Utah Jazz hit All-Star break flying high

Even after they lost Sunday to Golden State, Jerry Sloan sensed his Jazz would be up for what was to come.

Were they ever.

In a flash back to their second-round playoff series last May, Utah and the Los Angeles Lakers tangled Wednesday night in a regular-season outing — the last for both teams before the NBA All-Star Game break — played amid a raucous atmosphere that more than one in the Jazz lockerroom simply described as "fun."

Sloan enjoyed watching his Jazz hold on to beat Kobe Bryant and the 42-10 Lakers 113-109 at sold-out EnergySolutions Arena.

"It was a big win, and I thought our guys played extremely well," the Jazz coach said after his 30-23 team — combined with Phoenix's loss to Cleveland — made it to the break with a one-game hold on the Western Conference's eight and final playoff position.

"We made maybe a couple mistakes, but we held our composure."

They needed to.

Because All-Star Bryant had a game-high 37 points for the league-leading Lakers, who came in having won both seven in a row overall and seven straight on the road, and his strip steal from Kyle Korver under the basket led to a layup that tied the game at 107 with one minute and two seconds to go.

That combined with the Jazz missing 8-of-12 free throws in the final 6:52, including 3-of-3 by point guard Deron Williams in the last 25.1 seconds alone, did not make things easy for Sloan's club.

But Mehmet Okur's 3-pointer with 48.8 seconds left broke the tie and put Utah up 110-107, and that together with the freebies Williams did hit down the stretch allowed the Jazz to go into the break having won five of their last seven games.

"I was pleased," said Sloan, whose Jazz lost to the Lakers

in that 2008 series, "with the fact they didn't give up."

For that, credit goes all around.

Williams made 12-of-17 from the field and scored a team-high 31 points, his fifth consecutive game with 30-plus — the first time a Jazz player has done that since Karl Malone had six straight in 1997.

Starting small forward C.J. Miles played more than he ever has on Bryant, and did a commendable job leading the Jazz defense on a player Sloan called "great."