Jazz Update 1/9/8: They beat the Pacers

All the Utah Jazz needed was one quarter to get themselves back on track last night against the Indiana Pacers. In that period, they outscored the visiting Pacers 40-19 and never looked back.

The Jazz wound up beating the Pacers, 111-89 in front of a sold out 19,911 crowd at the Energy Solutions Arena.

Utah's quick offensive onslaught last night allowed their team's top scorer Carlos Boozer jto drop 22 points and pull down 4 rebounds in 24 minutes. Deron Williams score 10 points and picked up 8 assists in 25 minutes and Mehmet Okur had a productive 24 minutes, with 9 points and 7 rebounds.

I'm assuming Jazz coach Jerry Sloan decided that it was going to be a victory early on and let his starters rest up for their game against the Phoenix Suns tomorrow night.

All eleven Jazz players got a chance to score and geton the stat sheet. Most impressive was second year forward Paul Millsap. "The Paperboy" almost got a double double, scoring 9 points and getting 8 rebounds. Jarron Collins played like a decent back up center getting 4 points and 5 rebounds. Backup point guard Jason Hart played better than some of the starters in the league, with 11 points, 3 assists and 5 rebounds.

As for the swingman shoot out bonanza I called in the preview, Matt Harpring clearly won that one with 16 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists.

Here's how the rest did:

• CJ Miles got 7 points and 5 rebounds, predominately as a small forward.
• Ronnie Brewer got a 4x3, picking up 9 points and 3 in each rebounds, steals, and assists. Most of his points were picked up at the free throw line.
• Kyle Korver scored 12 points on 5-11 shooting. He was 1-6 from three point land.
• Morris Almond got his first NBA bucket, where it looked like everyone on the Jazz was passing to him to try to set him up. That would be his only points of the night (2 total), which is very funny considering he's looking like Kobe and shooting up the D-League.

I'll chalk up the Jazz's win to the following:

• They outrebounded (48 to 42) and outpassed (27 to 17) Indiana.
• The Pacers were awful from 3 point land, shooting 5-24.
• The Pacers put the Jazz on the free throw line 34 times where they scored 27 points. Compare that to their own 16-26 shooting.

Danny Granger lead the Pacers in scoring with 17 points. Jamaal Tinsley chipped in 13 and Mike Dunleavy Jr. added 12.