NO WORRIES: Sloan wasn't all that concerned about a third three-day gap between games in the series.

"There's a lot of things you're not going to have control over, and that's one of them," he said before Game 6. "You've got to be ready when the ball goes in the air. That's all that counts. Nobody follows you out and sees what you're doing in between."

Such is life in the NBA.

"We can't dictate that. The league tells us what to do. I don't have a problem with it," Sloan said. "When you play four games in five days in four different cities you'd like to have two days off in there. Everybody has to go through all that stuff, and it's not anything players can't adapt to. So I don't see any problem with it."

LAST ONE: With Friday's loss, Houston coach Rick Adelman's playoff record at the Delta Center/EnergySolutions Arena fell to 6-6, including stints with Portland and Sacramento. Adelman entered Game 6 as the only opposing coach with a winning postseason record in the facility.

PROPER PERSPECTIVE: Houston's Tracy McGrady had a quick reply to a reporter's question Friday morning about whether Rockets feared playing an elimination game in Salt Lake City.

"Fear?" McGrady said. "No. It's a basketball game."

IN LA-LA LAND: The Associated Press reported that the Los Angeles Lakers held a players-only gathering to watch the Jazz-Rockets game Friday night.

Kobe Bryant said he was pulling for Utah because a series with the Jazz would start sooner.

The Lakers have been idle since sweeping the Denver Nuggets in the first round.

BEND FROM BECKHAM: Los Angeles Galaxy midfielder David Beckham, who is in town to face Real Salt Lake tonight at Rice-Eccles Stadium, gave his opinion on a Jazz-Lakers series when asked by a television reporter at a press conference at the Sandy stadium site earlier in the day.

"Jazz have no chance. I'm sorry," Beckham said with a grin. "I don't want to be disrespectful. I'm sure they're a great team, but I'm a Lakers fan."

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Contributing: James Edward

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E-mail: dirk@desnews.com