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Nuggets begin road stretch in Utah

Mar 3, 2011 - 4:45 PM (Sports Network) - The Denver Nuggets haven't achieved much success in Salt Lake City lately, so they'll attempt to exorcise their demons at Utah tonight in a showdown with the Northwest Division-rival Jazz.

Denver has lost 24 of its last 28 trips to the Mormon State, but is 6-3 in the previous nine overall meetings with the Jazz. These two rivals have split two games this season, with both matchups in the Rocky Mountains, while Utah won the most recent encounter by a 113-106 difference on Feb. 4.

The Nuggets will play three straight and seven of their next eight games on the road, and are coming off Wednesday's 120-80 rout of the Charlotte Bobcats at the Pepsi Center. Ty Lawson led the way with 14 points and 10 assists, while Wilson Chandler finished with a team-high 16 points for Denver, winners in five of its last six games.

Nene, J.R. Smith and Chris Andersen all had 14 points, as the Nuggets shared the ball with a season-best 34 assists.

"That's the way we wanted to play," said Lawson, who posted his first career double-double. "It feels a lot better. Everybody's happy. The bigs are happy, the wings are happy. Everybody's touching the ball. That's how basketball should be played."

Denver, the current NBA leader in scoring at 107.5 ppg, shot a sizzling 60.8 percent from the field and had a 49-28 advantage on the glass. The Nuggets are now 20-1 on the year when outrebounding and outshooting the opposition in the same game. They will also visit the Clippers and Suns on the road swing before returning to the Rockies to host Detroit. The Nuggets will then pick up and head east for a tour through New Orleans, Atlanta, Orlando and Miami.

The Nuggets are 10-19 as the visitor this season and fifth in the West.

Meanwhile, the Jazz have lost two straight and seven of their last eight games, including Monday's 107-102 loss to the Boston Celtics.

Al Jefferson muscled his way to 28 points and 19 rebounds, including 15 on the defensive end. Devin Harris and Andrei Kirilenko scored 19 and 18 points, respectively, for Utah, which got 17 points from Paul Millsap.

"He was a monster all night," Harris said of Jefferson on NBA.com.

Utah has dropped six in a row in Salt Lake City and is 17-14 at home. The Jazz are on their longest home losing streak since a 12-game slide from Feb. 15- March 29, 1982. It will also welcome Sacramento to town on the three-game residency and owns a 17-14 mark as the host.

The Jazz are 1-6 since Tyrone Corbin took over for Jerry Sloan and are battling for the eighth and final postseason spot in the West.

"We played hard, but we didn't play particularly smart in some situations down the stretch. We made a couple minimal mistakes," Corbin said after the loss.

Corbin was signed to a multi-year contract on Wednesday and had served as an assistant coach under Sloan since the 2004-05 campaign. Prior to joining the Jazz, Corbin spent the 2003-04 season as manager of player development for the New York Knicks.