Playoff bound: Jazz clinch spot in NBA postseason with convincing win over Hornets News Utah Jazz

NEW ORLEANS ? The talk beforehand was all about getting in. Getting out of New Orleans with a victory, that is, and getting back in to the NBA playoffs. The Jazz did just that Sunday night, beating the Hornets 108-94 at sold-out New Orleans Arena to ?

combined with Phoenix's loss to Dallas earlier in the day ? clinch their third consecutive postseason berth. "We saw Phoenix lost, and we could clinch with another loss from them," point guard Deron Williams said. "But we (didn't) want to wait on them." Williams made the point over and over prior to Sunday's game, the start of a three-stop trip for the 47-30 Jazz. So did coach Jerry Sloan, who returned Sunday from his 80-year-old brother Buck's Saturday funeral in Illinois to find a team that had lost three straight and remained in dire need of finally beating a Western Conference contender on the road. Utah, now 15-23 away from home this season, came into the game 0-11 in such situations. "I told them, 'We don't want to back into this thing,'?" Sloan said. "'Let's go out and try to win the ballgame and earn it, rather than ? wait until somebody else (loses).'?" The Jazz ? who remain seventh in the West but avoided falling into a tie with Dallas for the conference's eighth and final playoff spot ? responded with their highest-scoring opening quarter of the season. They led 41-19 after 12 minutes, which is five more than they've scored in any other first quarter ? and just three off their season high for points in a period, reached in the third against Sacramento back in November. Shooting guard Ronnie Brewer scored 12 of his team-high 23 points on 6-of-6 field shooting in Sunday's opening quarter, and center Mehmet Okur added 13 of his 18 ? including two uncharacteristically explosive dunks ? in the first. But it wasn't so much the scoring as what led to it that impressed, and pleased, the Jazz. "Our defense was great," said power forward Carlos Boozer, who contributed a 10-point, 10-rebound double-double. "It was all defense," added Williams, who had 21 points and 12 assists for his team-leading 39th double-double of the season. "I thought that was the best half of Basketball we've played all season. Definitely on the road, but maybe overall. The way we came out ? was big." The Jazz led the 47-29 Hornets by as many as 30 late in the second quarter and by 27 at halftime. "Everybody talks about the slow starts we have and how slow we start in the third quarter," said Brewer, who missed a late-game trey try that would have tied his career high of 26. "But in that first quarter we came out hyped. We were executing our offense; we were getting defensive stops, and that led to easy baskets. We looked really good out there." Even Sloan was happy ? to that point. The third quarter, however, was yet another disaster for Utah ? which recently beat Phoenix and New York despite blowing 20-plus-point leads, and fell Friday to Minnesota after squandering a 15-point advantage. "We went back to our old habits of not defending, of not blocking guys off the board, not finding where they were on the floor ? and it got them back in the game," Sloan said. "We got some easy baskets because we tried to help each other in the first part," he added, "and then we go back ? back to what we've been doing on the road ? not guarding anybody." After yielding 37 in the third and twice seeing its lead trimmed to nine, the Jazz were thinking, "Here we go again." "A big sense of that," Williams said. But backup point Brevin Knight twice pushed Utah's advantage to 11 late in the third, first with a 16-foot jumper and then two free throws. Okur made 1-of-2 from the line early in the fourth, and the Jazz ? who visit Dallas on Wednesday in what amounts to a battle to avoid facing the Los Angeles Lakers in first-round postseason play ? led by double digits the rest of the way. "Fortunately we got back to what we were doing in the first quarter, and that's trying to defend some and execute a little better ? not just take shots," said Sloan, whose Jazz have five games left in their regular season. "We have a tendency at times to (think), 'We have to take shots because I need to score.' "That's not winning Basketball. That's losing games ? and that's why we've lost so many games on the road." That, and play poor D. "We're a team that feeds off our defense," Boozer said, "and for us to win in the playoffs that's how we have to play." ?E-mail: tbuckley@desnews.com