Now the team that lost everywhere from Miami to Minnesota this season, that went 17-24 on the road with losses to six of the seven worst teams in the Eastern Conference, is flying home as the biggest kings Houston has known since Enron went belly-up.

The Jazz returned to Utah with a 2-0 series lead in their first-round playoff rematch against the Houston Rockets, thanks to a 90-84 victory that was the Jazz's fourth straight at Toyota Center dating to Game 7 of last year's playoffs.

They weathered a near triple-double by Tracy McGrady and once again proved to be the stronger team down the stretch. The foremost question now is how short a series this will prove to be.

Deron Williams led the Jazz with 22 points and five assists while Mehmet Okur had 16 points and 16 rebounds. McGrady finished with 23 points, 13 rebounds and nine assists but is now staring at the seventh first-round exit of his career.

"It was great for us to come out the way we did tonight and not just settle for the one victory," Williams said. "We wanted to get both of them, be greedy, and I thought we did a good job of attacking T-Mac the whole game.

"We've got to go back now and take care of business. We can't just be happy that we're up 2-0 because they've beat us in our arena before this year. They're going to be ready, they're going to be fighting for their life."

The Jazz now will return to EnergySolutions Arena for Games 3 and 4 on Thursday and Saturday. Not only did the Jazz finish an NBA-best 37-4 at home this season, they won 28 of their last 29 home games.

Only 13 teams in NBA history have been able to come back from 2-0 down to win a best-of-seven series, including the Jazz last playoffs against Houston. Three teams have ever dropped the first two games at home and come back to win the series.

Just as they were in Game 7, the Jazz were the stronger team down the stretch. Bobby Jackson missed two free throws with 4:23 left plus two jumpers after that. Williams drove past Jackson for a layup and hit Carlos Boozer for another to make it 85-80.

The Rockets closed with 85-82 but Luis Scola was called for an offensive foul for shoving Andrei Kirilenko. At the other end, Kyle Korver hit the side of the backboard with a turnaround jumper only to watch as Andrei Kirilenko grabbed the rebound.

Kirilenko quickly found Korver, whose 16-footer beat the shot clock and went in with 20.2 seconds left to give the Jazz an 87-82 lead.

McGrady returned with 7:07 to play and Houston trailing 76-75. He had little in the way of a finishing kick, splitting two free throws, dumping a questionable pass to Scola, committing a turnover and missing two jumpers.

Three minutes into the third quarter, McGrady pumped his fist and stared into the crowd after hitting a 19-footer over Ronnie Brewer while drawing contact on the way up. The Jazz switched Kirilenko onto McGrady and the Rockets star promptly hit another jumper.

Even with Shane Battier hitting two three-pointers, the Jazz still went into the fourth quarter leading 69-67. Ronnie Price blocked Aaron Brooks - his eighth block in three NBA seasons - and connected on a three-pointer at the other end.

"We're happy," Williams said. "I told you before it started that we weren't worried about what happened during the season because we had some great road victories.

"We had struggled against the bottom teams and had some bad losses, but we've played some tough games and some people tough and we felt we could do the same thing in the playoffs when the playoffs came and we took care of business these first two games."