Interesting, that it took ignoring some of their key role players to win.

Utah's bench scored just 17 points in Saturday's 103-99 victory over Houston and 18 points in Thursday's win.

Matt Harpring led Utah's bench with eight points and eight rebounds Saturday in 28 minutes, but other than his performance, Jazz coach Jerry Sloan stuck with his starters.

It wasn't a surprise, just playoff time, said veteran Derek Fisher.

Depth may have gotten Utah to the postseason, but it's up to the starters to carry the weight now, he said.

"It's important once players get into their rhythm and flow of the game to let them stay in it," he said. "You only want to take them out for two or three minutes, let them get a little breather if possible and then get your breadwinners back in. That's what you have to do to, use your substitutions just right."

Paul Millsap apparently was that "just right" guy on Thursday, when he provided a lift in the second quarter and finished the game with eight points on 4-for-4 shooting.

On Saturday, it was Harpring's turn to make the biggest impact. He helped out Andrei Kirilenko with the difficult task of slowing Tracy McGrady and scrambled around on the floor for loose balls and hauled in the few rebounds teammate Carlos Boozer let slip past.

lwodraska@sltrib.com

Jazz bench (Games 1-5)

Min FG-A FT-A Reb Ast Stl Pts

359 39-113 27-35 67 16 7 132

Jazz bench (Games 6-7)