DENVER, April 2 (Ticker) -- Juwan Howard scored 12 points in the third quarter and James Posey 10 in the fourth as the Denver Nuggets rallied for a 98-90 victory over the Utah Jazz.

The Nuggets trailed by six points at halftime, but Howard's big third quarter enabled them to take a six-point lead entering the fourth.

A pair of foul shots by John Amaechi brought the Jazz within four points early in the fourth before the Nuggets went on a 13-0 run, capped by a basket by Voshon Lenard with 7:40 left that made it 82-65. Lenard had seven points in the burst.

The Jazz got within 91-84 on a 3-pointer by John Stockton, but Lenard restored control with a shot from beyond the arc with 1:48 to play.

NBA TV highlights from Jazz-Nuggets: 56k | 300k Zendon Hamilton and Kenny Satterfield had reason to celebrate after upsetting their regional rivals. William R. Sallaz NBAE/Getty Images

Calbert Cheaney tallied 17 points and Lenard 13 for the Nuggets, who won for the first time in four meetings with the Jazz this season.

"Everybody played well, top to bottom," Cheaney said. "They made a nice little run, we played a little tentative down the stretch. We tried to run the clock down instead of scoring. They're such a good half-court offensive team, but we did such a good job on defense, especially keeping ourselves between them and the basket because they cut so well. If they had put up a lot of tough shots, we're doing our job on defense."

Both teams shot 49 percent, but the Nuggets connected on 56 percent from 3-point range (5-of-9) and limited the Jazz to just 14 percent from the arc (1-of-7).

Denver, which shot just 39 percent (13-of-33) in the first half, connected on 56 percent (22-of-39) over the final two quarters.

"We shot the ball pretty well in the second half, Juwan came in and hit some big baskets for us," Nuggets coach Mike Evans said. "I thought we could win this one with the defense we were playing but we weren't playing real smart ball tonight. Both teams struggled to score at times tonight."

Stockton had 19 points -- 17 in the fourth quarter -- and 11 assists and Karl Malone chipped in 15 and 11 rebounds for Utah, which still has a four-game lead over Utah for the West's final playoff spot with eight games remaining. The Jazz host the Clippers on Wednesday.

"I don't feel like we gave the effort to win," Malone said. "They did everything to win the ball game and they deserved it. We didn't do anything. It's a team effort. Loose balls, anytime the ball bounces around and nobody won't even go after it. It's a team thing."

The Jazz committed 28 turnovers -- one shy of their season high -- and missed 11 layups in the loss.

"Some of the passes we threw were awful," Stockton said. "Some of the attempts to catch it were awful. All that points to concentration and intensity at the start of the game. We still have to try do things the way we do them to give us a chance. It seems so simple to have the concentration to play every night."

"Doesn't make a difference who you play against, you got to still do what we have to do to be able to have a chance to win," Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said. "Otherwise we can't beat anybody in basketball. That's a given. Twenty-eight turnovers, 11 layups, how do you expect to win? Doesn't make a difference what the other does."