Hot Jazz beat Pacers; winning streak hits 12
Los Angeles - The Utah Jazz's latest success has them blowing their own horn.
Mehmet Okur scored 24 points, Paul Millshap had 22 with nine rebounds and the streaking Jazz pulled away late Tuesday night to beat the Indiana Pacers 112-100 for their season-high 12th-consecutive victory.
"We have confidence that we're going to win every game we play, no matter what the scenario might be," Jazz forward Carlos Boozer said after finishing with 11 points and seven rebounds.
"At the end of the day, we have the pieces, the confidence and the belief in each other that we're going to win the game," he said.
Unbeaten since February 8, the Jazz moved within three victories of matching the franchise record 15-game winning streak, set twice during the 1996-97 season.
"It feels good right now," Turkish native Okur said. "Everyone feels great about winning. Hopefully, we're going to keep doing what we're doing out there."
Ronnie Brewer tossed in 18 points, and Deron Williams handed out 12 assists for Utah (41-23), which made 16 steals and converted 22 turnovers into 26 points to jump one-half game ahead of idle Portland atop the NBA's Northwest Division.
"We know that if we lose a game, we can go from being tops in our division to third," Brewer said. "We're making a conscious effort to win every game."
Troy Murphy had 23 points with seven three-pointers and 13 rebounds for Indiana (28-38), which trails eighth-place Chicago by two games in the Eastern Conference playoff race. Jarrett Jack and TJ Ford scored 21 apiece.
"They're the hottest team in the league, and we just couldn't get the stops coming down the stretch," Murphy said. "We had a good shot tonight, but we weren't able to take advantage of it."
Ford's jumper with 6:55 left knotted the score at 90, but the Jazz responded with a game-turning 16-4 run, three minutes later.
Russian Andrei Kirilenko hit the go-ahead three-pointer and added a layup after a steal. Okur scored five consecutive points, and Kyle Korver's triple and free throw capped the burst to make it 106-84. (dpa)