"I don't think I was being as aggressive as I should in the first half, and I just wanted to come out in that fourth quarter and be a little more aggressive, look for my shot a little more," Williams said. "(Reserve guard) Ronnie Price actually said something to me when I was on the bench — asked me if I was gonna shoot any more. I took his advice, and put it up a couple times."

Yet even with all that accomplished, it was the Jazz's last-minute defensive play that seemed to please Sloan most.

After Raptors point guard T.J. Ford knocked down a well-guarded 3-pointer with 18 seconds remaining to make it a one-point game, Williams responded a second later with two freebies to push the Utah lead to 91-88.

Ford came back downcourt to try to tie the game with yet another trey, but the first two times he wanted to get off a shot he could not.

That's because while ex-Jazz forward Kris Humphries was trying to screen away Williams, Jazz center Mehmet Okur stepped up to assist in the biggest of ways.

"We all knew he was gonna take the shot, Ford," Okur said. "So I tried to give some help from my man."

The third time Ford tried to pull the trigger, his awkward fallaway missed the mark and Boozer wound up with the rebound. Boozer made the first of two free throws with 4.5 seconds to go to seal the win, leaving not only Williams but also Sloan to crow.

"I was trying to run him off the 3 — make him do something else, give it up, (or) take a bad shot," Williams said. "He ended up taking a shot over Memo (Okur), which we can live with."

"He (Okur) stepped up there and got his hand up a couple times. That's what you have to have, because ... if (Okur) doesn't step up, (Ford) is wide open because of the screen that Humphries is setting," added Sloan, whose Jazz play next Friday at Cleveland. "I thought our guys did a pretty job trying to stay up on (Ford), and stay down on their feet where they weren't running all over the place. That's a huge thing in trying to finish."

Finish they did, even if it wasn't the most polished of efforts.

"It wasn't pretty," Boozer said, "but it was a great win for us."

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E-mail: tbuckley@desnews.com