I’m not big on cliches like “setting the tone.” Most of the time, setting the tone early just means you just made some shots early, or you have better players than the other team, or your coach drew up a great play, or something like that. “Setting the tone” is this intangible thing, something we use to explain what happened without having to get into the nitty gritty of what actually happened.
But from the very beginning of the game, the Rockets were into the Jazz defensively, and the Jazz responded by doing nothing about it. The Jazz had a turnover nine seconds into the game: Joe Ingles gets bodied up as he tries to drive, and ends up losing the ball out of bounds.