Every once in a while, though, the stars align and a game like tonight's in Denver arrives in midseason. For the Jazz, the opportunity is at hand not only to pull even with their principal Northwest Division rival, but to prove they can win on the road.

After a 5-11 December dropped them out of playoff position in the Western Conference, the Jazz only had to glance at the standings before Wednesday's practice to find themselves trailing the Nuggets (22-15) by a game.

"I was just looking at that. I thought that was crazy," Deron Williams said. "As badly as we've played, the team with the most wins in the West is like 26 and we're right there at 22. You've got to be at least happy with that, that we're not totally out of it and we still have a chance to get back in there."

As long as the Jazz can win the Northwest Division, there is hope. They would be assured of no worse than the No. 4 playoff seed, if not home-court advantage in the first round. It would be the same path that led them to the Western Conference finals last season.

In a scheduling twist, the Jazz and Nuggets have yet to play this season, even though both teams are nearing the halfway point of the schedule. Make no mistake, though, that repeating as division champion is a priority for the Jazz.

"The Northwest Division to me is a big thing, maybe not to everybody else," Ronnie Brewer said. "That's the first step of trying to win a championship - win your division, get a high playoff seed. We've got a long way to go, but I think it's something we can do."

Denver watched as both Allen Iverson and J.R. Smith boiled over in frustration and were ejected in the final minute of Tuesday's loss at Atlanta. A league spokesman said there would be no decision until today about a possible suspension for either player.

The Jazz also view tonight's game as the test of their January turnaround. They can match their longest winning streak of the season with a fifth consecutive victory, and have won six of seven games overall. All six of those victories, however, have come at home.

As formidable as the Jazz have been at home, they have been failures on the road, winning just six of 20 games. For his part, Williams said he wanted to see just what kind of intensity the Jazz could bring to tonight's game.

"You've just got to have more energy on the road," Williams said, "because you don't have your fans behind you and that sort of thing."

Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said the key was staying disciplined on the offense and taking quality shots that would keep Denver from running out on the break. Sloan also didn't want to hear about players getting up for some games more than others.

"I would hope not because they get paid whether they get up or not," Sloan said. "But I would think their job would be important for them to be able to play hard every night."

In reality, tonight's game counts just as much in the standings as the second half of the back-to-back set Friday against the L.A. Clippers. It's just hard to feel that way with the Jazz having two days to look ahead to the Nuggets.

"Every game's big for us right now, just 'cause we dug ourselves in such a hole," Williams said. "This one, there's a little bit extra because it's a team in our division, a team that's a couple games ahead of us but we're still in reach of."

rsiler@sltrib.com