Utah Jazz basketball: Not in our house; Jazz take care of business beating Lakers

Jefferson got off to a good start with eight first-quarter points and had an even stronger finish with 10 in the fourth. The Jazz center, who had to deal with 6-11 Howard, had 18 points, 10 rebounds, four steals and two assists.

By the time he got to the locker room, though, Big Al was already trying to look ahead to Utah's schedule. The Jazz have five of their next six on the road, beginning with Friday's trip to Denver.

"This is only the beginning," Jefferson said. "We happy with it, but we can't celebrate too long. We got to continue to work hard."

The Jazz are hoping their Clipper connection continues to come through as it has. Two of Williams' seven assists were on Foye's 3-pointers.

"We've played a lot of minutes together, especially last year," said Williams, who had 16 points. "We were both on the floor a lot together. It helped."

Williams admitted the win helped boost team morale, too. That's especially the case because so many guys contributed — from Marvin Williams' 11 points, to Gordon Hayward's defense on Bryant and three blocked shots, to young bigs Derrick Favors and Enes Kanter giving big boosts off the bench.

"It's definitely sweet," Mo Williams added. "It was all about us tonight. We needed to get this win and get back on the road."

NOTES: Point guard Earl Watson continues to rehab from knee surgery and has begun playing one-on-one before games. He still hasn't announced a return date. … The Lakers' 1-4 record is the worst in the Western Conference. … The Lakers went 32-for-46 from the charity stripe, marking the most freebies they've ever attempted in a game against the Jazz.

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