"It was one of the best games of my career," said Okur, who finished with 16 points and 11 rebounds — and already owns an NBA title rings from his days as a reserve in Detroit. "We came out there and put our hearts and everything we had into the game. It was fun."

"Big shots," Jazz forward Matt Harpring added with regard to those by Okur. "That was huge."

Utah's task, however, was not done quite yet.

With just less than a minute to go, Rockets center Yao Ming — who finished with 29 points, matching fellow All-Star Tracy McGrady for team-high honor — hit two free throws to make it 99-97.

Okur would miss two trey tries on Utah's ensuing possession, but each time the Jazz controlled the offensive rebound — first when Harpring saved the ball to Williams, and again when Rockets point guard Rafer Alston was called for a foul on Boozer as the ball headed out of bounds.

The lost rebounds were quite costly for the Rockets, whose star swingman, McGrady, has now failed to advance past the first round of the playoffs six times in six tries.

"I think we didn't do a good job of rebounding wherever — long rebounds, shorts rebounds," Yao, who accepted personal blame after Utah beat Houston 40-33 on the boards, said. "That's why we lost. ... I have to get (the ball), and I didn't get it."

Boozer hit both free throws stemming from the foul on Alston with 19.9 seconds left, and with that the No. 4 seed Jazz started thinking about facing an eighth-seeded Warriors team still high from having knocked off Dirk Nowitzki and the NBA's top-seeded Dallas Mavericks in what arguably is the league's greatest playoff upset ever.

The Jazz do so with a steam-full of a confidence over the way they played at the Toyota Center on Saturday night.

"I think we did a pretty decent job of getting decent shots," said Sloan, whose club led at halftime in all seven series games. "And we worked hard."

Hard enough, that is, to overcome Houston's homecourt advantage — and allow themselves to think about doing the same against Golden State starting Monday night.

"To win Game 7 on the road in a hostile environment, when they came back and grabbed the lead from us — we grew up a lot in this series," Boozer said. "And it's going to help us in the next series."

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E-mail: tbuckley@desnews.com