Utah has homecourt edge

Their 22-3 home record is tied with that of Dallas for best in the NBA.

Their total victory count is fewer than only five other teams in the league, including three Western Conference clubs (Phoenix, Dallas and New Orleans) and two from the Eastern Conference (Boston and Detroit).

With 12 straight victories at EnergySolutions Arena and 11 in their last 12 games overall, the 33-19 Jazz are on a roll — especially at home, where they haven't fallen since Dec. 29 vs. Boston.

"We have a tough homecourt advantage," point guard Deron Williams said after the Jazz's 97-87 win over Chicago on Saturday, their final home game before the upcoming NBA All-Star Game break. "Our fans are brutal, and people like to come here and get loud.

"We just have a different confidence," Williams added, "and we play better (at home)."

It's a good thing for the Northwest Division-leading Jazz, too, because in the ridiculously tight Western Conference playoff race every outing is huge.

"Right now," power forward Carlos Boozer said recently, "it's so bunched up, so any game you drop, you can go from fourth to eighth, or third to sixth, or whatever."

HE SAID IT: Bulls interim head coach Jim Boylan on the Jazz: "They have balance, they have toughness. They are scoring a lot of points this year (105.3 per game), which out West you need to do because offensively the teams are pretty high-powered out here."

HE SAID IT II: Bulls guard Thabo Sefolosha on the Jazz: "They've got a great team, they've got a deep team. They have players coming off the bench that bring it every night. They are a hard team to guard."

HOLD THE POPCORN: Back when he was an assistant for then-Jazz head coach Frank Layden in the 1980s, Jazz coach Jerry Sloan watched quite a bit of game film.

Now, he leaves much of the video work to his own assistants — including Layden's son, Scott, and Tyrone Corbin.

"(Frank) said the more you watch film the more negative you become," Sloan said. "I found that out.

"These guys (Scott Layden and Corbin) know every little detail that the team does," added Sloan, who admits to watching only every once in a while, especially after a particularly tough loss. "I watch it, I'm too negative toward my team sometimes — so I try to use that as a guideline to go by."