Meltdown averted again News Portland Trail Blazers

It's almost a shame they spend so much effort and energy building them, because lately the Jazz keep giving away their twenty-something-point leads ? only to rebound and win anyway. It happened last Saturday, when Utah was up by 21 on Phoenix ? but still had to go to overtime before beating the Suns.

And it happened again Monday night, when the Jazz beat New York 112-104 ? but only after seeing a 24-point advantage from the third quarter vanish as 19,911 at EnergySolutions Arena watched in disbelief. "We gave away a big lead," power forward Carlos Boozer said, "and that's something we don't want to get into a habit of." Certainly not with just nine games remaining in their 2008-09 NBA regular season, and Utah now within striking distance ? just one-and-a-half games back ? of Denver for first place in the Northwest Division. Because they did not succumb Monday, and won for a 15th straight time at home, the 46-27 Jazz moved into a tie with Portland for fifth in the Western Conference. Utah also is tied now with Portland for second in the Northwest, with a road showdown against the Trail Blazers scheduled for tonight. "Big games," Boozer said. "We have an opportunity to win our division, and for us that's what we want." Yet they the Jazz ? who did get a 24-point, 13-assist double-double from point guard Deron Williams ? haven't exactly been getting all they want lately. They were up 70-46 after a Ronnie Brewer free throw in the first minute of Monday's third quarter, but ? thanks mostly to their own misdeeds ? found themselves down 93-92 with 7:05 left in the fourth. And it wasn't without warning. "Told them at halftime: 'You have to come out and execute your offense, and try to make some stops on the defensive end,' " Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said. "None of that really happened. "It got 'em right back in the ballgame, and then, when it got down to nut-cracking time, we had to defend better ... and we had to execute." A Williams layup put the Jazz ahead to stay at 94-93, and Utah protected its lead from there. But it was a turnover by Williams that led to two Nate Robinson free throws and gave the Knicks their brief one-point lead. "It wasn't a good quarter for us," said Williams, whose double-double was his team-high 36th of the season. "It's tough when we get up 20 on a team at home." It's equally easy, however, to ascertain how that advantage evaporated so quickly. It was ? again ? poor shot selection and even-worse defense that hampered the Jazz. "We took a lot of jump shots," Boozer said, "and missed our shots. "So, we have to do a little better job of getting the ball inside, and executing our offense like we did (later) in the fourth quarter," he added. "We just have to do a better job defensively when we're not making shots. ... Sometimes we have a bad habit of missing shots and not playing defense." Especially against teams like the Knicks, whose run-and-gun offense is now overseen by ex-Suns coach Mike D'Antoni. "They play very similar (to Phoenix)," Brewer said. "The system that they run ? if you miss a couple shots and they fastbreak and hit 3s, that lead's gonna (dwindle) real fast." It did, which did nothing to make Sloan happy about Utah's second straight win and fifth in its last six outings. "We just stood around, and didn't execute the offense," he said. "There's a difference between moving on it, and just kind of flapping around. "Anytime one guy comes just half-speed when you're trying to execute a play that's kind of a timing thing ... they jam you up, and then you don't have anything off of it, and you have to throw the ball back out, and you're back over to square one. That's stupid Basketball." Western playoff race 1. Lakers 58 15 ? 2. Spurs 48 25 10 3. Nuggets 48 26 101/2 4. Rockets 48 26 101/2 5. Jazz46 27 12 6. Trail Blazers 46 27 12 7. Hornets 45 27 121/2 8. Mavericks 43 30 15 9. Suns 40 34 181/2 EMAIL: tbuckley@desnews.com