Kirilenko, who was yanked after going up for a layup, remained on the floor for a few minutes after the incident. He got up with assistance and hit two free throws to make it 21-6, but exited for X-rays on what is being called a sprained hip.

"I didn't mean to grab the neck," Nowitzki said, "but I just tried to hold him so he doesn't score."

The Jazz had some issues of their own holding the Mavericks so they did not score after the break.

And by the time Kidd — back in Dallas after a recent trade from New Jersey — hit a 3-pointer with nine minutes to go, the Mavs had their first lead of the game at 89-88.

They got it up to three at 92-89 when Kidd knocked down a 23-footer, but Boozer answered with a Williams-fed layup and two subsequent free throws to put Utah ahead to stay with 5:34 remaining.

The Jazz pushed their lead back to as many as 14, and sealed it — after Dallas had managed to get within five — with 6-of-6 free-throw shooting from Kyle Korver in the final 38 seconds.

Utah, in fact, shot 18-of-18 from the line in the last quarter and converted each of its final 18 freebies

"We let them back in the ball game," Sloan said, "because I thought we really got kind of casual running the floor on the defensive end.

"We were fortunate," he added, "that we were able to finish it off."

Especially in light of the start.

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E-mail: tbuckley@desnews.com