Utah Jazz now involved in 4-team division race

When it comes to the newly wild division that is the NBA's Northwest, Deron Williams doesn't venture very far on the limb.

In fact, the Jazz point guard offers only this mostly unsolicited prediction: "I guarantee you one thing: We won't get fifth," he joked.

Thank the punchline Minnesota Timberwolves for that.

But seriously ... Tonight's visit to EnergySolutions Arena by the Northwest's Portland Trail Blazers serves as a not-so-gentle reminder that even just a month into the ridiculously long NBA season, the division already is starting to get away from the Jazz.

Glance at the standings Friday in the morning paper, on the Internet, atop the PDA, inside the UFO — wherever it is folks peruse standings these days — and it might have surprised some to see 8-7 Utah clinging to a third-place tie in the Northwest with Oklahoma City behind Denver and Portland.

"Yeah, that's crazy to us because we feel like our potential is so much higher," power forward Carlos Boozer said. "But that's the great thing about it, is it's still a young season. ... For us, we have the whole season to look forward to climb up that ladder."

"It's tough. We're in a tough division now," Williams added. "A couple of years ago it was just a two-team division. Now it's a four-team division."

Gone are the days when Utah or Denver — one of the two has taken the division each of the past four years — is a lock to win the Northwest and its automatic playoff berth.

"Oklahoma City is now a legitimately good team, Portland's been a good team, Denver's obviously been our rival and we've been right there, too," Boozer said. "So, our division's gotten a lot better."

The Jazz, in fact, have started 0-2 in Northwest games this season with losses to Denver in their opener and to Oklahoma City last Tuesday night.

The latter really riled coach Jerry Sloan, who thought his club squandered an important opportunity.

He doesn't care that beyond a hat, a T-shirt and perhaps a banner for the building, the only true reward for winning the division is that guaranteed trip to postseason play — even if the winner's record is worse than eight other non-division Western Conference opponents.

"You look at the standings, (a division loss) separates you real quick," Sloan said.

But, he added, "I can't do anything about (Denver's and Portland's early success). The only thing I can do is try to get our guys to try to play as well as we can."

With the exception of Tuesday's debacle with the Thunder, the Jazz have been doing that lately.