Write On Sports LLC - "Carlos Boozer: A man on a mission" by Jake Lloyd

Carlos Boozer: A man on a mission

2007-05-07 00:02:34 | By: Jake Lloyd

The Golden State Warriors may have been able to bully Dirk Nowitzki and the rest of Dallas' meek big men. Don't expect a repeat in their conference semifinals series against Utah, however.

Because Carlos Boozer will be in the house.

Boozer just about single-handedly led Utah to a 103-99 Game 7 win in Houston Saturday night, setting up Utah's series against Golden State. Boozer scored 35 points and grabbed 14 rebounds, becoming just the third player in league history to accumulate that many points and assists in a non-overtime, winner-take-all road game. The other two players -- Dolph Schayes and Patrick Ewing (not bad company, huh?) -- lost those games.

Boozer refused to go down a loser on Saturday. While it was Houston's Tracy McGrady who pledged before the series and during it to carry the Rockets out of the first round, Boozer silently went about his business, thoroughly outplaying the more celebrated Yao Ming. In fact, especially on Saturday, Boozer exposed Yao as very slow.

Boozer averaged 24.6 points and 11 rebounds for the series. But it was his play down the stretch Saturday -- after Houston, behind its home crowd, had come all the way back from a 16-point deficit to take a five-point fourth-quarter lead -- that was most impressive.

First, trailing 84-80, Boozer willed his way past Yao to the basket, dropping in a difficult left-handed layup plus a foul to cut Utah's deficit to one. Then, after four consecutive points by Houston, Boozer struck again, taking a pass from Deron Williams and making another tough, contested layup to make the score 88-85 Houston. A 3-pointer by Andre Kirilenko a minute later tied the score, and Utah never trailed again.

Boozer was a big reason why.

In the final minute, with Utah clinging to a 99-97 lead, he grabbed two huge offensive rebounds. The first one he literally grabbed over the 7-foot-5 Yao, who got off his feet about as quickly as Charles Barkley does these days. Then, on Mehmet Okur's second straight missed 3-pointer, Boozer outhustled Yao to the left wing to recover the ball. With less than 24 seconds to play, Houston had to foul -- and Boozer calmly sank both free throws.

Sending Utah to the conference semifinals.

I'm not sure what has gotten into Boozer, but he's been the most dominant low post player in the playoffs. That's right. Better than Tim Duncan. Better than Amare Stoudemire. He's playing like it's his contract year. Except it isn't.

His play is the only reason I can picture Utah beating red-hot Golden State in the upcoming conference semifinals (although it*s still a pretty fuzzy image).

No one in the playoffs has been as determined as Boozer to score. Every time he gets the ball, it's quite clear that he intends on scoring, and he will go through or past whomever in order to accomplish this. That's a warning, Warriors. He ain't backing down.

Everything was working against Boozer and the Jazz. They were playing on the road in a Game 7 (only 19 visiting teams now out of 97 have won a Game 7); the momentum had taken a dramatic twist; Houston seemed to be getting every single call on the offensive end.

Nowitzki would have called it a day. Ditto with a lot of other big men in the league. ("Let the guards shoot some 3-pointers, and hopefully we'll get lucky.")

But not Boozer. When the water became its choppiest, Boozer paddled even harder, carrying the Jazz to shore and a meeting with the Warriors.

Which should be a battle.