Malone Has Jazz on Move

With the Utah Jazz struggling in a game with playoff seeding implications, Karl Malone took control.

Malone scored 11 of his 31 points in the third quarter and finished with 11 rebounds Saturday night as the Jazz defeated the Dallas Mavericks, 116-103, at Dallas.

“This gives us some momentum going into the playoffs,” Malone said. “When we play Jazz basketball, it’s hard for anyone to beat us.”

The Jazz ended a seven-game losing streak against teams in contention for playoff berths.

Trailing, 42-37, the Jazz went on a 19-0 run that started in the final three minutes of the first half and continued until 9:48 remained in the third quarter. A short jumper by Dallas forward Dirk Nowitzki ended Utah’s run.

The Jazz controlled the game from that point. Malone and forward Donyell Marshall combined for 21 of Utah’s 36 third-quarter points.

Marshall scored 21 points and John Stockton had 15 points and 13 assists.

“The way we’ve been playing, we needed a game like this,” Malone said. “We needed to get back to playing a solid game.”

The Jazz (50-26) moved into sole possession of fourth place in the Western Conference, surging past the Mavericks (49-27) in the battle for home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs. Utah is half a game behind the Lakers.

The Mavericks and Jazz traded elbows and hard fouls throughout, resuming their physical battle of March 26, when the Mavericks won, 98-90, at Salt Lake City in a game that included six technical fouls and two flagrant fouls.

In the first eight minutes Saturday, there were two flagrant fouls and two technicals.

The Mavericks matched the Jazz’s rough style, but struggled at both ends of the court against the Utah guards.

Utah shooting guard Bryon Russell scored 18 points and his backup, John Starks, scored 16.

Boston 102, Washington 100--Antoine Walker had 28 points and 13 rebounds at Washington to help the Celtics move within one game of the last playoff berth in the East.

The Celtics trail the Indiana Pacers by one game. The Celtics have five games left, the Pacers seven.

Denver 98, Vancouver 97--James Posey had 22 points and 11 rebounds and Raef LaFrentz scored 19 points to lead the Nuggets at Denver.

Former USC guard Robert Pack, filling in for injured former Laker point guard Nick Van Exel, had 10 points and 12 assists for the Nuggets.

Houston 110, Atlanta 97--Steve Francis scored 10 of his 28 points in the fourth quarter at Houston as the Rockets extended the Hawks’ road losing streak to 11 games.

Phoenix 102, Cleveland 98--Shawn Marion scored 25 points at Cleveland to help the Suns clinch a playoff berth for the 13th consecutive season.

Detroit 97, Charlotte 92--Jerry Stackhouse scored 30 points and Ben Wallace had a career-high 24 rebounds to lead the Pistons at Charlotte, N.C.

Elden Campbell had 20 points and 12 rebounds for the Hornets, who have lost three in a row and seven of nine.