Utah Jazz down Nuggets 117-106, lead series 3-1

SALT LAKE CITY — After nabbing Game 2 in Denver, the last thing the Jazz wanted to do was get robbed at home themselves.

No worries there.

Utah took Game 4 Sunday night at EnergySolutions Arena, beating the Nuggets 117-106 to take a 3-1 lead with three straight victories in the first-round NBA Western Conference playoff series.

Two nights after backup power forward Paul Millsap carried Utah early on in a blowout Game 3 win, starting power forward Carlos Boozer took center stage Sunday, scoring a team-high 31 points and pulling down a game-high 13 rebounds.

Deron Williams added 24 points and 13 assists, C.J. Miles 21 points, rookie Wesley Matthews 18 and Millsap 12 off the bench for the Jazz, who were undefeated (17-0) in the regular season when scoring 110 or more on their own floor.

"Carlos do what he do. That's what he do," Millsap said. "He steps up, especially when it counts. I mean, that's who he is."

"He shot the ball, he was terrific. He may have gotten a little bit tired because I had to extend him a little bit longer than I had anticipated, but he sucked it up and had a terrific game," Jazz coach Jerry Sloan added. "A lot of guys played well — Deron, C.J. Miles made some big shots and some big free throws in the ball game that was really critical for us keeping our lead."

The No. 5 seed Jazz can close out the best-of-seven series with a win Wednesday night in Denver, with Game 6 — if needed — scheduled for Friday night back at EnergySolutions.

And if it's not needed, either Oklahoma City or the defending NBA-champion Los Angeles Lakers will await.

Not that the Jazz are thinking that far ahead just yet.

"We're putting ourselves in a good position to win the series," Williams said. "Steal one on the road; that's what we want to do."

One more, that is.

"But the series isn't over," Williams added. "We still got to get ready to play."

The Jazz will head to Denver, however, feeling awfully good about the ability of their stars to carry them.

"In the playoffs the majority of the time most of your plays don't work and you're going to go to the pick-and-roll and to isos, and that's Deron (Williams) and Booz (Boozer) for us," shooting guard Kyle Korver added. "We always kind of play off them. When both of them play like they did tonight, we are pretty tough to guard."