Jazz continue to win
Carlos Boozer is officially back.
After missing three months due to injuries, the All-Star forward had his most dominant performance yet as he pumped in 20 points and pulled down 17 rebounds.
“He played great,” said point guard Deron Williams. “He hit some big shots down the stretch for us, got some big rebounds down the stretch and he finished the game.”
The Rockets were the latest victim to fall to the streaking Jazz, as Utah pulled away for a 101-94 victory.
Williams also had another huge game for the Jazz and was clutch down the stretch as he scored 10 of his 26 points in the fourth quarter and dished out a game high 14 assists.
After trailing for most of the first half, Utah battled back and was able to take a two-point lead into the intermission, 48-46. The Jazz were aided by multiple second chance opportunities as the 7 foot 6 inch Yao Ming spent much of the first half in foul trouble and the Jazz outrebounded Houston 27-9.
In the second half, Utah erased any thoughts of another sluggish start as their hustle paid off on both ends of the court and propelled them on a 21-10 run. The spurt was capped off by a Mehmet Okur 3-pointer, and gave the Jazz their biggest lead of the game at 13 with 3:18 left in the third.
The Rockets were able to recover slightly, but trailed by seven heading into the final quarter, 75-68.
In the fourth quarter, the game took on a playoff atmosphere – nothing new to these two teams as they have met in the first round of the playoffs each of the past two seasons – as Houston was able to close the gap and eventually tie the game on a jumper by Ming with 4:50 left in the game.
That’s when Williams took over.
The tough-nosed point guard found open man after open man, and when the passing lanes closed up, he drove to the basket himself.
“D-Will hit some huge shots, Memo hit some huge shots … everybody did,” Boozer said. “The great thing about this team is that we can adapt a little bit, we tried to adapt to what they were doing and take what they gave us.”
Despite pulling ahead by six with less than a minute to play, the Rockets were within striking distance after Ron Artest banked in a 3-point attempt with 42 seconds to play to cut the Utah lead to three. Artest led Houston with 25 points on 9-of-19 shooting.
However, on Utah’s next possession, Williams used an ankle-breaking crossover to clear some space and knock down a pull-up jumper with 21.4 left on the clock to effectively seal the victory for the Jazz.
“This is a big game for us, with a team that’s in front of us in the standings,” Williams said. “This was a big one … and now we’ve got a big one on Friday.”
With the win the Jazz pull within a half game of both Portland and Houston, trail division leader Denver by one, and find themselves only two and a half games behind second place San Antonio.
Utah will have a chance to extend the win streak and climb even higher in the standings when they host the Nuggets Friday at 8:30 p.m. on ESPN.
–t.olsen@aggiemail.usu.edu