After Iverson sent Denver from four down to one up at 111-110 with a 3-pointer and a Steve Blake-fed layup with 45.4 seconds to go, Boozer made two free throws with put the Jazz ahead by one with 31.9 seconds remaining.

The Nuggets responded with Iverson trying to feed Anthony down low, but Anthony — with Millsap guarding him — lost the ball off his leg and out-of-bounds.

Blake intentionally fouled Williams, who — one game after the Jazz missed 12 freebies in a two-point overtime loss to Memphis — hit both shots from the line to make it 114-111 Jazz.

"We didn't panic. We didn't let (the pressure) get to us," Williams said. "We just kept fighting, stayed in there. We executed our plays and hit free-throws down the stretch.

"In that fourth quarter," he added, "every possession was a battle, every possession was a fight. They wanted it, we wanted it. We just wanted it a little more."

Iverson did not deny it.

"It's tough," he said. "Both teams played well, but (Utah) had a little more than us.

"This is a tough arena to win," Iverson added. "They have a good team, and excellent coach. The way they play is a tribute to coach (Jerry) Sloan."

Despite all that, the Nuggets still had 21.1 seconds left after Williams' free throws to make something happen.

After Millsap rebounded a well-off-the-mark trey try by Blake, however, Williams hit two more free throws and that was that.

Actually, it was perhaps even a little more than that — especially with the Jazz able pad their lead over the Nuggets in the Northwest and put themselves within one more win over Denver (with two meetings remaining) to clinch the series with their toughest division rival.

"This one," Harpring said, "was important. There's no question about it."

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E-mail: tbuckley@desnews.com