"It did look like their bracket was easier," Jackson said, referring to Golden State's upset of top-seeded Dallas, "but any time a young team like that gets experience in the playoffs, they're really going to value that input that they get.

"It's taught their players how to be resilient, it's taught them how to play through situations, it's taught them what playoff basketball's like, which is maybe two or three times more difficult than the regular season."

Jackson was asked Wednesday if he believed at the start of the season the Jazz were a true championship contender or a team that benefited last playoffs from the Warriors' upset of a 67-win Mavericks team.

One of Jackson's beliefs is that teams don't skip steps in the progression to a title. The Jazz were able to reach the conference finals after not even qualifying for the playoffs in 2006. Did they skip a step somewhere along the way?

"Perhaps," Jackson said, "but you get what you deserve in this game. Golden State pulled an upset off Dallas and the result was that the Jazz were a better team than the Warriors were last year at that particular time and so they deserved to win.

"From that standpoint, they were in the championship bracket because they deserved to be there."

Let's talk

The Bulls contacted Jazz general manager Kevin O'Connor on Tuesday and requested permission to speak with assistant Tyrone Corbin about their coaching vacancy. Corbin will wait and see what happens in the playoffs before possibly interviewing.

With Mike D'Antoni having chosen New York over Chicago, the Bulls have moved on to a long list of candidates, of which Corbin is one, according to the Chicago Tribune. Other candidates reportedly include the Lakers' Brian Shaw, Boston's Tom Thibodeau and Detroit's Michael Curry.

The Jazz would not stand in the way of an assistant interviewing between playoff rounds but would want to assess the strength of interest as well as the hiring timetable of the prospective team.

Low road

Although they were able to win Games 1 and 2 at Houston in the first round, the Jazz have watched as the home team came into Wednesday having gone 17-1 in the conference semifinals.

"That's what you tell players in the beginning of the year, you want to finish as high as you can to have home-court advantage," Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said. "It seems to be very apparent that that's the thing right now."

rsiler@sltrib.com