What has been troublesome, at least as this season has taken shape, has been Utah's defense and its ability to get key stops when it matters the most.

And that's why the Jazz's 98-87 Monday night win over the Milwaukee Bucks can be looked at as a special one should Utah continue its recent resurgence and win the Northwest Division.

For the Jazz, this may have been their best defensive performance of the year. They held the Bucks to 15 points in the fourth quarter. More impressively, Milwaukee, normally a good shooting team, went an anemic 2 for 18 from the field in the final period. And it was more than enough for Utah to pull away behind the play of Deron Williams.

"This was a grind it out kind of game," Jazz forward Carlos Boozer said."We thought we played pretty good defense in the first three quarters, but obviously we did a better job of it in the fourth quarter. We want to get to the point where we can put together four minute stretches of great defense. We did that tonight."

The Jazz did that and more. Utah didn't roll out any elaborate schemes on Monday night. What the Jazz did, more than they had in the past, was rotate when they were beaten off the dribble. They were good at stopping initial dribble penetration, they forced turnovers and they were adept at limiting Milwaukee to one shot.

As a result, the Bucks found themselves taking a ton of jump shots that were heavily guarded. Their shooting percentages suffered because of it. A historically good shooting team from beyond the three-point arc, Milwaukee shot just 5 of 18 from that range over the course of the game. Maurice Williams, the Bucks point guard who was effective in the first three periods, scored just four points in the final quarter. Leading scorer Michael Redd, the same Redd who lit Utah up for 57 points just a season ago, was held to 16 points on 4-for-10 shooting.

Paul Millsap and Kyle Korver had a lot to do with that. Millsap was active with his hands, stout on the defensive glass and played a huge role in creating loose balls. Korver, known strictly as a shooter, chased Redd around for most quarter and harassed him into taking contested jumpers.

"It was definitely a big accomplishment to hold them to 2-17 from the field in the fourth quarter," Millsap said. "It just shows how good our defense really was in the fourth quarter to stop them and get them out of their plays. Like I said, that is where we've been lacking the whole season, in the fourth quarter, coming out and playing hard defense. As long as we keep that up, we're good."