• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Barnes takes over as Warriors end Jazz's win streak

Nov 26, 2006 - 6:12 AM OAKLAND, California (Ticker) -- Matt Barnes negated another potential comeback attempt by the Utah Jazz.

Barnes scored 17 of his career-high 24 points in the third quarter and Monta Ellis added 21 and six assists as the Golden State Warriors snapped the Jazz's eight-game winning streak with a 91-78 victory.

Troy Murphy collected 15 points and 12 rebounds and Andris Biedrins added 14, a career-best 17 boards and five blocks for the Warriors, who ended their three-game slide.

For the fifth straight game, Utah rallied from an early deficit. The Jazz overcame a 27-14 hole at the end of the first quarter by drawing within 43-42 at the half.

"We got back in the ballgame," Utah coach Jerry Sloan said. "They got off to an early start. I felt we were going to be OK but we started off the second half throwing the ball away, had open shots, couldn't make them. We're just very casual and our team isn't good enough to be that way. We won't be able to win any games if we try to play on a consistent basis that way."

Barnes had other plans in the third period. The 6-7 forward drained a 3-pointer, igniting a 23-7 run that opened a 65-49 cushion with 5:07 left. He had 12 points during the surge.

"He (Barnes) had to step up tonight and he did, played a great game," Ellis said. "He was the hot man, not only on the offensive end, the defensive end, and we needed it from him tonight in order to win and he gave it to us."

"Matt was our player of the game," Golden State Warriors coach Don Nelson said. "I was very pleased with his performance and he also got a career high with 24 points. He really read the defense well and has been on a good rhythm as of late scoring - 21 points for us in Denver."

Barnes' point total in Denver was his previous career high.

"It's a great opportunity," Barnes said. "We have some people hurt right now, some people sick, so I'm just trying to get in there and ... hopefully establish myself in this rotation when we're full strength so just whatever needs to be done, rebound, defense, scoring a little bit. I'm doing whatever it takes to stay in the rotation."

Golden State guard Baron Davis missed his second consecutive game due to a strained right rib muscle and swingman Mickael Pietrus was out with the stomach flu.

After three quarters, the Warriors led, 73-59. They used a 9-0 run for insurance in the closing period, making it 84-64 with less than seven minutes left.

"We had to try something new to cover one of the hottest teams in the league," Nelson said. "So we put in a 3-2 zone that we just implemented yesterday so that we could shut down their bigs. We made some adjustments at halftime to cover some gaps in our zone, which led to an increase in steals for us in the second half. The team played the zone well and it was good to see them play well, especially on a back-to-back game night."

Carlos Boozer and Mehmet Okur combined for just eight points and 18 rebounds.

Matt Harpring scored 15 points and Deron Williams added 14 and eight assists for Utah, which committed 22 turnovers and shot just 33 percent (27-of-83) overall.

"We started off the game bad, finished the game bad, we didn't really do anything we wanted to do," Williams said. "We didn't play well against their zone, I turned the ball over too much, I really couldn't get it inside. We became a team that just passed around the perimeter and shot jump shots. That is not going to get us a win."