Boozer leads Jazz to Game 7 victory over Rockets

Utah moves on to face the eighth-seeded Golden State Warriors, who are coming off an upset of the top-seeded Dallas Mavericks. That series begins on Monday.

Deron Williams scored 20 points dished out 14 assists and Mehmet Okur had 16 points and 11 boards for the Jazz, who advanced past the first round for the first time since 2000.

Tracy McGrady scored 29 points and had 13 assists for the Rockets, but his playoff woes continued as he fell to 0-6 in first round playoff series in his career.

"Right now, it’s a lot of hurt," said McGrady. "For us to go out and compete like we did, in some sense it feels good that we competed the way we did and pushed seven games, but on the other hand, it was just disappointing."

Yao Ming also scored 29 points but had just six rebounds for Houston, which has not won a playoff series since 1997.

"I think I didn’t do a good job of rebounding wherever — long rebounds, short rebounds. That’s why we lost," said Yao. "I didn’t do my job."

Holding on to a one-point lead, Okur nailed a three-pointer to give Utah a 99-95 lead with just 1:16 remaining. Yao and Boozer traded free throws in the final minute and McGrady’s layup brought the Rockets within 101-99 with 9.8 seconds left.

Houston then inexplicably let almost eight seconds run off the clock before fouling Kirilenko with just under two seconds remaining. Kirilenko stepped to the line and hit both of his free throws to ice the game and send Utah to the next round.

Trailing 75-67 after three quarters, the Rockets started the fourth quarter on a 7-0 run and pulled within 75-74 on McGrady’s layup. Rafer Alston’s banked three- pointer then tied the game at 80-80 and Yao followed with four straight free throws to give Houston its first lead since the start of the game.

A Boozer layup followed by a Kirilenko trey tied the game at 90-90 and Boozer’s three-point play put the Jazz back in front with just over four minutes to play. Yao answered with a three-point play of his own, but Okur came back with a trey to make it 94-91 Utah with 3:23 remaining.

Yao’s dunk brought Houston back within a point before Williams’ driving layup with 2 1/2 minutes to play made it 96-93. McGrady then setup up Chuck Hayes with a layup that made it 96-95 with 1:46 to play before another Okur three gave the Jazz a four-point advantage.

"To win Game 7 on the road in a hostile environment when they came back and grabbed the lead from us (was big)," said Boozer. "We grew up a lot in this series and it’s going to help us in the next series."

A Gordan Giricek three with just over four seconds left in the first quarter gave the Jazz a 29-22 lead and the momentum carried over into the second quarter.

Utah opened the quarter with an 11-2 run, capped by a Williams’ trey, to quickly go up 40-24. A 13-2 Rockets’ spurt, featuring two three-pointers by Shane Battier, brought Houston within four, 45-41, with just under two minutes left in the quarter.

The Jazz, though, closed the half out on an 8-2 run and took a 53-43 lead into the locker room. Utah held the Rockets at arm’s length in the third quarter and carried a 75-67 lead into the final quarter.

Game Notes

The Rockets have lost five straight games when they have had the chance to eliminate their opponent...Utah improved to 2-2 in Game 7s while Houston fell to 5-3...Utah’s only previous Game 7 win came against the Denver Nuggets on May 21, 1994.