Best of 3: With renewed confidence, Jazz are hoping to break through in Houston arena

HOUSTON — They've won two straight. Looked great doing it. And now they can't wait for tonight's Game 5.

Yet even with so much going the Jazz's way the past few days, they still were kicking themselves after using a 98-85 victory in Saturday's Game 4 to even their best-of-seven first-round NBA playoff series with the Houston Rockets at 2-2.

"We were kind of inexperienced coming into the series," veteran forward Matt Harpring said, "and the first games (both Jazz losses in Houston) we missed a lot of shots we could easily make."

At home, though, they've been falling.

And perhaps it's not so coincidental that they've been going through with most of 19,911 fans hoping they would.

"Our fans ... were terrific," said coach Jerry Sloan, who suggested the Jazz have fed off of the crowd at sold-out EnergySolutions Arena for two straight victories now. "They keep us going, keep us energized."

As a result, the lengthy series is down to a mini best-of-three — and, as Harpring said, the Jazz are trying to close it out in positive fashion by coming to Houston "with a lot more confidence."

Even with that being the case, though, Sloan's club seemed to be spending as much time after Saturday's win thinking about what could have been as they were focusing on what could be.

"Houston has homecourt advantage, which is huge," said Harpring, offering a nod of acknowledgment to the reality that the Jazz collapsed late in the regular season and the Rockets soared past them to lock up home-floor edge in the Western Conference 4-5 seed series. "They did their job at the end of the season when we didn't, so we've got to get in there and get a win."

"They played very well at home (in Games 1 and 2)," added starting power forward Carlos Boozer, the Jazz's leading scorer in the series with an average of 22.3 points per game, "and we've got to go at it with the same attitude we played with at home."

That is because without stealing at least one in Houston — after returning to Utah for Game 6 on Thursday night, an if-necessary Game 7 would be played Saturday at the Rockets' Toyota Center — the Jazz would fail to advance to the second round for the fourth straight time in four postseason appearances since 2001.

But don't rule out just yet the possibility of Utah beating the home-floor edge odds.