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By CHARLES ODUM AP Sports Writer
ATLANTA (AP) -- With Utah's lead still close, Deron Williams was already watching the scoreboard for other Western Conference teams.
"I knew the Kings were losing and the Lakers were winning," Williams said after the Jazz beat the Atlanta Hawks 111-101 Friday night. "We've got to check on that stuff. It's important."
Williams kept enough focus on his game to score a career-high 28 points as Utah continued its mastery of Atlanta and stayed close in the playoff race.
The news after the game was even better than Williams expected. The Jazz gained ground on both the Kings and Lakers, who began the night three games ahead of Utah in the race for the last playoff spot in the conference. Indiana beat Sacramento and Los Angeles lost at New Jersey, leaving Utah two games from eighth place.
Williams, a rookie from Illinois who was averaging 9.8 points per game, made four 3-pointers and helped keep the Atlanta defense from collapsing on Mehmet Okur, who had 24 points, and Carlos Boozer, who added 21.
"He played well," Atlanta's Al Harrington said of Williams. "He got all the big shots."
Williams' previous career high was 24 points twice, most recently March 8 against Minnesota. He had scored in single figures in three straight games, shooting a combined 7-for-25, but he showed no signs of a slump against the Hawks. Williams was 11-for-13, including 4-for-4 on 3-pointers.
"He played extremely well," Hawks coach Mike Woodson said. "He didn't play like a rookie."
Utah snapped a three-game losing streak and gave the Hawks their fourth straight loss.
"We needed a win," Williams said. "We're trying to leave this road trip 2-2. We didn't do too well in the state of Florida."
The Jazz lost at Miami and Orlando before visiting Atlanta, and they end the road trip at Memphis on Sunday.
Utah has won seven straight games over the Hawks, including only two by fewer than 12 points. Utah beat the Hawks 95-83 in Salt Lake City on Dec. 7, but the Hawks stayed a little closer this time. The final deficit was Utah's big lead of the game.
Utah led 91-89 when coach Jerry Sloan called a timeout with 8:06 left to play. The Jazz immediately returned to their effective inside game with a basket by Boozer, and the Hawks got no closer than five points of the lead in the final 4 minutes.
Utah outscored Atlanta 54-40 in the paint, a less dominant imbalance than in the December game when the Jazz had a 52-16 advantage.
"We gave up 25 to 30 layups tonight," Woodson said. "You wonder how you're even in the game. We're scoring enough points. We're just not making a commitment on the other end."
Despite trailing 55-54 at halftime, Atlanta stayed close with balanced scoring, led by Joe Johnson's 27 points. Harrington had 19 points, Josh Smith scored 18 and Zaza Pachulia added 17 points and 12 rebounds.
"It was pretty much like a shootout," Harrington said. "We never had two stops in a row."
Salim Stoudamire had 10 points off the bench for the Hawks.
"When we started the ball game it looked like a lay-up drill, the way they drove around us and over the top of the basket," Sloan said. "For some reason this lineup hasn't been real productive on the defensive end of the floor."
But the Jazz had more than enough offense to answer the challenge.
Utah was held under 90 points in three of its last four losses and is only 3-11 on the road this season when scoring in the 80s. The Jazz hit that mark in only three periods Friday night, taking an 85-78 lead into the final period.
Okur was the major reason for the offensive resurgence. Okur made 6 of 6 shots while scoring 13 points in the second period.
Notes:@ Hawks G Josh Childress returned after missing five games with a sprained ankle. ... The Hawks' last win over the Jazz came on Oct. 31, 2002. ... Andrei Kirilenko had 18 points, including 11 in the first period, for Utah. ... The teams combined to make 8 of 11 3-point shots in the opening period.
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) APTV-03-17-06 2033MST
