JAZZ TOP SUNS IN OVERTIME

It won’t make the Utah Jazz highlight reel for the 2008-2008 NBA season, what with the team blowing a 21 point lead and needing overtime to get past the Phoenix Suns at home.  At this point in the year, however, all victories are important and the net result was a win:  the Jazz scraped past the Suns 104-99 in overtime at the Energy Solutions Arena in Salt Lake City on Saturday night.

The Suns have been playing well of late, mounting a furious late season charge to try and catch Dallas for the 8^th and final playoff spot in the NBA’s Western Conference.  They got off to an abysmal start on Saturday in Salt Lake, down by 3 at the end of the first quarter and outscored 25-11 in the second quarter as Utah took a 17 point lead into the locker room at halftime.  The Jazz would increase their advantage to 21 points before Phoenix came roaring back in the fourth led by Shaquille O’Neal.  Phoenix then saw their hard fought lead evaporate, as Utah negated a seven point Suns advantage late in regulation to force overtime. Phoenix scored the first four points of the extra session before Utah went on a 9-2 run to emerge victorious.

Three Utah players posted ‘double/doubles’ including leading scorer Mehmet Okur with 26 points and 11 rebounds.  Deron Williams added 21 points and 13 assists while Carlos Boozer contributed 14 points and 10 boards.  The Suns responded with Steve Nash’s team high 20 points and two ‘double/doubles’ of their own:  Shaq added 16 points and 10 boards while Matt Barnes went for 14 points and 10 rebounds.  Grant Hill came close to his own ‘double/double’ with 19 points and 8 rebounds, as did reserve Jared Dudley with 15 points and 8 boards.

An obviously relieved Utah head coach Jerry Sloan made a rather obvious point in his postgame comments:

"That was one that just about got away from us. We had a nice lead and then we just quit competing. You can't afford to do that."

His thoughts were echoed by Deron Williams:

"We put ourselves in a bad position in that second half. We really came out poorly. We were able to regain our composure at the end of the fourth quarter. We are very fortunate to get a win tonight."

The Jazz won their 14^th straight game at the ‘E-Center’ in Salt Lake City, and Suns pointguard Steve Nash observed that it came down to the fact that Utah made plays down the stretch while his team didn’t.

"It's one of those nights. You've got to fight and find a way to stick around and we did that. But we just didn't make the plays down the stretch when we really needed them."

Utah will host the New York Knicks on Monday before traveling to Denver on Tuesday and Portland on Thursday.  Phoenix will travel to Sacramento on Sunday night before returning home to face the Houston Rockets on Wednesday and a return engagement against Sacramento on Friday.