Milsap powers Jazz to victory over T-Wolves

Mehmet Okur’s 3 point sharpshooting and Paul Milsap’s tough inside play paced the Utah Jazz to a 112-107 victory at the EnergySolutions Arena in Salt Lake City on Tuesday night.  It was Utah’s seventh consecutive home victory and 7th win in their last ten games overall.

Milsap enjoyed another very effective outing which will further embolden Jazz supporters who want the team to send malingering Carlos Boozer packing and make the 2nd year player out of Louisiana Tech—which also produced another “decent” power forward named Karl Malone—the future of the franchise at the position.  Milsap scored 28 points and pulled down 15 points in yet another “double/double” performance since taking over the starting power forward spot from Boozer.

Okur added 22 points included two big 3 pointers during a decisive late game stretch to seal the victory.  Point guard Deron Williams added 17 points and 11 assists, while Kyle Korver contributed 13 points off the bench for Utah.

Al Jefferson led the Timberwolves with 25 points and 8 rebounds.  Randy Foye and Ryan Gomes added 19 points apiece while Sebastian Telfair contributed 17 as Minnesota dropped to 7-14 away from home.  The TWolves have been playing good basketball of late, winning 7 of their last ten contests despite Tuesday night’s setback in Salt Lake City.

Utah coach Jerry Sloan tried to put a positive spin on the situation after watching his team blow a 14 point third quarter lead and scrapping to a hard fought victory:

"When they got within one point of us, we could have folded our tents and said, 'Okay, this is it.' But we made some stops on them, about three or four, and kept them from getting what they wanted.”

TWolves coach Kevin McHale lost for only the 2nd time since assuming the job after Randy Wittman was fired in late December.  Despite the loss, he was pleased with his team’s resolve faced with a big deficit:

"We spotted them too many points. Got down by 14 points in the third, but we fought back hard."

The Timberwolves will return home for games against New Orleans on Friday and the Chicago Bulls on Sunday before heading to Milwaukee for a contest against the Bucks on Monday.  Utah plays at Houston on Wednesday before returning to the Beehive State for a big game against LeBron James and Cleveland on Saturday night.  They’ll then head over to Denver for a game against the Nuggets on Sunday night.