Boozer leads Jazz over Rockets

Deron Williams added 11 points, seven rebounds and eight assists for the Jazz, who now trail the best-of-seven series two games to one.

Matt Harpring came off the bench to score 13 points and grab seven boards for Utah, which won its first playoff game since April 26, 2003 and will look to even the series on Saturday in Game 4.

"We needed to win this game," said Utah head coach Jerry Sloan. "If you don’t win this one, you make things really difficult for yourselves. I thought we played much better defensively tonight. You’re not going to stop those guys over there, but we tried harder in this game than we have and that was the key."

Yao Ming netted 26 points and had 14 rebounds for the Rockets, who won the first two games of the series at home.

Tracy McGrady contributed 24 points on 9-of-23 shooting from the field in the loss for Houston, which scored just 25 points in the second half. Shane Battier had 11 points and five rebounds in the loss while Rafer Alston had six, accounting for the rest of Houston’s points.

"I thought they were the mentally stronger team, especially in the fourth quarter," said Houston head coach Jeff Van Gundy. "They came at us hard and they chased down loose balls harder than we did. I give those guys over there a lot of credit."

Holding a six-point advantage at halftime, the Jazz outscored the Rockets 13-10 in the third quarter to take a 61-52 lead into the final frame.

Six straight points by Houston made it 64-58 with about six minutes remaining. McGrady drained a baseline jumper and Yao followed with a turnaround bank shot and two free throws to make it six-point game.

Utah then put the game away and rattled off a 13-4 run to make it 79-62. Boozer donated six points during the game-clinching surge while Harpring had five points.

Leading by six points at the end of the opening quarter, the Jazz went into halftime with a 48-42 lead after both team’s scored 25 points in the second stanza.

Boozer paced Utah with 10 points and five rebounds in the first half as the Jazz shot 47.7 percent from the field.

McGrady had 16 points while Yao donated 15 and seven boards for the Rockets, who had nine turnovers at halftime.

Game Notes

Coming into the game, the Jazz had lost seven of their last eight Game 3s while Houston had won six of its last seven Game 3s in the postseason...Gordan Giricek had 10 points off the bench for Utah...Houston finished with 19 turnovers...The Jazz have not advanced past the first round of the playoffs since 2000. The last time Utah was victorious in a playoff series was in 2000, when it eliminated Seattle, 3-2, in the first round.