INQUIRER Sports

HOUSTON, Texas -- Deron Williams scored 22 points and the Utah Jazz defeated Houston 90-84 here Monday to seize a 2-0 lead in their National Basketball Association first-round playoff series.

Turkey's Mehmet Okur added 16 points and 16 points for the Jazz, who also had 13 points from Carlos Boozer in the triumph.

The Jazz, who had the NBA's best home-court record at 37-4, took a pair of road victories and return home for games Thursday and Saturday with a chance to sweep the Rockets out of the playoffs.

"We didn't want to come in and just split. We wanted to come in here and take two," Williams said. "We did a great job of following our game plan."

That strategy involved shutting down Houston playmaker Tracy McGrady and it worked well in the fourth quarter, when he went 0-for-3 from the field and scored only one point, his lone point in the last period of either loss.

"We wanted to shut down McGrady. We're trying to keep fresh bodies on him the whole game, make him settle for jumpers and not take easy shots," Williams said.

McGrady scored a game-high 23 points and contributed 13 rebounds and nine assists but had no impact when it mattered most.

The Rockets shot only 5-of-18 in the final quarter while the Jazz finished the game with a 14-8 run in the final minutes for the margin of victory.

Chinese center Yao Ming, the Rockets All-Star big man sidelined with a broken foot, could only watch in his suit as his teammates struggled in the final minutes.

Houston scored seven points in a row for a 74-71 lead before the Jazz answered with a 10-2 run to claim the lead at 81-76 with five minutes to play.

Utah denied the Rockets any points from the field for more than five minutes before Luis Scola's layup cut the deficit to 81-80 with 3:30 remaining.

Utah's Carlos Boozer sank a jumper with 2:42 remaining to boost Utah ahead 85-80 but Scola sank two free throws, the last of his 14 points, to trim the edge.

The Rockets had a chance to equalize but Scola committed an offensive foul to surrender the ball and Kyle Korver sank a one-handed shot over a defender to boost Utah's lead to 87-82 with 20.2 seconds remaining.

"A lot of guys played well," Utah coach Jerry Sloan said.

Williams scored 13 first-half points in leading Utah to a 47-41 half-time lead despite 16 first-half points by McGrady. Williams fell in the third period and replaced rear padding to protect an injury.

"I have to play through it and keep working," Williams said.