Jazz forces the issue
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SALT LAKE CITY — Andrei Kirilenko shadowed Tracy McGrady all night. Now he’ll be following McGrady back to Houston too.
Kirilenko easily had his best game of the series with 14 points and five blocked shots to lead the Utah Jazz to a 94-82 victory over the Rockets on Thursday night, tying the best-of-seven series and forcing a Game 7 Saturday at Houston.
“That’s hard to play with this kind of intensity on both ends of the court, but we had to win,” said Kirilenko, who hadn’t scored more than eight points in the first five games.
Carlos Boozer scored 22 points and Mehmet Okur had 19 as he finally started making his three-point shots, sinking four and matching his total for the first five games.
Kirilenko was exhausted after trying to keep up with McGrady, who still scored 26 hard-earned points.
Yao Ming scored 25 points, but he also had eight turnovers as Okur and rookie Paul Millsap constantly pressured him.
The rest of the Rockets besides McGrady and Yao combined for 31 points.
Go beyond the scoreboard
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