It will be another playofflike atmosphere tonight in ESA — there will be fireworks and the biggest balloon drop in Jazz history, 40,000 — and the Jazz would like to accommodate their fans with a victory.

But they can't be overly sensitive to playing to the crowd, said coach Jerry Sloan. "If you're trying to put it on for fans, you're going to be sitting with them."

"Of course you want to play good," Kirilenko said. "You don't want to play bad. More important if you get a win."

Sloan is unsure how an Adelman-coached Houston will handle things. "I don't know how they'll play us specifically, but they'll play us differently than they played us last year because they've got a different coach," he said.

As of Wednesday's Jazz practice, Sloan didn't seem to be leaning toward changing much from Game 1, though the large Rockets are very different than the small "Nellie Ball" Warriors. He sees 6-11 backup center Jarron Collins getting more minutes as Utah tries to cope with Yao & Company, but he won't activate 7-foot rookie Kyrylo Fesenko. "No, he's not ready to play right now in this league," Sloan said.

Sloan wasn't sure if he'd activate first-round draft pick Morris Almond because third-year man C.J. Miles "played pretty well" Tuesday.

Center Mehmet Okur will be a focal point tonight. He put all his energies last spring into defending Yao pretty well, at the expense of his offensive game. "I'm just going to go out there, try to play solid defense and play aggressive at the other end" tonight, he said.

"Yeah, I look forward to play against him because he's such a good player, and obviously, one of the best big men in the league. I've got to go out and play 100 percent on him, got to push him off the lane, try to make him take shots over my hand and box him out."

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