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Jazz face Mavericks, continue battle for home-court

Apr 13, 2007 - 3:08 PM Utah (48-30) at Dallas (65-13) 8:30 pm EDT

DALLAS (Ticker) -- With home-court advantage wrapped up, the league-leading Dallas Mavericks rested their stars on Wednesday. The Utah Jazz hope they do it again when the teams face off on Friday.

Holding the NBA's best record, the Mavericks took advantage of their standing, resting their key players in preparation for the postseason in what has proven to be an extremely tough Western Conference.

MVP candidate Dirk Nowitzki and Jerry Stackhouse were given the night off and did not even make the trip to Minnesota on Wednesday. Erick Dampier stayed in Dallas as well and Devin Harris dressed but was given the night off.

But the Dallas reserves were not to be denied as Austin Croshere stepped up and led six Mavericks in double figures in a 105-88 victory over the Timberwolves.

Dallas has four games in six days to close the season, so Mavericks coach Avery Johnson could again rest some his key players.

The Jazz, who already have clinched the Northwest Division, hope that is the case. While it owns the fourth seed in the West, Utah is 1 1/2 games behind Houston (50-29) for the fourth-best record and home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs.

The two teams look to be locked into an opening round matchup.

The Jazz suffered a 115-106 loss to Denver on Wednesday. Matt Harpring netted 31 points off the bench and Deron Williams collected 18 and 14 assists