Jazz counting on ring-wearers Okur, Fisher

Besides veteran shooting guard Derek Fisher, who won three with the Los Angeles Lakers, starting center Mehmet Okur is the only current Jazz player who owns an NBA championship ring.

He won his with Detroit in 2004, shortly before leaving the Pistons as a restricted free agent and joining the Jazz for a six-year, $50 million contract.

But if Okur thinks the jewelry won then will help him now, Jazz coach Jerry Sloan suggested, he has another thing coming.

"He's a guy we count on to score points right off the bat," Sloan said of Okur, the Jazz's second-leading scorer this season behind power forward Carlos Boozer and his 20.9 points-per-game average.

"It's not like he's coming in as a backup to Rasheed Wallace or somebody like that," added Sloan, who'll most likely have Okur matched against Rockets All-Star center Yao Ming. "The pressure all of a sudden changes in a different direction."

Okur played in four of Detroit's five Finals games against Fisher and the Los Angeles Lakers in '04, and averaged just 2.8 rebounds and 3.7 points while logging 11.5 minutes per game that postseason.

In the just-concluded 2006-07 regular season, Okur — named to his NBA All-Star Game earlier this year — averaged 7.2 boards, 17.6 points and 33 minutes per game.

BATTIER BOOSTER: Rockets starting small forward Shane Battier has quite a fan in Sloan, who seems to have been high on the Duke University product ever since he entered the NBA with Memphis in 2001.

"He's a wonderful player, I've always thought," the Jazz coach said. "It's not about numbers with him.

"He doesn't have to have the ball all the time, (or) shoot all the time," Sloan added. "Watch him, and you see the game isn't all about him. He just plays basketball and tries to help his team. Everybody would like to have him."

BULLARD FACEPLANTS: According to Thursday's Houston Chronicle, Rockets broadcaster and ex-player Matt Bullard — in town to work Wednesday's regular-season finale against the Jazz — "was injured in a skiing accident Wednesday morning and visited a Sandy hospital for observation."

Bullard reportedly had "a fractured orbital bone, fractured nose and a concussion," but he was released and returned with the team to Houston.