"More than anything, we have been fortunate (Okur hasn't shot well)," Popovich said.

Okur went 3-for-8 and scored nine points in Wednesday's loss.

SHORTENED BENCH: Spurs guard Brent Barry didn't play at all on Monday night, and former starting center Francisco Elson saw just 27 seconds of action at the end of the first half as San Antonio's usual 10-man rotation was cut to eight.

"I just think players get more of a rhythm if so many aren't playing," Popovich explained before Game 5. "Come playoff time, everybody's ready to go and sometimes if you have too many short runs in a game, you don't really get into a rhythm. And by rotating one less big player and one less small player the guys that did play got good minutes." Of course on Wednesday night the Spurs didn't need to shorten their bench. There were plenty of minutes to go around for all of San Antonio's players during its blowout win.

MISC: The Spurs are now 21-7 in games when they have had a chance to close out a playoff series during the Tim Duncan era. ... This was the fourth playoff series between the Spurs and Jazz, but the first one since 1998. The previous three series were all won by Utah, which still leads San Antonio 8-12 in head-to-head postseason games. ... Both Popovich and Utah's Jerry Sloan had 87 postseason coaching wins entering Wednesday night's game. Popovich now is alone in fifth place all-time with 88 playoff victories, trailing only Phil Jackson (179), Pat Riley (171), Larry Brown (100) and Red Auerbach (99).

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E-mail: lojo@desnews.com