They will have the chance once the pregame ceremony ends and Game 2 begins. Trying to downplay the occasion, Deron Williams said the Jazz knew Bryant had won the award before this playoff series started.

"We don't have to play against the award," Jazz coach Jerry Sloan added. "We have to play against him. Every time I've seen him play, he plays like he's obsessed most of the time anyway, so I don't know if he could be any more fired up or not. I just don't know what to expect."

Williams was already bracing for the first-quarter surge the Lakers would try to make after Bryant's ceremony.

"We know they're going to try to blow us away early,'' Williams said. "We've got to be able to withstand that and execute a little bit better on offense and try to slow him down a little bit."

Asked about the possibility of Bryant going for 50 points tonight, Carlos Boozer said he thought Bryant was headed that way early in Game 1. "For us, we have to try to hold him down," Boozer said. "Hopefully, we can get him under 30."

Boozer suggested the Jazz would force Bryant to give up the ball with increased double-teams and possibly switch to a zone defense for stretches. Sloan said he wanted to see Bryant's man make him work harder by crashing the boards after rebounds.

"I think every time you step on the court, you know he's going to try to go for 50," Ronnie Brewer said. "He's averaging 34 points in the playoffs, so you know he's going to be aggressive and look to score a lot of points. You've just got to try to slow him down a little bit and minimize what the other guys on the team do."

The Jazz beat Houston in Game 1 of the 1997 Western Conference finals when Karl Malone was celebrated as MVP by Stern. They were eliminated from the playoffs before Malone could be presented with the award in 1999.

Williams received four fifth-place votes for this season's award while Boozer received a fifth-place vote.

Film study

Williams said the Jazz were able to take advantage of the two-day break between games, in particular watching what they did right and wrong in Game 1.

"We just had a lot of success when we helped each other out," Williams said. "We came off of Kobe and still got back to the shooters and that's what we've got to do."