If the Jazz are to have a chance of the same, Williams suggested, they must more consistently display the sort of defensive effort they have in their last two outings.

Utah has yielded just 130 points since Friday — a Jazz opponent season-low 64 in a 26-point win over San Antonio, and a Hornets season-low 66 in an 11-point victory at New Orleans.

The Hornets' 66, incidentally, is just one point more than that franchise's record low — and came in a game in which the Jazz scored a season-low 77 of their own.

That includes just nine Jazz points during a fourth quarter in which New Orleans, whose five-game overall win streak also came to a close, cut a 20-point Utah lead early in the final period to nine in the game's final minute.

"I'm looking to see how we respond (tonight), and if we come out with that same defensive mentality," said Williams, who still regrets the fact that the Jazz lost at New Jersey one night after knocking off the NBA-leading Boston Celtics. "You know, we've had games where we come out and we share the ball well, we play defense well — and then the next game it's like we forget all about it, forget what made us successful.

"So as long as we just remember what happened the last two games: We did it with defense. Obviously we didn't even need the offense to win (Tuesday). It was terrible."

Teammate Carlos Boozer expressed similar sentiments after Tuesday's victory, the Jazz's third over a New Orleans club that has not lost three times to any other opponent this season.

"We're trying to get sharpened for the playoffs," he said.

"If we can play defense like this and like the way we played against San Antonio," Boozer added, "we're gonna have some more wins."

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E-mail: tbuckley@desnews.com