.During the 2007-08 season, after a trade that sent disgruntled shooting guard Gordan Giricek to the Philadelphia 76ers in exchange for Kyle Korver, the Jazz ran off a record-tying 19 game home winning streak and improved on the road after a rough December. Despite the offseason controversy and trade talk, Kirilenko elevated his play, improving all stats from the previous season and seeming content with his new role more as a defender and a facilitator as opposed to a scorer. Carlos Boozer again won an All-Star selection, while Deron Williams continued to elevate his play, averaging 13.3 assists per game in March (as opposed to 10.5 for the season as a whole). The Jazz finished the regular season 5th best in the west with a 54-28 record. That included a 37-4 home record, but they did not have a good year on the road going 17-24, which included two defeats against the Minnesota Timberwolves (22-60) and a loss against the league worst Miami Heat (15-67). They also sold out all 41 home games for the first time since the 1997-98 season. They won their division, giving them the no. 4 seed in the playoffs. Once again, they faced 5th seeded Houston in the opening round of the playoffs with the Rockets (55-27) having homecourt advantage over the Jazz (54-28). The Jazz struck first with a 93-82 defeat of the host Rockets in Game 1, followed by another victory of 90-84 to give them a 2-0 edge returning to Salt Lake City. In Game 3 The Rockets quickly rebounded with a rare win in Salt Lake, but was halted after another Utah win on April 26th to put the Jazz up 3-1 in the series. However, the Jazz suffered a staggering loss in Game 5 in Houston, 95-69. The Jazz countered this embarrassing defeat by dealing the Rockets a 22-point blow that effectively gave them the series-clinching victory, 113-91 thus eliminating the Rockets for the second time in as many years.

Utah faced the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 1 of The 2008 NBA Western Conference Semi-Finals which began on May 4th at Staples Center. It was the first time these two franchises had competed in a post-season series since the 1998 Western Conference Finals, which the Jazz handed the Lakers their first-ever 4 game sweep in that clubs' history. Four individuals from that series were present in this one: Laker players Kobe Bryant and Derek Fisher, and Utah Head Coach Jerry Sloan and Assistant Coach Phil Johnson. Conversely, it was also the first playoff series meeting between Coach Sloan, and Lakers' Head Coach Phil Jackson since the Chicago Bulls defeated the Jazz in the NBA Finals that same year, 4 games to 2. Utah lost game 1 and game 2 in Los Angeles. However the Jazz held up their great home winning record by defeating Los Angeles in Games 3 and 4. The Jazz lost game 5 in L.A. and were eventually eliminated in Game 6 at home - a game where they trailed by as much as 19 in the second half, only to come back in the last two minutes. Their season ended with two desperate 3-point attempts by Mehmet Okur and Deron Williams as time expired that would have sent the game to overtime.