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Jazz coach Jerry Sloan spoke of his team's need to be more physical and aggressive in Game 4, sparking surprise among the Rockets.

"To sum it short and sweet, he's coaching though the media," Rockets guard Tracy McGrady said. "That's all he's doing. I had a coach (Jeff Van Gundy) who did the same thing.

"Like I said before this series started, this is one of the most physical teams in our league. If you are not physical with them, they're going to run you out of the gym."

Hearing about Sloan's comments, Rockets coach Rick Adelman expected Utah to be even more physical than before.

"We're tough and they're not?" Adelman said. "It sounds to me like they're going to try and be Goliath (today). We'd better be ready for it. We already talked about that. They're going to throw their best effort at us and try to keep their home-court advantage. That's not untypical. We said the same things after the first two games."

'Always a bridesmaid'
Rockets forward Shane Battier was second to Suns forward Grant Hill in the voting for the 2007-08 NBA Sportsmanship Award.

"Always a bridesmaid," Battier said. "If it wasn't Grant, I would be a little more upset, but Grant is a good guy.

"At this point in my life, any award is a good award. I don't care if I win the D-flight for the championship of my golf club."

Making them earn it
Early in the fourth quarter Thursday, Shane Battier fouled Utah's Paul Millsap to deny a clean look at the basket, the sort of foul that was much of a lifetime in the making.

"I grew up in the '80s with the Bad Boys and the Pistons," Battier said. "They talked about hard fouls.

"We allowed them to get a lot of free movement and easy layups in the first two games. In the playoffs, you're going to have to earn points in the paint. We were on the floor a lot. They were putting us on the floor. Any time we get a chance to have a nice, clean, hard foul, you've got to take those opportunities."

Give defense some credit
After scoring 20 points in the series opener, Utah's leading scorer Carlos Boozer has been limited to 13 and 15 points by the Rockets.

Jazz coach Jerry Sloan was asked how to get Boozer more involved in the offense.

"Tell them not to guard us?" he said. "Would that help? (Carl) Landry and those guys just went at us. They just knocked us around. If you can't stand up to it, you've got to go home.

"They get up and play him. (Dikembe) Mutombo's a tough guy to play against. We played against him when he was in Denver and Karl Malone was here. He's a tough matchup. You don't always get what you want, because he's so long and can block shots. When he plays, you've got to shoot over him."

Free-throw woes
Kyle Korver said much of the Jazz offensive difficulties came from their miserable 20-of-33 shooting of free throws Thursday.

"We weren't making free throws, and that kind of killed our offensive flow," Korver said. "I don't think we need to make any big adjustments. I don't think they will, either. Now it's just about playing."

Boozer open on last play
Replays showed a missed opportunity for the Jazz on Deron Williams' final drive to the hoop in Game 3 on Thursday. Just before Williams put up the shot that was blocked by Carl Landry, Carlos Boozer was open under the basket.

But Boozer wasn't complaining.

"No. I thought the time was running out and he had a good shot at the basket," Boozer said. "I didn't expect Landry to block it. I don't think (Williams) did, either. I thought he was going to make it and we go to overtime. My teammates told me I was wide-open. But if he could have got it to me, he would have. We know that."