Behind the two veterans, though, the Jazz were able to find new life, staking themselves to a six-point lead entering the fourth quarter and going on to beat the Charlotte Bobcats 105-86 at EnergySolutions Arena, winning the second half 56-35.

"I wasn't concerned, because if they do their job, those two guys know how to execute," Sloan said. "They execute as well as anybody we have on our team because they've been here a long period of time. They know what we're trying to do."

Without Williams, Boozer and Kirilenko, the Jazz were missing a combined 50.8 points, 20.2 rebounds and 15.9 assists from their lineup. They found a way to win Monday as Okur scored 22, Ronnie Brewer 21, Millsap 14, Harpring 10 and Collins 6.

"That's the way this team has been all year long, with guys going out for whatever reason," Collins said, rattling off names. "The list goes on and on, and players have to step up and make plays, and we were able to do that tonight."

The Jazz went into the second half trailing 51-49, but took their first lead as Brewer followed up C.J. Miles' missed jumper to make it 56-55. Brewer scored the Jazz's first 10 points of the third quarter, capped by a three-pointer.

But the Jazz watched Millsap pick up his fourth foul with 8:26 left, followed by Okur, who bumped Raymond Felton on a pick-and-roll. Harpring stepped in at power forward and Collins at center, with the Jazz clinging to a 67-65 lead.

Somehow they found a way to push that lead to 76-70 entering the fourth. It started with Kyle Korver (nine points, 4-for-7 shooting) connecting on a three-pointer with the shot clock expiring, coming after he had missed three of his first four shots.

"It's one of those things right now where I finally feel healthy," Korver said. "I can shoot how I want to shoot again. It's just you have a couple bad shooting games and it seems like when you're not shooting well, those are the games you get all the open looks.

"But I've shot a lot of shots in the last week or so. It's going to come. It wasn't a great shooting night tonight again, but I felt better out there."

Harpring drove on Boris Diaw for a basket and hit a rainbow 21-footer. Ronnie Price, who started in place of Williams, drained a jumper to make it 76-68. Raja Bell, Juwan Howard and Felton all missed shots for Charlotte, which went 6-for-18 in the quarter.

Collins, meanwhile, had scored only 10 points and had two baskets all season before Monday. He was feeling so good in the fourth quarter that he jab stepped and pulled up for a 20-footer over DeSagana Diop to make it 88-74 with 7:29 left.

"It was all in the moment," Collins said. "I don't remember it. It just left my hand and felt good."

The Jazz endured a rocky start -- including a backcourt violation when Brewer inbounded to Price -- but scored 32 points off Charlotte's 24 turnovers and went 26 of 35 at the foul line. Emeka Okafor scored 12 points in the first quarter for the Bobcats but only 15 for the game.

Williams watched from the bench, a bruised quadriceps and swollen knee keeping him from playing. Sloan described the game afterward as a "long night" and mentioned the "whole picture" of a win in such circumstances.

"You've got to just try to keep fighting because you'd hate to let a game slip away from you when you aren't really ready to play," Sloan said, "and when you are shorthanded, I know those things can happen. But you get into coming down the stretch -- we missed the playoffs one year by one game -- and that's really kind of sad ? because I think you should fight for that, someway, somehow."

rsiler@sltrib.com Jazz 105, Bobcats 86

In short ? The Jazz overcome the absences of Deron Williams, Carlos Boozer and Andrei Kirilenko.

Key moment ? The Jazz outscore Charlotte 9-5 to close the third after losing Mehmet Okur and Paul Millsap to foul trouble.