士 Utah Jazz

Playoff preview by Marc Stein

This one was made for the East, really, because it's going to be the most
physical, half-court-based series of the eight first-rounders.

he pick here would have been Houston even if the Rockets didn't have
home-court advantage, because this is a better team than the one that
extended Dallas to seven games in the first round of the '05 playoffs.
Yet once they snatched home court from the Jazz -- and once Utah lost any
semblance of rim protection without the ailing Andrei Kirilenko and started
sliding at the finish -- Houston's status as the favorite was cemented.

It's true that Tracy McGrady is 0-for-5 lifetime in the first round and that
Kirilenko is back in Utah's lineup now to harass him, but it's also true that
none of T-Mac's previous teams has ever been as deep or feared as this one.

I'm betting it winds up even more true, by series' end, that the Jazz have
more trouble trying to guard Yao Ming than the Rockets have with Carlos
Boozer and Mehmet Okur.

Prediction: Rockets in six.

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EXPERT PICKS

Anthony : Rockets in 6
Broussard : Rockets in 7
Hollinger : Rockets in 6
Sheridan : Rockets in 6
Stein : Rockets in 6

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