On Feb. 11, the Rockets flew to the Utah Plateau to begin their road campaign.

In the Devil's Away Game at the Energy Solutions Arena, the Rockets played tenaciously, and Qiao Hai didn't seem to have any intention of playing the Grizzlies in the next game.

Yao Ming and Ron Artest played the first quarter, relying on Steve Francis's excellent play in the first half of the game, and Yao Ming's suppression of Greg Ostertag throughout the game.

In the first quarter of the game, the Rockets were 24-26, only 2 points behind the Jazz.

In the second quarter of the game, Steve Francis played the first half of the game, but the Rockets were scored by the Jazz in a row, and the difference was expanded to 5 points.

Yao Ming came out and scored 8 points in a row on 3-of-4 shooting in the second half of the second quarter, and the Rockets chased the score back in the second half of the quarter.

At halftime, 47:49, the Rockets still only trailed by 2 points, and for the Rockets, the chances of winning this game are still very good.

The Jazz are not a weak team, and their record so far this season is 29-20, which is tied with the current 29-20 record of the Rockets, who are also 29-20, but the Rockets rely on the victory against the Jazz before the All-Star weekend to rank seventh in the West ahead of the Jazz.

Therefore, even if the next game is against the Grizzlies, Qiao Hai still fights hard in this game, because this game is also a game that can be played with one against two.

With a win, the Rockets could widen the gap with the Jazz and secure the seventh place in the West.

And if they lose, the Rockets will be overtaken by the Jazz and fall back to the eighth place in the West.

The desperateness of the rocket, it is understandable from here.

In the second half, Qiao Hai continued to work hard, and Steve Francis exploded in this quarter, shooting 5 of 6 shots in a row, including 2 of 2 three-pointers and scoring 14 points, which directly helped the Rockets overtake the score 72-69.

But the three-point difference is still 108,000 miles away from sealing the game, for the two teams, the three-point difference is equivalent to a one-goal difference, a ball can be played back, facing a full 12 minutes of the fourth quarter, the game is far from over.

At the beginning of the fourth quarter, Karl Malone scored a goal in a mid-range hard hit Chris Anderson, and then, on the Rockets' side, Steve Francis missed the shot, leaving only one point behind.

Jazz's offense, John Stockton made a gesture, played a block in the high post, took two steps, and quickly passed the ball back to Karl Malone.

Old Malone received the ball, held the ball and rushed into the interior in three steps and two steps, and made a layup against Chris Anderson's defense.

With a beep whistle, Karl Malone drew another foul on Chris Anderson and went to the free throw line......

Qiao Hai frowned, it was obvious that the state of old Malone was here again.

After thinking about it, Qiao Hai quickly called Carlos Boozer from the bench and pulled him to teach him face-to-face: "Carlos, it's time for you to perform, look at the field, Karl Malone, that's your template, now I'll give you a chance, play, I don't ask you to defend him, I just hope you can explode with him on the offensive end!" ”

Boozer suddenly became excited, and nodded vigorously: "Don't worry, head!" ”

Karl Malone hit a free throw to tie the score.

At the same time, Carlos Boozer came on the court, Qiao Hai's hand adjustment was incomprehensible, seeing that Malone was about to explode, Qiao Hai's replacement at this time was not Kevin Cato, who had a better one-on-one defense, but an offensive Carlos Boozer, and no one knew what kind of medicine Qiao Hai was selling in his gourd.

Karl Malone also hit the second free throw, and the Jazz overtook the score.

Then, the Rockets' counterattack, Carlos Boozer's role after the game began to show, completely different from Chris Anderson, Carlos Boozer's play, forced the Jazz to share some defense, staring at the mid-range to the interior threat Boozer.

At the same time, the Rockets' pick-and-roll offense became more and more ferocious.

After a brief period of falling behind, the Rockets quickly took the initiative back.

First, Yao Ming broke out, and the Jazz could only shift the focus of defense to Yao Ming's side, but at this time, Carlos Boozer on the other side quickly took over the offensive banner and scored consecutive points.

In this way, the Jazz blocked one side and leaked the other, and soon lost the battle.

In the end, the Rockets defeated the Jazz 111-103 and won this extremely important victory.

Steve Francis scored a Rocket-high 28 points, along with three rebounds, five assists and four steals, but the aging John Stockton also shot 7-of-13 and recorded a quasi-triple-double of 18 points, 9 rebounds and 11 assists, which was not bad at all compared to Steve Francis.

For John Stockton's data, Qiao Hai also thought of a stalk in later generations, as the NBA's all-time assist king, John Stockton, in the case of personal scoring is not bad, John Stockton's career zero triple-double!

Not a single triple double!

The opportunity that lay in front of him in this game, John Stockton also failed to take it.

The point guards of the two teams are a draw, and the gap is mainly reflected in the interior and bench.

On the inside, Yao Ming scored 27 points, 10 rebounds, 3 assists and 1 block on 8-of-16 shooting, completely crushing Greg Ostertag.

There was also Carlos Boozer who came off the bench and scored 16 points and five rebounds.

Of course, on the Jazz side, Karl Malone's performance was not bad at all, scoring a game-high 33 points on 13-of-23 shooting, along with 5 rebounds, 9 assists and 3 steals.

With such a performance, it can even be said that the 40-year-old Karl Malone crushed the young Chris Anderson and Carlos Boozer.

But in fact, the problem of the Jazz's loss in this game was with Karl Malone, Greg Ostertag was completely blown up by Yao Ming, and at the critical moment, the Rockets put on two dangerous interior lines on the offensive end.

Malone had to juggle the offense while also dealing with the defense against Boozer, and he was overwhelmed for a while and was quickly opened up by Boozer.

Boozer scored 16 points in the game, 11 of which came in the fourth quarter.

It can be said that it was Boozer's excellent individual performance that allowed the Rockets to gain the advantage in the crucial fourth quarter and finally win the game.

The game was lost, and the fans on the sidelines of the Energy Solutions Arena were leaving, and Jerry Sloan looked at the old Shuangsha and shook his head helplessly.

"For the Jazz, their time is over, Karl Malone is old, John Stockton is old, and it's hard for these two veterans to bring them anything more......"

"Perhaps, next season, this Jazz team will face a rebuilding problem."

Jerry Sloan was well aware of this, and at the end of the game, he stared at Carlos Boozer, who helped the Rockets seal the win, with a pair of dim eyes shining......