Jazz's win over Rockets could be big one

Having missed the NBA playoffs by just one game two years ago, Utah Jazz coach Jerry Sloan makes no apologies for not offering to give back the 82-74 win his team got Wednesday night in Houston when the Rockets' Tracy McGrady left the game at halftime because his fiancee went into labor.

McGrady had scored 21 points in the first half, and the Jazz obviously had no antidote for him. "It certainly had a big impact because we weren't able to deal with him while he was in there," Sloan said Thursday before a practice.

But that one win, even if it was a little suspect, could be important down the road. "If it puts your team in the playoffs, you can't feel too bad about it. You say, 'Wow, that was important for us.' We lost making the playoffs by one game two years ago. That's how fragile things are. You never really know," said Sloan.

"And these guys," he said of his young Jazz, "need to get to that level of playing in the playoffs because they find out there's a different level of basketball to be played there."

If this club could make the playoffs, the learning would probably improve the Jazz for years to come. "Teams that have guys that have played in the playoffs know how to win games as they come down the stretch a lot better because they've had the experience of playing under pressure. You move on with the players; that's the thing that's important," said Sloan.

"I think those things are critical to have them understand."

And it could all be owed to McGrady's child.

MATT WOULD: Jazz forward Matt Harpring, who sat out Wednesday's game because of his ongoing knee rehab schedule, left Phoenix the next morning after getting a call at midnight on Nov. 17 that his wife was starting labor. Harpring got back to Salt Lake City as fast as he could, but he knew ahead of time that the labor would be a long one — it took 22 hours.

He missed the Phoenix game the next night.

Had the labor started while he was playing — he was scheduled to play the Phoenix game — he would have done the same as McGrady, whose son was born within a couple hours of when he left the game. "I would have done it if my baby was born during a game. That's something I don't ever want to miss," said Harpring. "For me personally, that's something that I would never miss, so I can understand it."