Utah Jazz: There's no place like home for Jazz

They don't have a road victory over any of the NBA Western Conference's other top nine.

But the Jazz sure do have a good thing going at home, especially after an evening full of playoff-race implications not only for Utah but also the rest of the West.

The Jazz used a 19-point, 12-assist double from point guard Deron Williams to help beat the Houston Rockets 99-86 in a late-starting, TNT-televised game Tuesday night, extending their string of consecutive victories at EnergySolutions Arena to 13.

It was the third straight victory overall for Utah, which with 12 games remaining in the season remains sixth in the Western Conference and second behind Denver in the Northwest Division.

"That was a huge win for us," said power forward Carlos Boozer, who with 13 points joined Williams, Ronnie Brewer (17), Paul Millsap (15) and Mehmet Okur (12) in double figures. "You know, they're a very good team — and we were looking forward to this game.

"Every win right now counts," Boozer added. "It's huge in the Western Conference for us."

The 44-26 Jazz finished their season series tied at 2-2 with Houston, which — combined with a San Antonio win over Golden State on Tuesday — slipped from second to third in the West behind the Spurs and the conference-leading Los Angeles Lakers.

Beyond that, the 47-26 Rockets didn't just see their four-game overall and four-game road win streaks come to a close.

They also lost their grip on first place in the Southwest Division, leaving spots two through eight in the Western Conference race up for grabs with less than a month to go before postseason play gets under way.

All that leaves the Jazz, who finish a back-to-back set tonight at Phoenix, still with legit hope for securing homecourt advantage for at least the first round of the playoffs.

Moreover, it sets up a potential 3-6 seed playoff meeting for Houston and Utah — which would mark the third straight opening-round postseason series between the Jazz, who took each of the first two, and the Rockets.

Most of those games, much like Tuesday's, have gone late with the outcome at least somewhat in doubt.

"We kept 'em to a very low percentage (34.8) shooting," Boozer said. "I thought we did a great job of helping each other defensively, making them work for every shot that they did make. . . . Then we did a great job of executing down the stretch."