Clearly, the Jazz have room for improvement. They finished the regular season just 16th of 30 teams from the stripe. The growing suspicion about the Jazz is that unless it's Kyle Korver at the line, the game's never finished. In the playoffs, the Jazz are shooting just 68 percent from the line, far below their regular- season average (76 percent).

You know those T-shirts they're selling that say, "I LOVE KYLE KORVER"?

Sloan should be wearing one.

Where's Booz? The All-Star forward has been resourceful but not dominating, determined but not unstoppable. Yet those are what he needs to be.

To his credit, he hasn't let his mediocre playoff shooting affect his rebounding.

Still, he's averaging nearly six points fewer than the regular season and eight below last year's playoffs.

Teammates say Boozer has done other things that don't show up in the box score — you mean like buying lunch? — but there won't be as much margin for error if they get to the next round and face the Lakers.

Boozer will have to be more than just a bruiser if they expect to move on.

Interior scoring: Speaking of bruisers, where has the Jazz's inside game gone? They are bigger and stronger than Houston — "Midwest, corn-fed hosses," as Shane Battier described them — yet have only occasionally dominated the inside.

That despite the fact Houston center Dikembe Mutombo is old enough to remember the telegraph.

Utah and Houston have scored exactly the same number of points in the paint over the four playoff games (150).

What all this means is that if the Jazz fix a few things, they could go far. If not, they too will have something to whine about.

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E-mail: rock@desnews.com