Boozer clarifies comments

HOUSTON — Carlos Boozer couldn't quite understand why he was being peppered with so many questions Sunday about the play of Jazz point guard Deron Williams.

"Everybody keeps asking me, 'Great first half; bad second,"' the Jazz's starting power forward said. "I don't know why they're asking me that."

Then he was told.

A quote sheet distributed to reporters by media-relations personnel in Houston had Boozer saying the following about Williams after the Jazz's Game 1 first-round NBA playoffs loss to the Rockets on Saturday: "He played well in the first half, but he has to pick it up and get the same performance in the second half."

After hearing that, Boozer first corrected the quote.

"The guy asked me something about Deron's first half, and why he didn't play good the second half. I said, 'We all have to play better in the second half,"' Boozer said. "I said, 'Nobody played great in the second half. We had a great first half, and a bad second half."'

Boozer then made a beeline for Williams, and explained the matter to his apparently unaware teammate.

"I would never say that about any of my teammates," he said before chatting with Williams. "I'm not like that. I would never do that."

DIFFERING OPINIONS: The question, as posed: Is tonight's Game 2 must-win for the Jazz?

"It kind of is," Williams said. "You know, we've still got other games to make it up — but 1-1 would be great for us going back to Salt Lake (for Game 3 on Thursday)."

Veteran guard Derek Fisher, however, had a different thought.

He's won three NBA title rings with the Los Angeles Lakers, and has played out just about every postseason series scenario imaginable.

"I think you do yourself a real disservice," Fisher said, "if you say one game out of a seven-game series is a must-have. ... I mean, the playoffs are such a wild ride."

TOUGH MATCHUP: Jazz coach Jerry Sloan sat forward Andrei Kirilenko for much of Saturday's second half in part, he said, because Kirilenko needs to be able to make shots.

Yet the Jazz's top two scorers this season — Boozer and center Mehmet Okur — were a combined 5-of-27 through three quarters Saturday, and Sloan stuck with both anyway.

He suggested it's because he understood why those two were having such a tough time knocking down shots.