EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Coming off
an embarrassing loss at home to Minnesota two days ago, the Utah Jazz
weren't about to start a long road trip by letting the NBA's weakest
team get the better of them.
Deron Williams and Carlos Boozer
recorded double-doubles, and the Jazz added to New Jersey's woes,
beating the hapless Nets 108-92 on Wednesday night.
Williams had 20 points and 14
assists, while Boozer added 26 points and 10 rebounds as the Jazz won
for the eighth time in 11 games and handed the Nets (2-24) their fifth
straight loss.
"We're happy to get the first win of
the road trip," Boozer said. "We learned our lesson the other night
against Minnesota. Nothing against them, but they took it to us and won
the game. We made the mistake by not being prepared for Minnesota. We
knew we had to get this road trip off to a good start. Hopefully, we
learned our lesson facing a desperate team desperate for a win."
Williams said the Jazz didn't need a team meeting to clear the air.
"We had some tough losses this year,
but this one [to Minnesota] was tough," he said. "We didn't want to
start the road trip off bad. We had to come out and play like we could
play. When they made a run, it was a little bit of, 'Here we go again,'
but we made plays, made shots and got it back up. They took some bad
shots there and that helped us out."
Brook Lopez had 23 points and 10
rebounds for New Jersey, which got one piece of good news on Wednesday
when it was announced that Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov had
moved a step closer to becoming the NBA's first non-North American
owner.
Prokhorov's Onexim Sports and
Entertainment Holdings, and the company that owns the Nets said they
had completed their agreement to create a partnership that would own
the NBA team and develop the Atlantic Yards project in New York.
Reserve Paul Millsap had 13 points
for Utah, which will also play at Atlanta, Charlotte, Orlando and Miami
on the five-game trip.
Terrence Williams added 17 points
and Courtney Lee had 15 points for the Nets. All-Star guard Devin
Harris had an off night, scoring nine points on 1-of-9 shooting.
New Jersey didn't have an answer for
Boozer, who has scored at least 20 points in 10 of 13 games, or Deron
Williams, who has had a double-double in seven of eight.
"That one-two punch did the job for them," Lee said.
The Jazz took control with a 19-8
run in the final six minutes of the second quarter. Williams, who
briefly went to the bench after inadvertently stepping on Lopez's foot
minutes earlier, started the stretch with a short jumper and ended it
with a driving layup and a 3-pointer. Millsap also had six points and
Boozer added four.
Utah also picked up its defense in the run, limiting New Jersey to 2-of-11 from the field.
The Jazz led by as many as 16 points
in the third quarter and expanded the margin to 18 early in the fourth
when Millsap converted a three-point play.
New Jersey made a run and closed the
gap under double figures a couple of times, getting within 92-84 on a
three-point play by Lopez with 5:50 to go.
However, Boozer made a layup, Andrei
Kirilenko sank two free throws, Deron Williams hit a jumper and Mehmet
Okur added a layup in an 8-2 run that put away the game.
"We were there in the fourth," Lopez
said after posting his sixth straight double-double. "We were down a
bit and then we came storming back and we were right there. It just
fell apart on us at the end again. I don't think you can fault our
effort though."
Notes
Utah shot 56 percent from the
field and had 31 assists, one shy of their opponent team high, recorded
by the Hawks on Sunday. The Nets had only 10 players in uniform with
Chris Douglas-Roberts, Yi Jianlian, Jarvis Hayes, Tony Battie and Keyon
Dooling all hurt. Douglas-Roberts missed his third straight game with a
knee strain. … Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia sat next to the Nets'
bench. … Kirilenko played 24 minutes and moved past Adrian Dantley
for sixth place in Jazz history for minutes played.