When in doubt, feed the beast.

That's what the Jazz figured Monday night, and it worked as Carlos Boozer scored a career-high 41 points — 20 in the third quarter — to lead Utah to a 103-97 win over Washington at sold-out EnergySolutions Arena.

The Northwest Division-leading Jazz were down by as many as 11 points late in the opening half, and went into the break trailing 51-43 to a now 37-32 Wizards team that was playing for the final time on a brutal five-games-in-seven nights Western road trip.

But Boozer got going after halftime and, once he did, there was virtually nothing that could stop him — or that could prevent Utah (46-24) from winning for the sixth straight time at home and third time in its last four games overall.

As a result, the Jazz — despite their a terribly slow start — maintained their lead over Houston at 1.5 games for homecourt advantage in a potential 4-5 seeds first-round Western Conference playoff series and, moreover, reduced to two their magic number for clinching a division championship over second-place Denver.

"We struggled a lot in the first half. We didn't get up and down. It seemed like we were a little sluggish. But things picked up in the second half," said point guard Deron Williams, who dished a game-high 13 assists — six of them to Boozer. "Booz came alive in the second half, and just took over the game for us. He was just a monster."

Utah's leading scorer and rebounder this season scored 19 of his third-period points in the final seven minutes and nine seconds of the quarter, helping the Jazz briefly tie the game at 64 and go into the fourth down just one at 71-70.

His first basket in the final quarter was a thunderous Williams-fed dunk over Wizards All-Star Gilbert Arenas, but perhaps his biggest play of the fourth was an assist he gave to Matt Harpring for a layup that made it 94-91 Jazz.

"They were paying a lot of attention to him," Williams said, "so when the double-team came, he dumped it off. It's a good basketball play."

So was a drive to the basket from Mehmet Okur that drew a foul from Etan Thomas and afforded the two free throws Okur hit to put Utah ahead for good at 94-96 with 1:15 to go.

Starting shooting guard Derek Fisher hit a 3-pointer 17 seconds after the first time he checked into the game in the fourth quarter to give the Jazz an added cushion, then — a second after Antawn Jamison made it a two-point game at 99-97 with 16.9 seconds remaining — he hit two free throws for a bit more breathing room.

"That was a huge shot. A huge shot," Williams said of the trey from Fisher, who hit just 2-of-10 from the field. "He had been on the bench the whole fourth quarter, and for him to have that confidence to come in and step up as soon as he got in the game was huge for us."

But no one on Monday was bigger than Boozer, whose scoring effort marked the Jazz's first 40-point game since Karl Malone delivered one against Orlando in March of 2003.

"I was in a zone," Boozer said, "and Willie (Williams) kept coming to me."

Boozer, go figure, added the Jazz's final two points on freebies to finish 15-of-21 from the field and 11-of-14 from the free-throw line. He also pulled down 16 rebounds, including nine in the third quarter alone, to notch his team-high 43rd double-double of the season.

"We knew who had the hot hand, so we weren't gonna try to go away from that," Williams said. "You know, he was hitting most every shot he took. When a guy's that hot, you've got to give him the ball."

"Keep feeding him," added Boozer's backup, rookie Paul Millsap. "That was our main focus."

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It was, especially after the break, when Boozer came out firing.

So just what was it that him going?

Said Millsap: "It was probably that burrito he had."


E-mail: tbuckley@desnews.com

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