OKLAHOMA CITY — The pulse beats on.
After rallying from a terrible start that had them down by as many as 15 points in the opening half and by 13 early in the third quarter, the Jazz held on Friday night to edge New Orleans/Oklahoma City 105-104 and keep their playoff hopes at least a couple more thumps from heartbreak.
"It keeps us alive," coach Jerry Sloan said of the victory, Utah's fifth straight and eighth in its last 10 games. "Otherwise, we're probably dead."
Or awfully close to it.
Instead, the Jazz moved to within one game of Sacramento — which won the season series and holds tie-breaker honors over Sloan's club — for the eighth and final playoff position in the NBA's Western Conference.
With just three games remaining in their regular season, including a back-to-back set at Dallas on Sunday and at San Antonio on Monday, Utah is now guaranteed to keep its playoff aspirations kicking at least until Sunday.
And it's all because the Jazz, who at 40-39 are above .500 for the first time since falling to 20-20 with Jan. 20 loss at Denver, won a game wrought with the sort of atmosphere they'd love to experience much more.
"Coach came in after," said point guard Deron Williams, who hit the game-winning free throws with 18 seconds left, "and said, 'That's kind of like a playoff game.'"
It sure seemed it, with 27.3 seconds remaining and the Hornets up 104-103.
Utah had outscored New Orleans 33-24 in the third quarter to help get to that point and even led by as many as three at 103-100 with just less than two minutes to go, before two free throws from Speedy Claxton and two more from Desmond Mason put the Hornets up by one.
With a loud sold-out Ford Center crowd of 19,163 collectively on its feet, the Jazz came out of a timeout and ran a play that wound up with Mehmet Okur taking a 3-pointer.
Okur missed, but Williams grabbed the rebound and was fouled by ex-Jazz guard Kirk Snyder.
Williams calmly sank both free throws to put the Jazz up 105-104 with 18 seconds left, making Utah — notoriously bad from the line this season — 8-of-8 on freebies in the final six minutes.
"It's amazing," Sloan said, "how much better you shoot when your concentration is better."
The Jazz could not afford a mental lapse even after that, though — and they did not have one.
After another timeout, this one called by the Hornets, rookie point Chris Paul decided to drive on Williams.
Cognizant that New Orleans/Oklahoma City won its first visit to Utah this season behind two go-ahead free throws from Paul with 25.2 seconds to go, Williams' defensive philosophy this time was simple: "Stay in front of him, try to cause as much disruption without fouling him."
Williams did that and got some help on the backside as well as Andrei Kirilenko slid over to block Paul from behind and register his seventh swat of the game.
"I was afraid of the kick-out pass," Kirilenko said. "Then I see he (Paul) turned his head and he starts going up, so that's why I jump and try to block it."
The Hornets, however, weren't done.
The rebound of Kirilenko's block slipped through Kirilenko's hands and into those of Paul, who called a timeout from the floor with 1.8 seconds remaining.
Paul got the ball again, and this time Williams was in the same place he had been just moments earlier.
"I just tried to stay in front of him and not foul," said Williams, taken one spot ahead of Paul, at No. 3 overall, in last June's NBA draft. "That's how it ended in Salt Lake last time."
This time, it ended with the Jazz getting the last laugh.
Their hopes beat on, while the Hornets' is down to just one: The only way New Orleans/Oklahoma City can get into the playoffs now is by winning its final three games and having both Utah and Sacramento both lose their final three.
"Our guys were excited," Sloan said. "I don't know when I've seen them as excited about playing in a game."
That was evidenced on the stat sheet in the form of double-figure scoring by all five Jazz starters, topped by Kirilenko's team-high 25, Carlos Boozer's 23 and Okur's 20.
More so, though, it was proven by the simple fact Utah refused to fold.
"We showed some heart," forward Matt Harpring said. "We were hustling to get loose balls and helped each other out on the defense."
"I'm very happy we stay as a team," added Kirilenko, who just the other day was complaining about not getting enough touches of the ball in the Jazz offense. "Even when we had a tough stretch in the beginning of the game, we still stayed together and started fighting step-by-step to get back."
And to keep that aforementioned heart going.
No wonder, either.
"It's like anybody," Sloan said. "They like to stay alive a little longer."
E-mail: tbuckley@desnews.com