Utah Jazz look to improve 'D'

LOS ANGELES — So much at Jazz practice Monday centered on Utah's poor shooting in Sunday's Game 1.

But power forward Carlos Boozer had another take heading into tonight's Game 2 of a first-round NBA playoff series against the Los Angeles Lakers.

"I'm not as much worried about the offensive part of it," he said. "I'm more worried getting stops and not letting them shoot 62 percent. That's the biggest thing for us."

The Lakers actually shot 65.7 percent in Sunday's first half, and 55.6 percent overall.

Late defensive rotations — and sometimes teammates offering no help at all — was the cause of some of that, Jazz coach Jerry Sloan suggested Monday.

And it wasn't just Utah's notoriously defensively deficient big men who were to blame.

"(Point guard) Deron (Williams) got on top of the basket quite a bit, and a lot of the time when he (did that) we hung in the corners," Sloan said. "Anytime he goes this way or that, somebody's got to rotate back and try to help us balance the floor. Those are just automatic reads you have to be able to make."

— Tim Buckley