Salt Lake City, UT (Best E Casino) - Deron Williams scored 13 of his 25 points during the pivotal third quarter, leading Utah into the second round of the playoffs with a 113-91 victory over the Houston Rockets.

Williams also had nine assists, and Mehmet Okur tallied 19 points and 13 rebounds for the Jazz, who won their Western Conference quarterfinal series, 4-2, and will face the top-seeded Lakers in the next round. Game 1 is Sunday afternoon in Los Angeles.

"One of the teams picked to win it all," Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said of the Lakers. "We're going to have our hands full knowing we've got to go to their place right off the bat. We have to go play and focus on helping each other and try to play together. We'll see what we have."

Tracy McGrady had 40 points and 10 rebounds for Houston. He has never been out of the first round in seven trips to the playoffs - once with Toronto, three times with Orlando and Houston.

"Out of those seven I've probably been favored to win one time, if that," McGrady said. "It doesn't really wow me. I'm eager to get out, that's for damn sure, but I'm not going to let it hold me back."

This marked the second straight year the Jazz beat the Rockets in the playoffs. Houston also lost its seventh straight playoff series, last advancing past the first round when the Rockets were beaten by Utah in the 1997 West finals.

The Rockets lost the services of point guard Rafer Alston due to a sprained right ankle in the first half and McGrady was forced to try and carry the load, although he was held scoreless in a lopsided third quarter when the Jazz outscored Houston, 27-11.

The Rockets fell behind by as many as 19 in the first half of Game 6, but rallied to cut the deficit one and trailed 58-54 at the intermission. Williams then lit up the Rockets by making 4-of-5 three-pointers in the third.

Bobby Jackson's three-ball had Houston within 65-59 with 9:11 left in the period, but an Okur three-point play followed by three consecutive long- distance shots and a free throw - all from Williams - moved the lead to 78-59 with 4:06 left.

"We had games all series where we had 14-point leads, 15-point leads and they came back and the same thing tonight," Williams said. "It was a little frustrating and I wanted to try and open the game back up and I just got hot. Shots started feeling good so I just let it go."

A three from Ronnie Brewer extended the margin to 85-65 going into the fourth and the Jazz coasted from there. Houston never got close to cutting its deficit under double digits and McGrady exited with 3:05 left when the Jazz were up 108-85.

Carlos Boozer had 15 points and 10 rebounds for Utah, which also got 13 points from Brewer and 11 from Andrei Kirilenko.

The Jazz scored seven in a row for a 22-11 lead, and a three-ball from Kirilenko had Utah ahead 32-22 going into the second.

The Rockets were feisty in the second after falling behind 46-27 after Utah's Kyle Korver nailed a three with 7:23 left.

Alston was hurt going in for a layup and immediately hobbled off the court with 5:10 left in the second quarter.

Jackson's jumper capped a string of nine straight Houston points for a 55-54 deficit inside of a minute left, but Williams nailed a three in the waning seconds of the half.

McGrady had 28 points in the first half.

"He (McGrady) didn't have much help out there," Houston's Shane Battier said. "He was great and he's not the reason why we lost this game. The rest of us couldn't get anything going and he was a one-man wrecking ball out there; he kept us in the game. If he didn't do what he did in the first half it would have been even uglier."

Game Notes

The Lakers beat Utah in three of the four meetings this season. The last time the teams met in the postseason was in 1998 when the Jazz swept the Western Conference finals before losing to Chicago in the NBA Finals...Korver and Matt Harpring each had 10 points for Utah...Luis Scola scored 15 for Houston, which shot 39 percent from the field...The Jazz had five turnovers, a playoff franchise-low, to nine for Houston...Williams went 6-of-9 from the three-point line.