The Utah Jazz led by 22 points in the second half at home to one of the worst teams in the NBA's Western Conference on Saturday night. That wasn't really a surprise, as Seattle was without its injured starting backcourt of All-Star scoring machine Ray Allen and point guard Luke Ridnour.

But a funny thing happened on the way to the blowout. The SuperSonics rallied for a 106-103 win — and the Jazz locker room was about as lighthearted as a mortuary afterward.

Now, with six games remaining in the regular season, the Northwest Division champion Jazz are in serious danger of losing homecourt advantage in the first round of the playoffs.

"We should be increasing our lead over Houston right now," said Jazz forward Carlos Boozer after Utah's third-straight loss to a non-playoff-bound team. "It's very frustrating to be losing these games."

Perhaps the only bright spot is that Houston is struggling right now too. The Rockets are also on a three-game losing streak and remain one game behind the Jazz in their battle for the extra home game during their upcoming best-of-seven playoff series.

"We've got to circle the wagon," said Boozer, who finished with 16 points and 13 rebounds. "We can't look for anybody outside to help us. We've got to help ourselves. This is the NBA. Nobody's going to give you a cookie, you've got to go take your cookie if you want one."

It looked like the Sonics were serving up a cookie as if they were Mrs. Field through the first three quarters of the game Friday. The Jazz shot a blistering 64.4 percent from the field through three periods against Seattle's so-called defense, as Utah opened up an 87-67 advantage.

But from there it was all Seattle.

"It does say a little bit about us," said Seattle center Nick Collison. "A lot of teams would have quit and it would have been easier to, but you've got eight minutes left and you might as well play as hard as you can."

The Jazz have a 2-1 series lead over the Rockets, but the teams still play one more time — in the regular-season finale at EnergySolutions Arena on April 18. Between now and then the Jazz have several tough games remaining — including a back-to-back set next weekend at Dallas on Friday night and at home against Phoenix on Saturday.

Houston, meanwhile, also has six games left — but only two against teams with records above .500, and one of those is the game against the Jazz.

The good news for the Jazz is that they will win the tiebreaker against the Rockets — even if Houston wins the season finale, giving the teams a 2-2 split of the season series. The second tiebreaker — after head-to-head — is division record, and the Jazz are 9-4 in their division, while the Rockets are just 7-8. Utah has only one game remaining against a division foe — at home Wednesday against Denver — meaning the worst they could finish in the division is 9-5.

"We're getting lucky because (the Rockets) are losing too," said Boozer. "We've had opportunities the last three games to give us more cushion in front of those guys. But we're getting lucky and we need to nip it (in the bud) before home-court advantage becomes no home court for us."

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