Boozer contributed 12 baskets during the Jazz's two-game split with the Hornets last week, more than any player except Deron Williams. But it wasn't the number of baskets that is so transforming for the league's second-worst-shooting team, it's the genre. Ten of the 12 hoops were layups, dunks or in-close gimmes, the type of easy baskets that Jazz coach Jerry Sloan craves but his perimeter-oriented team so infrequently delivers.
"He can finish in close, and that's big for us," assessed Williams, typical of the growing optimism surrounding Boozer's potential effect on the Jazz's fortunes. "That's a big weapon. He can do some damage for us."
But for Sloan, the trick will be limiting the damage Boozer's presence does to a rotation that had grown accustomed, during his 49-game absence this season with a strained hamstring, to divvying up the minutes without him.
In other words, whose minutes will be surrendered to Boozer? And how will those affected react to sitting down?
"I can't worry about hard feelings, but I know it happens," Sloan said Sunday as the Jazz prepared for tonight's game with the Warriors (8:30 p.m., FSN). "We'll see who can do their job, that's all it boils down to."
The Hornets were an interesting test case for a lineup stress that hypothetically has the potential to cause locker-room fissures. Because New Orleans possesses no true center, using forward P.J. Brown at the position, Sloan was able to clear extra minutes for his four highest-paid (and eventually, probably highest-scoring) players - all of whom, stickily enough, are most comfortable at forward.
There are going to be times, however, against teams with true centers, when Sloan will find it necessary to play either Jarron Collins or Greg Ostertag at the end, further squeezing the available minutes.
(Ostertag, the first true casualty of Boozer's return, did not play a minute in either Hornets game; Collins got roughly 17 in each, seven minutes below his average.)
Even against the Hornets, though, Sloan was faced with tough choices in the fourth quarter. And the coach admits he has no idea how this will all eventually shake out.
"I can't guarantee anything yet," Sloan said. "I can come close to knowing when everyone will play at the first part of a ballgame, but at the last part, circumstances come up. That's what takes away your minutes, or maybe gives you more minutes. But I don't buy the idea that I have to sit there and worry about someone's feelings about coming out of the game."
Boozer played the final 12 minutes of both games against the Hornets, as did Andrei Kirilenko. Matt Harpring was on the floor for 12 in Oklahoma City and nine in the Delta Center.
That left Sloan in the odd position of benching his team's season-long leader in scoring and rebounding, Mehmet Okur, for the entire fourth quarter Wednesday, and all but the final three minutes Saturday - in a game in which Okur had already scored 26 points. That, Sloan admitted, probably isn't the perfect solution, either.
But the Jazz mounted impressive rallies early in both fourth quarters, and the Jazz generally stuck with the hot lineups.
On Saturday, for example, Harpring made a driving layup, hit two midrange jumpers and dove for a rebound under the Hornets' basket, all in the space of three minutes, helping the Jazz eliminate an eight-point deficit.
Sloan stuck with Harpring until Hornets forward David West, three inches and 15 pounds larger, began taking advantage of the mismatch to draw a foul and convert a short hook shot. He went back to Okur, clearly surprising Harpring.
"I don't make those decisions," a disappointed Harpring said after the loss. "He's the coach, I'm the player."
And even the coach isn't sure. Put Okur back in earlier? Don't put him back in at all? Try playing a forward at guard (a solution that probably wouldn't have worked against the Hornets' quick backcourt)?
"I'm going to make mistakes. Nobody can bat 100 percent at this," Sloan said.
Kirilenko said he doesn't believe the fight for playing time will affect the Jazz. Take mine if I'm not helping us win, he said Sunday. "It should depends on how we're playing, on how I'm playing," Kirilenko said. "It's that way for everyone. It's up to me to play good."
Sloan would like to establish some sort of routine so players won't worry about their playing time, but said those decisions have to evolve over time. So it's a night-to-night call, at least for the time being.
"I think everybody would like to have continuity, so you have a better understanding. But when you run into situations where you can't defend or you can't score, then I have to try something different," Sloan said. "I'm not trying to hurt anybody's feelings, I'm trying to make a decision based on what I see on the floor. It's not always the most popular thing to do."
pmiller@sltrib.com
Jazz at Warriors
At the Arena in Oakland, Calif.
Tipoff: 8:30 p.m. MST
TV: FSN Radio: 1320 AM, 101.1 FM
Records: Utah 26-29, Golden St. 24-31
Season series: Tied, 1-1
All-time: Jazz lead, 84-51
At Golden State: Warriors lead, 37-31
Current streak: Warriors, 1 win
Last meeting: Warriors 94, Jazz 90 (Nov. 25)
Line:Warriors by 4
About the Jazz: They are 13-15 on the road. . . . They are 5-5 in February, and need a victory to achieve two winning months in the same season for the first time since 2001-2002. . . . F Mehmet Okur has 29 rebounds in two games against the Warriors this season.
About the Warriors: They have lost three straight games by an average of 15 points, and six of their last eight to fall into last place in the Pacific Division. They are 7-17 in 2006. . . . They are 15-14 at home and have won three of their last four. . . . G Baron Davis has missed the last five games with a sprained right ankle, and he is doubtful tonight. . . . Former Jazz G Calbert Cheaney has played only 33 games, averaging 1.8 points.
Tonight
Utah at
Golden State
8:30 p.m., FSN
