Utah Jazz: Team looks to continue physical play tonight

HOUSTON — The Jazz apparently have heard enough of the Houston Rockets' persistent objections to Utah's physical play.

"I don't know what they're talking about, man," Jazz power forward Carlos Boozer said after this morning's shootaround in advance of tonight's Game 5 of the Jazz-Rockets first-round NBA playoff series.

"We're gonna go out there and play," Boozer added. "They're gonna be ready to play; we're gonna be ready to play. Let's stop talking about the physicality of the game. The game's being played. Go win the game."

Jazz point guard Deron Williams was similarly perplexed by the degree of Houston's complaints over the last several days.

"I feel like it's been physical, but I don't think it's been overly physical, you know?" he said. "When I played in the playoffs last year it was physical, you know? I'm not gonna cry about it. I'm not gonna whine about it. It's basketball."

Veteran small forward Matt Harpring has been painted as one of the series' most physical players.

"Honestly, I don't care," he said this morning. "I'm gonna play the same way I play if they talk about me or they don't talk about me.

"I'm not gonna make it easy on T-Mac," Harpring added with regard to Rockets star Tracy McGrady. "I know he wants it easy, but this is the playoffs, and I'm gonna do my best to irritate him, and frustrate him, to get in front of him. I'm not gonna do anything dirty. I'm not gonna do anything stupid, or whatever. I'm just gonna play tough defense like I know how to play."

Should the up 3-1 Jazz win tonight and close out the best-of-seven series, meanwhile, they would advance to face the Los Angeles Lakers.

"We come into the game ready to win and try to move on to the next round," Boozer said. "At the same time we know it's not gonna be easy. But that's our goal, absolutely."

No one at the shootaround, though, wanted to discuss L.A.

"We just want to close out the series," Williams said, "to close it out."

"We have to focus on the Rockets," Harpring added. "We can't get too ahead of ourselves, because if we lose tonight we go back to Salt Lake. And they beat us one time there, so next thing you know we might be in a seven-game series."

Also today, Jazz forward Andrei Kirilenko reacted to Monday's revelation from McGrady that — according to the Houston Chronicle — he is "playing on a left knee that's in such bad shape that he has had to take pain-killing injections just to get on the floor."

"It might be a problem," Kirilenko said, "but, you know, he still is gonna play."

---

E-mail: buckley@desnews.com