Jazz win 8th straight versus Pistons

The Utah Jazz own the Detroit Pistons.  Utah defeated Detroit for the eighth consecutive time on Saturday night, behind 22 points and 7 rebounds from former Piston Mehmet Okur who improved his personal record to 9-1 against his old team.  The Jazz opened a 32-21 lead after one period and put it on cruise control from there as they coasted to a 99-82 victory at the EnergySolutions Arena in Salt Lake City.

Okur led all scorers with his 22 points, while Ronnie Brewer added 16 for the Jazz.  Andrei Kirilenko and Matt Harpring contributed 11 points each for Utah as the Jazz improved their record to 22-15.  After the game Okur dismissed suggestions that some sort of animosity against the Pistons provided the motivation for Utah’s recent dominance:

"We play good against them here and also up there. Hopefully, we're going to keep doing what we're doing."

The only thing about the evening that could potentially be seen as a negative is the fact that Paul Milsap’s streak of consecutive double/double performances ended at nineteen.  That was more a function of the Jazz’s dominance than anything else, however, as the team used the blowout as an opportunity to give him some rest.  Milsap played only 22 minutes  but was displayed his usual unselfishness when asked about it:

"Hopefully I'll get another one started.  I don't think about it too much. I just think of it as me playing hard and things like that come with it."

Milsap became even more important to the Jazz’s immediate future with the announcement Saturday that Carlos Boozer would miss at least another month after arthroscopic knee surgery.  Boozer hasn’t played in months, and he’s usually appeared more interested in forcing a trade or signing as a free agent in Miami or other city with a more active nightlife scene.  As he continues to milk numerous minor injuries to avoid playing, and as Milsap continues to develop as a superstar of the future, an increasing number of Jazz fans want to see Boozer sent packing.

For the time being, at least, even the team’s most demanding critic—head coach Jerry Sloan—expressed his pleasure at how the Jazz are playing:

"I thought we were alive. We just had a lot of people playing pretty well. I like the way our team has been trying to play here lately -- trying to pass the ball, trying to execute our offense."

Detroit will return home to play the Charlotte Bobcats on Monday night before hitting the road for games against Indiana and Oklahoma City.  The Jazz will host Indiana on Monday night and then embark on a road trip with stops in Oklahoma City, Memphis and Dallas.