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Williams, Jazz blow past Pistons

Mar 12, 2013 - 4:10 AM Salt Lake City, UT (Sports Network) - Mo Williams had his best performance since returning from injury, scoring 20 points with six assists to lead the Utah Jazz to a 103-90 victory over the Detroit Pistons on Monday.

Williams converted 9-of-14 from the field and Al Jefferson posted 16 points with 10 rebounds to help Utah end a four-game losing streak. The Jazz also received a healthy dose of support from their bench, which combined for 54 points.

Enes Kanter and Marvin Williams each chipped in with 14 points in the victory.

"I thought we went out and played our best. We needed that game and everybody really played good basketball," Kanter said.

Greg Monroe paced Detroit with 15 points and 13 rebounds in the team's sixth straight loss. To make matters worse, second-year guard Brandon Knight left the contest in the first quarter with an ankle injury and could not return.

Jonas Jerebko and Rodney Stuckey each finished with 15 points in defeat.

Without Knight, the Pistons trailed by double-digits for most of the middle stanzas, but after making a fourth quarter charge, Mo Williams put them down for the count.

Detroit trimmed Utah's one-time 18-point lead down to 82-77 on Khris Middleton's fourth 3-pointer and were within six on a triple from Jerebko with 5:38 to play, but Mo Williams knocked down a three of his own to push the hosts lead back up to nine.

He then sank a 20-footer just over a minute later for a 94-82 advantage and Utah's lead would swell to as many as 16 before the final buzzer.

"If we would have made a couple more shots, we could have been in a position to win the game, and if we got a couple more stops," Monroe said.

The Pistons lost Knight in the first few minutes of the contest when he rolled his ankle on a drive and was unable to shoot the free throw attempts, thus, he was not allowed to return to the game.

Detroit was able to manage for a bit without Knight, but the Jazz created double-digit separation in the second thanks to some strong bench play.

The Jazz reserves put together a 16-2 surge to start the second and pushed their advantage to 15 just over five minutes through. Alec Burks and Gordon Hayward each buried 3-pointers during the run and Kanter added two scores inside as the hosts kept a double-digit lead at halftime, 51-37.

Detroit didn't fair much better until the end of the third quarter, when it was able to trim its deficit to 76-70 following a 6-0 spurt to close out the frame.

Game Notes

Utah's Paul Millsap sat for a second straight game with a knee injury ... The Jazz shot 51.9 percent from the field ... Will Bynum scored 12 off the bench for Detroit ... Utah outrebounded Detroit, 47-30.