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Jazz dominate second half, crush Clippers

Nov 2, 2008 - 3:43 AM SALT LAKE CITY (Ticker) -- The Utah Jazz turned up the defense and made a second-half statement.

Carlos Boozer had 25 points and 10 rebounds and the Jazz set a team record by committing only five turnovers en route to a 101-79 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers on Saturday.

Ronnie Brewer scored 12 of his 16 points in the second half for Utah, which was playing without head coach Jerry Sloan due to a case of the flu.

"We miss (Sloan's) voice," Jazz forward Andrei Kirilenko said. "He's always unhappy with us and he gets us to play (harder). (Assistant) Phil (Johnson) is a bit more diplomatic, which is good in its own way."

The teams were knotted, 60-60, after Tim Thomas made a pair of free throws with 4:54 remaining in the third quarter. But Brewer scored nine points as the Jazz closed the third on a 15-0 run.

A 13-2 run to begin the fourth quarter put Utah up, 88-62, with 7:05 remaining in the game.

With the Jazz taking care of the ball at a record rate, Los Angeles could not climb back into the contest. The previous franchise low for turnovers in a game was six.

"We did a great job of taking care of the ball and executing our offense, taking advantage of the fast break," Boozer said. "But at the same time, in the fourth quarter we made the right plays to the right player."

Utah put on the ball-control display without the services of point guard Deron Williams, who missed his second straight game with a sprained left ankle. Ronnie Price and Brevin Knight split duties at the point in his absence, combining for 13 assists and one turnover.

"What strikes me is we had 13 assists from our point guards and one turnover," Johnson said. "We played a team that was tired and had an overtime game (on Friday). I thought the second half we played extremely well as a team and much better defensively in the second half. We had low turnovers and we executed pretty well."

"Those are the things that you really pride yourself on - playing good defense, not turning the ball over, playing the game the right way," Knight said. "And we did that."

The Jazz held the Clippers to 25 percent (10-of-40) shooting in the second half. Boozer scored 13 points after the break as Utah shot 52 percent (22-of-42) from the field.

"When you make your baskets and stick to the gameplan, you can play turnover-free like that and be under control," Price said.

Kirilenko and Paul Millsap chipped in 11 points apiece off the bench.

"A tale of two halves," Clippers coach Mike Dunleavy said. "We played pretty well in the first half - we executed, we made shots, shot a real high percentage - and then we had a lot of good shots that we missed that hurt us.

"We let them wear us down, and we didn't do a good job on boxing out. They got 10-plus points in the second half on the offensive boards and some turnover points in the open court. After that, it just kind of blew up on us."

Cuttino Mobley led the way with 20 points - 17 in the first half - on 9-of-16 shooting for Los Angeles, which committed 18 turnovers and managed just 12 assists.

"That start of the fourth quarter, when they made their run, just put us away," Mobley said.

The teams meet again on Monday in Los Angeles.

"We know we play that team on Monday and I'm sure they'll make some adjustments," Boozer said. "Coach Dunleavy's a very good coach and I'm sure we'll see something different."