Utah Jazz: Playoff struggles baffle Boozer; star apologizes

The Los Angeles Lakers planted those big, long trees around him. The Houston Rockets game-planned their strong defense around him.

But Jazz power forward Carlos Boozer still managed to improve on his season rebound average in the just-concluded playoffs. Boozer went from 10.4 rebounds a game in the regular season to 12.3 in the playoffs.

When it came to being able to shoot, though, Boozer had a hard time buying baskets, even if he did make $11.5 million for the season.

After the Jazz season ended Friday night in a 108-105 loss in Game 6 of the Western Conference semifinals in EnergySolutions Arena, Boozer apologized.

He had averaged 16.0 points in the 12 playoff games, down from 21.1 points a game during the regular season and well below how he'd done in his first playoff experience last year. Then he scored 23.5 a game for 17 games, up nearly three full points from how he'd done in the 2006-07 regular season.

"I think I had a phenomenal year. I don't think I had the playoff series I wanted to have, either of the two series," Boozer said at Saturday morning's locker clean-out session.

"As a leader of this team and a cornerstone of this team, I feel like I let my teammates down by not making shots. But at the same time, I'm going to learn from it. I'll move on and be better next year."

He has a long list of improvements he wishes to make. "Yeah, I'm going to attack everything and come back a better player," he vowed, though he'll spend much of the summer vying for and likely being part of the U.S. Olympic team.

Those around Boozer say opponents were able to smother him because perimeter players didn't shoot well enough to demand being closely guarded. But they also say Boozer just missed shots.

"You give a guy the ball, you can't make shots for him," point guard Deron Williams said. "Sometimes guys struggle from the field. It happens. They defended him well. It wasn't like he wasn't getting touches.

"I think Booz is going to bounce back. He just had a tough playoff series. Missed some shots that he usually makes. It happens. It's not a big deal."

Coach Jerry Sloan said he hopes the wings work on their shooting to ease pressure on Boozer. But he clearly hopes Boozer does learn from this. "You have to help yourself. We can make all the suggestions in the world. It's like telling Karl Malone how to shoot free throws. We'd love for the guy to succeed, but when it's all said and done, he's the man."