Jazz expect run-happy Warriors to feed off their fans

OAKLAND — Three games.

After being absent from the NBA playoffs since 1994, that's all the time the Golden State Warriors needed to earn Oracle Arena a reputation as quite a raucous place to play.

"The fans are crazy, you know," center Mehmet Okur said after the Jazz practiced Thursday in preparation for tonight's Game 3 Western Conference semifinal series visit to Oakland, where the Warriors won their last five regular-season games and first three against opening-round playoff opponent Dallas.

"They've done a good job for them out there," Okur added. "It's not going to be easy for us."

The eighth-seeded Warriors went 30-11 at home this season, which is just one victory shy of how No. 4 seed Utah fared at EnergySolutions Arena.

More than win count, though, it's the atmosphere the Warriors have created at yellow-drenched Oracle that has the Jazz wondering how Golden State — down 0-2 in a best-of-seven series — will respond tonight.

"We're undefeated at home (5-0 in the postseason), but they are too. We're very aware of that," power forward Carlos Boozer said. "Their fans are great, and we have to be prepared for them to play much better."

"They're going to attack in front in their fans," Okur added. "They're going to play more active."

Veteran forward Matt Harpring expects the sprint-happy Warriors to run even more than they did in the first two series games, and for them to make more hustle plays.

"Home teams usually play with more energy," he said.

Yet it can be overcome, Jazz coach Jerry Sloan insisted Thursday.

"Fans don't play," Sloan said. "It's the players who play. That's what you've got to have, wherever."

NAME GAME: Best-known faces seen at the home of the Jazz's first-round opponent, Houston, included Rev. Jesse Jackson and ex-Rockets star Hakeem Olajuwon, who now lives in Jordan.

The Warriors?

Their celebrity fans have a bit more buzz, including the likes of actress Kate Hudson, rapper Snoop Dogg, actors Woody Harrelson and Jim Carrey, golfer Fred Couples, NFL retiree Ronnie Lott and guitarist Carlos Santana.