SALT LAKE CITY — It was only appropriate that the Utah Jazz won on a rebound.

Carlos Boozer turned his 20th rebound into the tiebreaking basket with 17 seconds left, and Utah beat the Golden State Warriors, 116-112, last night in the opener of the Western Conference semifinals.

Utah outrebounded the Warriors 54-36, pulling down 20 on offense to overcome the Warriors' frantic attack while rallying to win at the end.

"We've always been a pretty good offensive rebounding team if we take decent shots and get our big people inside on the shots," Utah coach Jerry Sloan said. "It certainly worked that way tonight."

Boozer had 17 points to go with his 20 rebounds, Deron Williams finished with 31 points and eight assists and Andrei Kirilenko blocked seven shots for the Jazz, who will host Game 2 tomorrow.

The Jazz were playing just two nights after beating Houston in Game 7 of the first round and had enough stamina to outlast the Warriors.

"We just played hard," Williams said. "We didn't play our best game by any means."

That was true of both teams, although nobody was complaining after the thrilling finish.

The game was tied at 112 when Mehmet Okur tried a 3-pointer from the corner for Utah. It bounced off the rim and right to Boozer, who banked it in to break the 20th tie of the game.

Stephen Jackson tried to put the Warriors back ahead with a 3-pointer, but it was short and Matt Harpring ended up with the rebound after a scrum in the lane. Harpring made both foul shots and the Warriors didn't have time to make up the deficit.

"We can play better than we played tonight but we didn't play poorly, that's for sure," Golden State coach Don Nelson said. "The Jazz won the game. It was a good win for them and we'll have to go back to the blackboard and reassess what we need to do."

Okur had 21 points and 11 rebounds for Utah, which is in the second round for the first time since 2000.

"We fought a lot over the last series, showed we can fight and stay with anyone in this league," Williams said. "We showed a lot of composure, down 2-0 last series and got over that."

Baron Davis led Golden State with 24 points and seven assists. Jason Richardson scored 10 of his 21 points in the fourth quarter, but no other Warrior had more than five points over the final period.

Al Harrington also scored 21 — 15 more points than the rest of the Warriors' reserves.

"If you watch Utah, they run the lanes well. They cross well. Utah plays fast," said Jackson, who finished with 16 points. "We took them out of a lot of their stuff, but they made adjustments."

Golden State led at halftime and the end of the third quarter, but was 8 for 20 in the fourth quarter and couldn't hold off the Jazz.

Utah played without guard Derek Fisher, who was excused from the game because of a health problem with one of his children. The Jazz won without their most experienced player, who was traded to Utah from the Warriors last summer.

"Hopefully we'll have him back. He's a big part of this team," Harping said.