"We asked him to push the ball harder and make our big guys run; otherwise, we were gonna take him out," Sloan said of Price, a combo guard who watched Kirilenko and Miles handle the ball during the eight minutes he did not play. "And he pushed the ball up the floor, we got a couple easy baskets, and I think that ignited us a little bit and kind of got a little momentum going our way."

The Jazz wound up taking the lead for good on a Boozer layup that made it 84-83 with just under seven minutes to go, and they led by seven or more after Miles knocked down a 3-pointer with 2:35 left.

Kirilenko delivered the real knockout blow, though, stealing a Ramon Sessions handoff to Richard Jefferson and dunking on the other end to put the Jazz up 92-86.

Price ended up playing the entire second half, though it wasn't without some help, he said, that the Jazz were able to finish off a Bucks team playing without injured star Michael Redd and regular Charlie Villanueva.

"We are a team, and when we have keys guys out we have to play like a team," he said. "We can't depend on one person, or two people."

With that, postgame attention turned to the condition of Boozer.

"I'm always concerned about anybody (getting) hurt, but what could I do about it?" said Sloan, adding he did not know the seriousness of Boozer's injury. "I just told him I wish him luck and hope everything works out, just like I would anybody else.

"But we have to go on about our business."

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E-mail: tbuckley@desnews.com