Jazz keep their home win streak alive

One streak — 10 victories in a row — ended with Friday night's loss at Sacramento.

The Jazz weren't about to let another — 11 straight home wins coming into the evening — expire in the same weekend.

And they did not, holding on to beat Chicago 97-87 Saturday night despite a convergence of potential perfect-storm happenstances that easily could have capsized Utah's ship.

The Northwest Division-leading Jazz were playing at sold-out EnergySolutions Arena for the final time before their break for next Sunday's NBA All-Star Game.

Chicago (20-30) was at the tail end of a six-game trip and eager to finish the long journey even at 3-3.

Moreover, the Bulls were without leading-scorer Ben Gordon (sprained wrist), No. 2 scorer Luol Deng (Achilles tendinitis) and No. 4 scorer Kirk Hinrich (bruised ribs).

Hinrich also leads Chicago in assists per game, meaning it was yet another evening among many recently in which the Jazz played teams without key cogs, including Houston (Yao Ming) and Washington (Gilbert Arenas, Caron Butler).

Quite a minefield, indeed.

"Like someone said, 'It's a trap game,"' Jazz power forward Carlos Boozer said. "They had three stars out, what have you. But we came in focused."

Or at least determined.

Jazz coach Jerry Sloan was less than thrilled with an opening half in which his now 33-19 club committed nine turnovers. And Utah — despite leading by 10 going into the break — found itself up by just two points with as few as 32 seconds remaining in the third quarter.

Credit sporadically used reserve combo guard Ronnie Price for ensuring that the Jazz's home streak — now 12 straight, with no losses in Utah since 2008 began — was not snapped by a cheddar-chunk lure.

Boozer finished with 22 points, matching Chicago's Thabo Sefolosha for game-high scoring honors. Thirteen of those 22 came in the fourth quarter alone for the Jazz, who haven't fallen at home since Dec. 29 vs. Boston. Boozer also had a game-high 12 rebounds — his 35th double-double of the season, which ranks third in the NBA.

Point guard Deron Williams also had a double-double, his 29th this season, finishing with 15 points and a game-high 11 assists.

And small forward Andrei Kirilenko chipped in 15 points as well.