This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2007, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
There was a moment in the second quarter of Thursday night's game when Mehmet Okur might as well have been a Turkish Ben Wallace, blocking Yao Ming on defense, then drawing a foul when Houston's towering center flailed his arms in frustration and caught him in the head.
It didn't matter how many points Okur scored (seven) or how many shots he made (2 of 12) in the Jazz's 81-67 triumph. Not when the Jazz center was playing one of the best defensive games of his career, totaling four blocks and four steals.
"I'm telling you, I don't care how many points Memo score,'' Utah forward Andrei Kirilenko said. "As long as he playing this kind of defense, oh! I'm enjoying watching him playing. I've never seen him playing like this."
Yao finished with 26 points, making 6 of 14 shots and 14 of 16 free throws, but also had eight turnovers, an astonishing number for a big man. Okur blocked Yao's shots, stripped him of the ball, and stood his ground despite giving up some seven inches and 50 pounds.
"I tried to play 110 percent, spend my energy against Yao on defense,'' Okur said. "Things not going well for me on the offense, but I don't care. We won the ballgame."
Okur helped set the tone on defense as the Jazz came within a point of holding the Rockets to their all-time lowest output for any game, playoff or otherwise. Even so, the question is whether Okur's shot will start falling in this series.
Okur still is shooting just 6-for-35 (17.1 percent) and 2 of 15 from three-point range while averaging 5.7 points in these playoffs. He didn't score in Thursday's game until the 5:24 mark of the second quarter, on a free throw after a defensive three seconds call.
He has been far from the player who averaged 17.6 points in the regular season and shot his way to the All-Star Game one rainbow three-pointer at a time. Asked if he cared what he was shooting in the playoffs, Okur replied: "If we keep winning, I have no problem.
"If I do some good things, probably the offense will come to me,'' he added. "So I don't want to rush on the offensive end, not force 20, 25 shots. I tried to get my confidence back on defensive end and we go from there."
There was no disputing the energy Okur brought to the floor. After knocking down a 19-footer in the third quarter, Okur came back to strip Yao in the post, leading to a Matt Harpring jumper at the other end.
Just like that, the Jazz had stretched a three-point lead to 58-51 in a quarter when points were at a premium.
He ran the floor to erase a Juwan Howard layup bid on the fast break. He even jumped out on a screen and roll to steal the ball from Tracy McGrady, converting two free throws at the other end, as the Jazz ran away with the fourth quarter.
"I'm telling you he was so much energetic, sometimes, I was like, 'How come you're running like this? You're 7 feet tall,' " Kirilenko said.
The Rockets also were more aggressive in giving Okur help, rushing a second defender at Yao when he caught the ball. "They played a little bit of trickery on me,'' Yao said. "Okur, I can't really press hard on him. I know he will flop on me. He did that to me today. I learned that."