Houston has launched to the Western Conference Finals

The number one seeded team in the Western Conference are in the Conference Finals. The Houston Rockets, booked a place in this years conference finals by beating the depleted Utah Jazz in 5 games. Chris Paul led the way for the Houston Rockets as he scored 41 points, dished out 7 assists, grabbed 10 rebounds, and most importantly 0 turnovers you heard that right. Chris Paul who has never featured in the conference finals in his whole career now is finally in the Conference Finals, after carrying the Rockets in Game 5, as potential MVP James Harden has an illness.

Chris Paul knew the importance of game 5, as he took over in the 4th quarter to prevent the Jazz in taking game 5 and going back to Salt Lake City in Utah for game 4 of the series. The Jazz were battling hard for their playoffs lives in game 5 as an inspired effort from potential rookie of the year Donovan Mitchell just fell short. The 21 year old Mitchell erupted for 22 points in the third quarter, staging a comeback for the Jazz, Mitchell scored 24 points, and dished out 9 assists in game 5. Mitchell limped of the court in the 4th quarter with an injury, but till the end the Jazz battled for the game.

The injury to Mitchell was the story of the series, as what could have been if Ricky Rubio was able to play, and Dante Exum did not go down due to injury. The Jazz were missing some key players that beat the Oklahoma City Thunder in the first round.

The first game, Houston caught fire and won game 1 in dominating fashion beating the Jazz by a large margin. Game 2 we saw a shocker of a game where the Jazz stole 1 game in the home court of the Rockets. The Rockets asserted their dominance able to win game 3 and game 4 in Utah. Now heading back to game 5, the Rockets then won again eliminating the Jazz in 5 games.

Houston now will face the defending champions Golden State Warriors having home court advantage as they beat the Warriors for the first seed in the regular season. The series will start Tuesday next week here in the Philippines.

Bright future for the Jazz

We all witnessed what Donovan Mitchell can do, even though he is still a rookie. He has tremendous upside and can develop some more given the playoff experience the Jazz acquired this year. The team is looking solid, nobody expected them to challenge in the playoffs this year, after their best player last year Gordon Hayward left for Boston. I think they should continue to build the roster around Mitchell. Insane stats for Mitchell in his first post season averaging 24.4 points, 5.9 rebounds, 4.2 assists and 1.5 steals per game.

Thanks for reading.

Image Sources

http://abc13.com/sports/rockets-ride-cp3s-career-night-into-west-finals/3445735/
https://www.slamonline.com/nba/donovan-mitchell-rookie-year-race-dunk-contest/