Utah was holding a tenuous four-point lead with 2 1/2 minutes to go in the period when Boozer barreled into the lane, only to have Detroit's Tayshaun Prince whack him on the arm as the Jazz power forward headed toward what was bound to be either — pick your preference — a basket or a charge into Pistons big man Jason Maxiell.

Detroit coach Flip Saunders chose the latter, opted for choice words directed at referee Marc Davis when the call instead went against Prince and wound up getting tossed with back-to-back technical fouls.

Jazz shooting guard Ronnie Brewer hit two resulting free throws, Boozer did the same and two-plus minutes later — after Brewer made a free throw stemming from a subsequent technical on, get this, Pistons trainer Mike Abdenour — Utah's lead was headed toward double-digits.

"That helped us a lot," Boozer said. "I mean, that hurt them a little bit — because Ronnie made every free throw."

Detroit did get back to within as close as four points when Prince knocked down a 3-pointer with 4:08 remaining.

But, after an exchange of missed jumpers, Jazz forward Andrei Kirilenko tipped in the miss of a failed Williams trey try with 3:13 to go — and the Pistons never really threatened again.

Before it was done, Boozer would deliver a putback to give Utah its biggest lead of the game at 12, and Williams would feed ex-Pistons center Mehmet Okur for a game-closing 3-pointer — polishing off what both Boozer and Williams agreed had to be their best combined game this season.

"I know (Boozer's) confidence was high," Williams said. "I've been struggling lately, so for us to play good on the same (day) definitely is a treat."

Boozer readily concurred.

"Yeah," he said when asked if it indeed was their best 1-2 punch in 14 games.

"But it's early. There's gonna be more of that," Boozer added. "There's gonna be a lot more of that, because when he's playing at full strength and I'm playing at full strength we've got a good combination. When we play like (that), we're pretty tough to beat."

They are, no matter — Jazz players might have wanted to say, but did not — who is, or is not, on the floor.

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E-mail: tbuckley@desnews.com