The Mavericks outscored Utah by 10 in the second quarter, but the Jazz opened the second half making three baskets to the Mavs' one, and soon Utah's lead was back up to 11.

Right after that, starting two guard Ronnie Brewer dislocated his left pinky finger and had to come out to have it straightened, and Boozer soon picked up his fourth foul and had to sit on the bench with Brewer. Things could have gone south, but they didn't.

And in the fourth quarter, Dallas's Devean George hit back-to-back 3-pointers to cut Utah's lead to 84-80, just the kind of thing that has caused Utah to falter in past games. Sloan put Brewer and Boozer back in during a timeout, and while Utah went scoreless for four possessions, Dallas was scoreless for the next six, while Andrei Kirilenko and Deron Williams made it 88-80.

Then Okur, shooting 2-for-10 to that point in his first game back after missing seven, hit back-to-back field goals, and with the help of consecutive Boozer baskets, Utah was able to hold off the Mavs and boost its confidence.

"I don't know what our lead was," said Boozer, "but it went down to four really quick, but we stayed composed and stayed with our game plan and won the game.

"Our past is behind us, and now we're moving forward. Each game is different, and this game we decided to not look back in the past. We thought about how we were going to get back on top right away."

"They came back and kind of scared us a little bit," said Brewer, "but we started executing down the stretch and pulled away."

Boozer finished with 21 points and nine rebounds, Williams had 17 points and a dozen assists and Brewer added 15 points and four steals. Dallas got 20 from Dirk Nowitzki.

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E-mail: lham@desnews.com