Oakland raiders: Jazz dominates down stretch to take 3-1 lead

OAKLAND — He shook a sack of ice off his shoulder like it was a scoop of ice cream that had just struck his brain, literally shuddering at the cold.

Yet even as he did, Deron Williams smiled.

The Jazz point guard couldn't help but grin after watching his teammates close Sunday night at sold-out Oracle Arena as if they all had a chill in the vein, pulling away from Golden State in convincing fashion for a 115-101 victory in Sunday night's Game 4 of their NBA Western Conference semifinal series with the Warriors.

"We hung in there tough, we hit big shots, we got stops when we needed them, we hit free throws down the stretch," Williams — who finished with a 20-point, 13-assist double-double — said after the Jazz went up 3-1 in a best-of-series that could close with a Jazz victory in Game 5 on Tuesday night at EnergySolutions Arena. "I mean, everything went right for us."

And it's largely because the Jazz did what they were told.

"We just stuck with our offense," forward Matt Harpring said. "We just wanted to get the ball inside. That was the main concentration — not to settle for outside jump shots, and really get the ball inside."

Up 89-88 with just under five minutes to go, Utah outscored Golden State 26-13 the rest of the way en route to handing the Warriors their first home loss of the postseason.

The three shots that sparked the Jazz's separation were a 21-foot jumper by center Mehmet Okur, who most of the night contributing on offense as if Yao Ming were in the building, and a couple outside from guard Derek Fisher that were part of a 14-point fourth quarter for the playoff veteran.

They were made possible because Utah attacked the Warriors just like they were instructed to, going to the inside first — power forward Carlos Boozer finished with 12 rebounds and a game-high 34 points, 30 of which were scored before the final period — and then firing away from a softly defended perimeter.

"Coach (Jerry Sloan) stressed it," Williams said of the ideal inside-out approach. "We got away from it last game, the game before a little bit.

"We've got to throw it in to Carlos (Boozer) first," he added. "We've got to let him work, let him get some touches down low, and then it helps us out, because when he's doing work down low, they've got to come down, they've got to double it, they've got to try to get it out of his hands, because there really is nobody his size out there on the floor that can guard him, and when he does that it opens up things outside and we can work from there."