"Trying to get me fined," he said when asked about the play. "You can't say anything. You can't. All I can say is, you look at that play and ... he (Scola) put his hand on Kirilenko's shoulder.

"Kirilenko fell back like a truck just hit him, and you're going to make that call at that time of this game with just six seconds before Luis went to the basket and he got hammered? — I have a really hard time with that."

Rockets All-Star McGrady, meanwhile, finished with 23 points and 13 rebounds.

But in the fourth quarter he had just one point and 0-for-4 field shooting, plus a missed free throw and a critical turnover.

"It's tough for him, because we really concentrate on him," Kirilenko said. "We really double-team, we really look for him."

Got to hand it to the Jazz, McGrady suggested.

"I'm pretty tired," he said. "Fourth quarter, I didn't have anything. It's tough, man, banging with these guys.

"It is what it is," McGrady added with regard to the loss, which included Houston trailing at halftime for the ninth time in nine Jazz-Rockets playoff games dating back to last year's series win by Utah. "There's nothing I can do about it but go out there and do what I did tonight and lead my team. I just fell short. I don't care about the criticism."

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E-mail: tbuckley@desnews.com