JAZZ DUMP PISTONS FOR THE TENTH STRAIGHT TIME

The Utah Jazz had little trouble with the host Detroit Pistons on Wednesday night.  Not that it was much of a surprise, as Utah has now won ten straight games against Detroit.  The latest victory was a 115-104 rout that wasn’t as close as the final score indicated.  The Jazz improved their hold on 4th place in the Western Conference with the victory and now trail third place Denver by only one game.

NBA betting enthusiasts who backed Utah as a -6 point road favorite cashed their tickets with the Jazz victory.  Utah improved to 12-4 ATS in the second half of the season and bettered their road record against the NBA pointspread to 18-11.  The 219 combined points sailed OVER the posted total of 201.  The Jazz have long been known for a methodical offense and tenacious defense, but this season they’ve gone OVER the total in 16 of 29 games on the road.

Leading scorer Deron Williams commented on the Jazz’s 10 game winning streak over the Pistons:

"I've never lost to them? I guess I'll have to keep that going. We always play well in this building, and I thought we played well tonight, but if you look at the boxscore, they outscored us in every quarter but the second. Our defense still isn't where we need it to be."

Despite the victory, Utah head coach Jerry Sloan took his team to task for their defensive liabilities:

"I'm not focused on our scoring, I'm worried about our defense. It's a matter of concentration, and there's no excuse for losing focus like we did in the second half tonight. I thought we played awfully well in the second quarter, but they put us back on our heels in the second half. I had to make some substitutions because we had people trying to get cute instead of just winning the game."

Raising Sloan’s ire over his team’s leaky second half defense was little consolation to Detroit leading scorer Charlie Villanueva:

"It's tough to take anything positive out of a game you lose. We just can't dig ourselves into a hole like that."

Piston’s coach John  Kuester shared these sentiments:

"You go up 29-28 after the first quarter, and then they go on a 14-0 run, and within four or five minutes, you are working uphill just to get close. We don't have a large margin for error right now, especially against an outstanding team."

The Jazz now face two decidedly tougher road games as they head to Milwaukee to face the red hot Bucks before a game against the Thunder in Oklahoma City.  They’ll then return home for a Monday night game against the Washington Wizards.  Detroit will host the Wizards on Friday night before hitting the road themselves, beginning with stops in Atlanta and Boston.