Utah Jazz: No pain, no gain — Jazz turn 'dogfight' with Nuggets into impressive blowout

With Denver still fighting for a playoff spot but the Jazz still hoping for homecourt advantage in at least the first round of NBA postseason play, Carlos Boozer gave Nuggets star Carmelo Anthony fair warning.

"I told him, 'We're gonna give you a dogfight,'" Boozer said.

"And we did."

The Jazz beat the Nuggets 124-97 Saturday night at sold-out EnergySolutions Arena, but only after Denver rallied from 16 points down in the opening quarter to go up by one midway through the third.

Boozer, Mehmet Okur and Ronnie Brewer finished with 20 points apiece for Northwest Division-champion Utah, which improved to 53-27 with two games remaining in the regular season — Monday's against Houston, and Wednesday's at defending NBA-champion San Antonio.

Utah also improved its league-best home record to 36-4, with victories in 26 of its last 27 games on its home floor.

The Jazz now have won more games in any season since they went 53-29 in 2000-01, and they're within reach of matching their 55-victory total from the 1999-2000 season.

"I think we're real anxious (to start the playoffs)," Boozer said after Utah finished a four-game stretch against certain or likely Western Conference playoff-bound opponents with victories over San Antonio and New Orleans and a loss at the buzzer on Thursday night at Dallas.

"But we've still got to finish it up strong," Boozer added.

"We're sitting on, what, 53? We'd like to get 55 if we can. It's gonna be a tall task, but we look forward to it."

The Jazz did not get caught looking ahead Saturday night, though, as they dropped 40 first-quarter points on a 48-32 Nuggets club still seeking to secure the West's eighth and final playoff position.

That ties season high for points in an opening quarter for Utah, which went into the second period up by 15.

"We did a great job to start the game defensively," said point guard Deron Williams, who finished with 11 assists and 19 points on 7-of-11 field shooting for his 10th double-double in the Jazz's last 11 games. "We helped each other out, we executed well on offense, and had a pretty good lead, and they crept back in there."