Tucker making Jazz pay big price

Rockets forward P. J. Tucker came into the postseason shooting well, but not to any extreme that would indicate the way he’d sink 3-pointers in the first two games of the playoffs. Tucker made 34.8 percent of his 3-pointers in the final 10 games of the regular season, slightly off his 37.7 3-point shooting during the season as a whole when he averaged 7.3 points.

In the first two games of the first-round series against the Jazz, however, Tucker made half of his 14 3-pointers, and nine of 16 shots overall, while averaging 13.5 points.

“When they … kind of get James (Harden) going downhill, that’s the shot that’s open,” Tucker said. “They try to take Clint (Capela) away. We knocked down those shots early; they had to make an adjustment.”

Harden said those open shots have come from the Jazz defensive game plan and the Rockets’ determination to shoot with confidence.

“Well, we have confidence in each and every individual. So those shots that he’s knocking down, it’s just how they’re guarding us,” Harden said. “If they’re going to keep guarding us like that, our guys are going to get open shots, and you just got to keep telling them, ‘Be ready, make sure your feet (are) ready, as soon as that ball touches your hand, put it up. I don’t care if you make 10 or miss 10, those are good shots.’

“Those are shots that we preach and we want him (Tucker), Eric (Gordon), D. House ( Danuel House Jr.), all those guys, Austin (Rivers), those guys are being aggressive.”