As much as he tried to credit others, Thursday in Utah was all about Karl Malone. The Jazz honored Malone on Thursday by retiring his No. 32 and unveiling a bronze statue of the power forward who played 18 of his 19 NBA seasons in Utah. The "Mailman," the second-leading scorer in NBA history, grinned at the pregame statue ceremony and again at halftime of the game against Washington when the jersey...
For a while, Andrei Kirilenko looked like the only Utah player who could keep up with the Phoenix Suns. Once his teammates caught up, the Jazz rallied from a 15-point deficit to beat the Suns 107-99 Tuesday. Kirilenko had 22 points, a career-high 18 rebounds and blocked four shots in the second half and Deron Williams, a rookie going head-to-head with league MVP Steve Nash, finished with 17 points...
The Utah Jazz thought they had to beat the Denver Nuggets, and they made doing so seem almost effortless. Mehmet Okur scored 24 points and the Jazz used easy layups to shoot 58.5 percent from the field in their 115-104 win over the Nuggets on Wednesday night. It was the highest shooting percentage the Northwest Division-leading Nuggets have allowed an opponent this season.
Now that the two-game losing streak is over, the Utah Jazz need to put together a winning streak if they are going to make a run at the playoffs. The Jazz passed New Orleans for ninth place in the Western Conference standings and moved within two games of the final playoff spot by beating the weary and slumping Hornets 104-80 Monday night.
A six-game road trip doesn't look quite as imposing to the Washington Wizards now. The Wizards opened their longest trip of the season by setting a team record with 16 3-pointers in a 109-97 win over the Utah Jazz on Thursday. "It's a great feeling to start off a road trip like that," said Gilbert Arenas, who led the Wizards with 31 points.
Bonzi Wells took a moment to see that, for once, Andrei Kirilenko was nowhere near the ball. Kirilenko had blocked 10 shots but had drifted toward the basket looking for another one. He couldn't recover to Wells as the Kings' guard sank a wide-open 3-pointer with 1:37 remaining to key Sacramento's 91-89 win over the Utah Jazz on Saturday night.