Jazz get T-Mac attacked

Chalk up the Jazz's latest loss to a rookie mistake, and the fallout from it.

The Houston Rockets beat Utah 99-85 on Monday night at the Delta Center, a victory fueled by their reaction to the over-exuberant emotion exhibited by first-year Jazz guard Kirk Snyder following a stirring third-quarter play he made.

"He got us riled up," said Rockets star Tracy McGrady, who did the rest with a game-high 44 points on 15-of-21 shooting from the field, including 3-for-6 from 3-point range, and 11-of-16 from the free-throw line.

Houston rode a 20-4 run at the end of the second quarter to a 56-42 halftime advantage, and pushed their third-quarter lead to as many as 16 before the Jazz began to chip away.

The Rockets led 68-62 with less than four minutes to go in the third when Snyder missed a 3-point attempt, and former Jazz forward Scott Padgett wound up with the rebound.

Padgett couldn't get the ball out of the corner nearest the Rockets' bench, though, and Snyder wound up with it after the turnover.

Snyder dribbled out, then burst to the basket for a nifty layup that made it 68-64.

The University of Nevada product's momentum carried him straight to the sideline in front of the Rockets' bench, and it was there that Snyder — in the eyes of many, especially Jazz coach Jerry Sloan — perhaps went a bit too far.

He gestured with emotion, saying nothing but evidently sticking out his tongue in a taunt — as he stood directly over Rockets assistant coach Steve Clifford, who was seated on the Houston bench.

"It was just a reaction, I was looking at somebody in the second row, and I didn't know where I was on the floor," Snyder said. "I looked down, and the coach was like right there, so I was in a bad territory.

"I wasn't supposed to be there."

That's certainly the message Snyder got from Sloan, who yanked him from the game and gave him a brief tonguelashing of his own.

"He was playing very, very well," Sloan said of Snyder, who finished with 12 points in 30 starting-role minutes. "He makes a terrific move, then he goes and stands in front of their bench.

"That's a no-no in this league," the Jazz coach added. "We're lucky that something crazy didn't happen, because those are the kinds of things that can turn into something serious."

What did happen is that Houston's Bob Sura objected, then Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy went wild.

Van Gundy was tagged with a technical foul — "No need," he said when asked later to comment on Snyder's actions — and Mehmet Okur made the resulting free throw.