The Bruised and the Restless

The Utah Jazz and Houston Rockets have certainly had their differences in the past on the court. Memorable physical drag-em-out games, down to the wire playoff games with the Jazz being the ones having the upper hand more times than not. However, both teams have had similar problems this season with...

you guessed it from the title...injuries.

The Jazz basically started a bench squad for the majority of the beginning of the season without Carlos Boozer and Deron Williams in the starting mix. Williams came back eventually from an ankle injury while Boozer just had arthroscopic knee surgery 12 days ago.

The Rockets on the other side of the coin have also had their fair share of nagging injuries. Tracy McGrady continues to be out. He's in the middle of his '2 week physical conditioning'. Ron Artest has a ankle injury and has made it clear he's uncertain when he'll be able to return to the court. So the pieces of the puzzle are still up in the air for the 26-16 Houston Rockets.

Onto the game itself tonight, both teams always go at it tooth and nail despite who's in uniform. If you remember earlier this season, the Rockets were able to hang on in a thrilling double overtime victory over the Jazz. Mainly, due to one...Ron Artest who put on a gutsy effort. The rough and tough forward basically hobbled his way up and down the court drawing hard foul after hard foul from Jazz players as they tried to slow the determined Artest down.

Artest wasn't even sure earlier in the day if he was going to play or not, but the Rockets were very fortunate he did end up lacing his shoes. Artest was pivotal in the Rockets being able to strap down the win late as he was the key. A key factor missing from the Rockets' previous two playoff eliminations at the hands of the Jazz. I don't blame the season-ending injury of Yao last season for last year's first round exit. The Rockets showed they could win without the big man in the latter of their 22-game winning streak. The problem however was being out-hustled and getting manhandled on the boards. GM Daryl Morey and Owner Leslie Alexander took note and they brought in Artest whose known for both...hustle and the ability to manhandle his way anywhere, anytime. His performance against the Jazz was the perfect example of what the Rockets desperately needed against Utah in the past playoff series.

However, that game was then...this is now.

It's very unlikely Artest will make the surprise leap off the bench and be healthy enough to play again like he did previously against the Jazz. That leaves the Rockets with a gaping physical hole against a hard bruising Jerry Sloan team. Who'll step up? Chuck Hayes has the capilities to be a defensive pest in the paint and Shane Battier is known for his great defensive and hustle skills, but the Rockets will need all the contributions they can get from Von Wafer, Aaron Brooks, Landry and Scola. They'll need Yao to step up like he did on Monday afternoon against Denver (who plays absolutely no defense, by the way).

When you play the Jazz, you're in for a fight. I've experienced two Rockets/Jazz games in person. One was a late-regular season game and the other the Game 7 from a couple seasons past. The atmosphere for Game 7 was insane. The Jazz winning late really took the wind out of everyones sails. I felt empty as well. The Rockets will host the Jazz one more time this regular season as they try to make it two consecutive wins over their rivals.

Let the physicality begin (again).