When thinking of NBA championship contenders, the usual suspects come to mind. Boston… Cleveland… San Antonio… the Los Angeles Kobes.
Add Conseco Fieldhouse’s latest visitor, the Utah Jazz, to that list.
The Jazz haven't played this well since the days of Stockton, Malone, and Greg Ostertag's glorious buzzcut.
They may not get much media coverage playing out in Salt Lake City, but the Jazz (41-23) have been dominating the league with the best players you’ve never heard of.
Anonymous guys like Paul Millsap (14.3 ppg, 9.2 rpg), Ronnie Brewer (14.1 ppg), and C.J. Miles (9.6 ppg) are packing plenty of scoring punch to go along with stars Carlos Boozer and Deron Williams. The Jazz rank sixth in the league in scoring.
With all that offense, you’d think Utah would be a defensive pushover like the Pacers.
Not the case.
The Jazz lead the NBA in steals per game (8.9) and give up an average of 99 points per contest (13th in the league). Tuesday, Utah forced 22 turnovers while running its NBA-best winning streak to 12 with a 112-100 defeat of the Indiana Pacers.
Mehmet Okur, a solid starter who the Pacers always seem to make look like an All-Star, was in typical form, scoring 24 points on 9-of-15 shooting. He put up a career-high 43 points in the teams’ previous meeting in January.
Indiana’s Troy Murphy scorched the Jazz with 23 points and seven three-pointers, but was ineffective in the second half. Even with Murphy shut down over the final two quarters, the Pacers managed to knot the contest four times.
But they couldn’t take the lead.
It’s almost as if the Jazz were toying with the Pacers, allowing them to creep to within single digits only to hit the gas and put the game away at will. The Jazz finally delivered the knockout blow with a 16-4 run late in the fourth quarter.
The good news for the Pacers (28-38) is that they’ll likely get Danny Granger back this week. Sitting two games out of the playoffs with 16 to go, they’ll need all they can get from No. 33.
