"They don't have that guy inside anymore," Boozer said, "but what they do have is a team that does a good job passing the ball to each other. They cut hard, they move hard, they set really good screens, they're very unselfish, they have guys that hit deep-corner threes like Shane Battier and Rafer Alston, so they have a very good team."

Because the Rockets have a different coach — Rick Adelman — and six players who weren't on the roster last season when the Jazz shocked them in Game 7, Sloan doesn't see Houston looking for revenge so much as verification of this season's team.

"Well, they have something to prove," he said. "They have a better record (55-27) than we (54-28) do, and they want to prove that. They have four or five guys who weren't with them last year. They added four or five bulldogs. They're not going to worry about what happened last year. They're going after you right now, and that's the attitude we have to have, to try to play through that."

Sloan said his biggest concern is for the Jazz to play like themselves, "staying with what we do."

Jazz point guard Deron Williams will have to direct traffic against a team that now defends better than it did last year. "They just play hard, and they have good defensive principles, and they've got good defensive players," he said. "(Their) help defense is great, They help each other out, they rotate well and they rebound well.

"We feel like we have a size advantage with Yao out, and we're going to try to exploit that."

To center Mehmet Okur, who will likely face 7-2 Dikembe Mutombo early and then smaller, younger players, the Rockets move more fluidly without Yao.

"I would say that without Yao they more faster team," Okur said, adding he feels up to playing a quicker game. "I was able to play night in and night out some nights with the big guys on run-and-gun teams, so I'm used to it," he said.

To Ronnie Brewer, Utah's starting shooting guard who will get the first chances at guarding McGrady, the Jazz can't think offense. "For us to be successful, we have to defend. We can't focus on the offensive end for us to win games," he said. "We have to have a team effort to try to stop him and have other guys beat us.

"You've just got to challenge him, make him take tough shots, and hopefully not let him shoot a high percentage. If you do that I think you did a good job."

McGrady was 7-for-21 against the Jazz in Monday's 105-96 win.

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E-mail: lham@desnews.com