Giricek relishing extra minutes

Ever since arriving in Utah via a 2004 trade with Orlando for 2000 Jazz first-round draft choice DeShawn Stevenson, Gordan Giricek has had a tough time knowing where he stands.

During his first full season with the Jazz, he started about half the time. During an injury-hampered 2005-06 season, he started all but one of the 37 games in which he played. This past season, he had just six starts — and did not play at all on another six occasions because of coach's decision.

During the Jazz's ongoing first-round NBA playoff series with Houston, however, the veteran shooting guard from Croatia is a rotation regular, averaging 25 off-the-bench minutes per game.

That's five minutes per game more than he averaged during the season, a much-embraced higher-profile role.

"I was trying to prove (to) everybody the last three seasons that I'm trying to play hard as much as I can, and if they think so I'm happy about it," said Giricek, one of several Jazz players who have taken turns trying to slow Rockets All-Star Tracy McGrady. "I hope it continues to be like that.

"I always knew I could help," added Giricek, whose 10 points in Utah's Game 3 win pushed his series scoring average to 6.7 per postseason game. "I never lose confidence."

At various times during his Jazz career, Giricek has openly exhibited frustration with how he's come in and out of the lineup.

"Maybe some decisions you make in the game, they're not right," he said, "and you know it, but you just have to fight through it."

Today, though, the only fight he's concerned with is Utah's with the Rockets.

"Now everything is behind me and I'm enjoying playing basketball," he said following Friday's practice. "I enjoy playing for the Jazz. It's pretty cool to be involved in making results."

WHO SAYS? A Houston television reporter posed a question Friday to Jazz starting point guard Deron Williams in typical TV fashion, delivering the supposed query as a statement.

"They have to get other people involved," the reporter said, referring to Houston's offensive dependence on stars McGrady and Yao Ming during a Game 3 in which only four Rockets scored and Utah's bench outscored Houston's 33-0.

Deadpanned Williams: "No they don't. They don't have to get anybody else involved."

Williams, of course, knows better.