Jazz top Raptors to win 11TH straight

It was what sports handicappers call ‘a tough scheduling spot’, but the Utah Jazz persevered for a 109-101 road victory over the Toronto Raptors on Sunday afternoon.  Utah lost two hours due to the time zone change, another hour due to the Daylight Savings time switch, and faced an early 12:30 PM start time.  Despite the less than favorable logistics, the team managed to win their 11^th straight game equaling their longest winning streak since 1999.

Deron Williams led the Jazz with 25 points and 9 assists, while reserve shooting guard Kyle Korver added 20 points.  Mehmet Okur and Paul Milsap both posted ‘double/doubles’, with Okur  scoring 19 points and bringing home 11 rebounds.  Milsap, starting in place of Carlos Boozer who pulled up lame claiming an ankle injury, scored 18 points and pulled down 11 boards.  Andrei Kirilenko added 18 off the bench to further diversify the Utah scoring attack.

Toronto’s Chris Bosh led all scorers with 30 points, and he added 10 rebounds for his own ‘double/double’.   Point guard Jose Calderon also got in on the ‘double/double’ action with 10 points and 11 assists.  Andrea Bargnani scored 20 points with Anthony Parker adding 16 for the Raptors, who have now lost eight straight games to the Jazz.

After the game, the Jazz did more griping about the early wakeup call than they did commenting on their victory.  Deron Williams offered this assessment of the early start time:

"It's different. I was on the taping table laying down and I fell asleep. That was like 15 minutes before the game, so I was out of it."

Kyle Korver lamented that he’s nocturnal by nature, though credited Red Bull and Wheaties for getting him through the ordeal:

"Getting up in the morning kind of stinks. But once you finally get up, you start going, you have your energy drink and eat your breakfast it's like another game. It's terrible. I don't even like going to practice in the morning. I would rather practice at midnight. I think all our sleep patterns were kind of messed up last night."

Not surprisingly befitting his status as a legendary NBA tough guy, Jazz coach Jerry Sloan acted like a grown man and focused on his team’s solid play of late instead of his lost sleep:

"I like the feeling. We weathered a lot of the storm to try and hang in there. Now if we can keep everybody together and keep everybody happy I think we'll be competitive down the stretch."

The Jazz have four games remaining on their current road trip, and will next play on Tuesday night in Indiana.  They’ll travel to Atlanta for a game on Wednesday night, with another set of ‘back to back’ games in Florida over the weekend as they play Miami on Saturday and Orlando on Sunday.  Toronto has now lost five straight and will play at Philadelphia on Wednesday before returning home for games against Detroit on Friday and Indiana on Sunday.