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Suns, Jazz mix it up in the desert

Feb 15, 2011 - 3:45 PM (Sports Network) - The Phoenix Suns will shoot for their second win over the slumping Utah Jazz and new coach Tyrone Corbin in less than a week when the two clubs mix it up tonight in the desert.

The Suns stopped Utah in Salt Lake City last Friday, 95-83, in the Jazz's first game without long-time mentor Jerry Sloan. Steve Nash had 18 points and 10 assists, while Hakim Warrick scored 16 off the bench in that one as Phoenix overcame a 15-point deficit.

Jazz guard Deron Williams, who took heat in the wake of Sloan's surprising resignation, led the way for the Jazz with 19 points and 14 assists in his first pro game under a different coach.

Still, Utah was unable to win in Corbin's debut despite opening the game with a 9-0 run and playing most of the first half with a lead above 10.

"We ran out of gas," Corbin said. "I mean, I don't know if it was emotions in the first half, when we showed up for the game, but the second half we just got away from everything we were doing."

Sloan stepped down last Thursday in the middle of his 23rd season with the Jazz, saying during an emotional press conference that it was time to leave the team he had coached since early in the 1988-89 season.

Corbin, a former assistant, received a standing ovation before the game -- his introduction after taking over for a Hall of Famer. The home crowd had more to cheer about after Andrei Kirilenko's three-point play started the early surge.

"We came out excited. [Sloan] was a great coach, we were lucky to play under him," said Jazz forward Gordon Hayward.

But the Jazz, playing without guards Raja Bell and Ronnie Price because of injury, lost Kirilenko to a sprained right ankle late in the first half after he collided with Suns forward Grant Hill.

C.J. Miles also scored 19 points, while Hayward added 14 off the bench as Utah fell to 4-11 in its last 15 games.

"It's a tough loss," said Williams. "We just kind of came apart. We didn't do the same things in the second half that we did in the first half."

Robin Lopez added 14 points for Phoenix and Marcin Gortat had 12 points and 10 rebounds off the bench.

Phoenix couldn't follow up on that, however, and suffered a 113-108 setback to Sacramento in the opener of a four-game homestand on Sunday. Nash finished with 22 points and 18 assists for the Suns, who had a three-game winning streak snapped. Gortat tallied 20 points and 12 boards off the bench for the Suns, who are three games behind Denver for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference.

"I think that tonight was just one of those nights that we really needed it and things just didn't go our way," Phoenix big man Channing Frye said. "I think it was a tough game and they played hard and I think they just played their game."

Kirilenko will sit for tonight's game while both Bell and Price are listed as questionable.

The Suns have won four straight over Utah, including a pair of meetings so far this season.