The plan is simple. A pack of wolves can take down an elk. Sending everyone on the floor to the glass, the Rockets hope, might just match what most teams get from one or two giants.

"It's got to be all five guys," Rockets coach Rick Adelman said. "You can't expect our big people to box out and go get the ball. They have the size advantage on it. It's a gang mentality we have to have. That's who we are right now. We're not very big. We have to do it collectively."

Tougher test

The Trail Blazers offered a good test of the idea, usually pairing either 7-footer Greg Oden or Joel Przybilla with 6-11 LaMarcus Aldridge. But no team might offer a tougher challenge than the Rockets will see tonight from the Utah Jazz, who have habitually sought to pound even the full-sized Rockets on the boards.

"We know Utah is going to shove," Adelman said. "They're very physical around the basket. It's something we have to keep doing by committee. That's all we can do.

"The hardest thing with somebody with size like that is our guys are battling just to keep them away from the ball. We're just fighting. So we have to have everybody get on the boards, and if you can't get it yourself, don't let your guy get it."

That is good in theory, but in practice it asks players who have never concerned themselves with rebounding to add it to their games, and to do it all game, every night.

"It takes extreme concentration and extreme effort," Shane Battier said.

Having spent enough time in Salt Lake City to vote in local elections, Battier knows the scene inside EnergySolutions Arena. To that, he can add Carlos Boozer, Andrei Kirilenko and Mehmet Okur, if he is ready to come back from a sprained ankle.

"This is a test," Battier said. "You have some big athletic bodies in Utah. They're bangers. We'll see how we want to stick our noses in there."

Battle of the boards

The Rockets' average of 36.33 rebounds per game in the first week of the season is the fewest in the NBA.

They have been outrebounded by nine per game, more than any team but New Orleans and New York. But just three games into the season, those numbers are largely the result of the opener, when the Blazers outrebounded the Rockets 51-31.

The Rockets improved markedly on the boards against the Warriors and in the rematch with the Blazers, coming within five rebounds of Portland on Saturday. Yet, no one grabbed more than Luis Scola's six.

"For me, previously, I had those two big seven-footers (Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol) that were getting all the rebounds," Trevor Ariza said. "My job was to get out and run. You have to recondition your brain to do something else."

Adelman said the Rockets must run, whether they send everyone to the boards or not. Aaron Brooks insisted that he and Kyle Lowry are fast enough to lead a break, even when starting closer to the glass. The key, however, is getting the rebound.

"We have to be a great team-rebounding team, but we have to also be a good transition team," Battier said. "It takes a lot of discipline, especially when you get fatigued."

jonathan.feigen@chron.com