Jazz puts limits on Rockets

The Utah Jazz shot poorly again and rushed on offense a few times, yet Coach Jerry Sloan was about as tickled as he gets.

Utah’s defense was good enough to overcome any offensive struggles, and the Jazz beat Houston, 81-67, Thursday night at Salt Lake City to cut the Rockets’ lead to 2-1 in their best-of-seven playoff series.

The Jazz held the Rockets without a field goal for 10 minutes in the second half and didn’t allow Houston’s reserves to score. Yao Ming scored 26 and Tracy McGrady had 24 points for Houston, but only two other Rockets -- Shane Battier (11) and Rafer Alston (six) -- scored.

“I don’t think you’re going to stop those guys,” Sloan said of McGrady and Yao. “I thought we tried harder and that’s all you can do.”

The stifling defense made up for another marginal night on offense. Utah was 33 of 85 from the field -- two of 15 on three-point attempts -- but had 15 offensive rebounds to Houston’s nine and forced the Rockets into 19 turnovers.

Utah, however, finally got inside on offense, outscoring Houston, 40-10, in the paint.

“When we’re good we get in the paint,” Utah’s Matt Harpring said. “We shoot free throws and we rebound. When we have those three things going for us, we’re a tough team to beat.”

Carlos Boozer had 22 points and 12 rebounds for Utah.

“They were the mentally tougher team,” Houston Coach Jeff Van Gundy said. “They got up into us good. That’s what they do. They’re a very good team and they responded like a good team would.”

Detroit 93, Orlando 77 -- The Pistons ended a Game 3 trend by moving within one game of the second round after taking a 3-0 series lead over the Magic at Orlando, Fla.

Tayshaun Prince scored 23 points and Chauncey Billups added 21 for the Pistons, who had lost their last six Game 3s when leading a series, 2-0.

Jameer Nelson had 27 points for the Magic, which also lost all four regular-season games to the Pistons.