Golden win for Jazz

DENVER — His club 10-4 in its first 14 games of March, George Karl liked how things were looking with April fast-approaching and the NBA playoffs not far off.

"It's the first time this year we've, probably, had a strut to our step," the Nuggets coach was saying an hour-and-a-half or so before Northwest Division-leading Denver played host to the Jazz on Wednesday.

By halftime of an eventual 115-104 Utah win, however, it was the Nuggets who were on their heels and the Jazz who were jitterbugging with a bounce.

Utah took a 56-45 lead into the break of the late-starting ESPN2-televised game, marking its highest-scoring opening half of the season. Next-best: The 55 the Jazz put up in the first half of Monday's 104-80 win over New Orleans/Oklahoma City.

"I think we did a good job sustaining what we had going," forward Matt Harpring said after the Jazz led by seven or more for the game's final seven-plus minutes. "They cut it close, to five (early in the fourth quarter), but even (then) we scored right away, and it never seemed like they had momentum in the game."

The resulting implications:

For the 40-31 Nuggets, who were without starting center Marcus Camby after the league's leading shot-blocker showed up to morning shootaround with a strained back, little sweat was lost.

Though it's still jockeying with Memphis and the Los Angeles Clippers for homecourt advantage in the postseason, Denver's magic number for winning the division and the accompanying automatic playoff berth remains just six — in other words, any combination of victories by the Nuggets or losses by the Jazz totaling a half-dozen gives Denver the division.

But for the 34-37 Jazz, whose regular season is down to just 11 games, the rewards are bountiful.

Utah started a three-game trip that continues with Friday's visit with the Clippers and ends Saturday in Portland just 1 1/2 games behind Sacramento for the Western Conference's eighth and final playoff position — though the Kings do control a potential tie-breaker scenario with the Jazz after winning their season series 3-1.

The Kings won big over Portland on Wednesday, so the ninth-place Jazz — after winning their second straight and for the fourth time in seven outings — did not lose ground.

Utah also did not allow 10th New Orleans/Oklahoma City, also a winner Wednesday, to gain ground.