Jazz make playoff statement

They are free-falling, with losses mounting and frustration boiling over as playoff hope fades with every passing moment.

They, in this rare instance, are not the Jazz.

Rather, it's the New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets who are down in the dumps after falling 104-80 to Utah on Monday night at the Delta Center.

"It's very disappointing," Hornets coach Bryon Scott said after watching his club, without injured scoring leader David West, lose for the 12th time in 13 outings. "There are a lot of guys in that locker room that quit . . . (Those guys) won't be here (next season). It's as simple as that."

And the Jazz?

It's as simple as this:

They're downright giddy after overtaking the Hornets for ninth place and — with 12 games remaining in their regular season — moving back to within two games of Sacramento for the eighth and final postseason position in the NBA's Western Conference.

"I'm definitely happier much more right now," forward Andrei Kirilenko said, "because we won the game."

Kicking the Jazz's emotions up a notch: Not just the fact they won, but how.

Utah's margin of victory was its largest of the season, surpassing a 20-point win over Milwaukee back in November.

All five starters scored in double figures for just the second time this season, with Carlos Boozer putting up a game-high 21 points; Deron Williams adding 20 on 8-of-9 shooting from the field, most scored while getting the best of fellow rookie point guard Chris Paul; Mehmet Okur pitching in 18, just above his team-high scoring average; Matt Harpring pulling down a game-high 11 rebounds to go with his 15 points for his fourth double-double of the season; and Kirilenko adding eight assists and five blocks to his 13 points.

Moreover, the Jazz's new-look starting lineup — point guard Williams opened with forwards Kirilenko, Harpring, Okur and Boozer for just the seventh time this season — clicked in the third quarter as well as it has to date.

Up 55-52 at halftime behind a 30-14 points-in-the-paint advantage, Utah outscored New Orleans/Oklahoma City 29-16 in the third quarter as it shot 63.2 percent (12-of-19) in those 12 minutes alone.