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Posted: 5:36 PM- HOUSTON - Tracy McGrady ensured a spirited start to the Jazz's first-round playoff series against his Houston Rockets on Saturday when he said he believes the Jazz are "nasty" on defense - to the point of nearly being dirty.

"I do not think we're a cheap-shot team," forward Carlos Boozer countered. "None of our guys is dirty."

McGrady made the comments before the teams played Game 1 of their best-of-7 series at the Toyota Center, and quickly became a hot topic at the pre-game shootaround. While the Jazz players denied they play dirty - a familiar charge that harkens to the days of Stockton and Malone - McGrady didn't back down.

When told the Jazz's Matt Harpring had disputed his account of being a player who takes "cheap shots at times," McGrady said: "I must not be on the same court as him. That's his rep."

Yet McGrady insisted he meant his comments as a compliment. "I respect the way he plays," McGrady said.

Coach Jerry Sloan has heard such charges of dirty play before, of course, and said he "doesn't see that" in his team. The Rockets "are looking for an edge," he said. "I understand why he said that."

RISING TO THE CHALLENGE?

If anybody is under pressure in the series, it's McGrady, who hasn't won a playoff series in nearly a decade in the league and sometimes endures criticism as a player who cannot thrive on the big stage.

But he's hardly ducking the challenge.

The seven-time All-Star said he's not afraid of the expectations that he should carry the load for the Rockets - not long after telling ESPN that "if we don't get out of the first round this year, it's on me."

"I like it," he said. "I don't shy away from it. It just makes me gear up for the game. I'm looking forward to a challenge like this, because I know I'm going to step up. I've put too much hard work into it."

NO NEED TO PANIC

Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy said some observers have overreacted to the Jazz's late-season fade, when they lost seven of their last 11 games - many of them without injured Andrei Kirilenko and Gordan Giricek.

"It always happens that way," Van Gundy said. "People always say, 'What's wrong?' Then you look at who they were missing and you see what's happening. You get Kirilenko and Giricek back there, it stretches the floor. Kirilenko adds so much. They're a hell of a team.

"There's going to be ups and downs," he added. "Just because you had a little down stretch at the end of the year doesn't make their season different. They've won 50 games in an incredibly hard West, and if you look at their record against the Western Conference, it's superior to ours, and they played really good against the other teams. So we understand just how good they are."

The Jazz were 32-20 against the rest of the Western Conference, while the Rockets were 28-24. But the Rockets won 16 of their last 22 regular-season games.