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Boozer, Jazz help Sloan get his 1,000th career win ====================================================

Dec 12, 2006 - 4:49 AM SALT LAKE CITY (Ticker) -- Carlos Boozer and the Utah Jazz made sure coach Jerry Sloan joined a select company of coaching legends.

Boozer scored 31 points and hauled in 11 rebounds as the Utah Jazz posted a 101-79 victory over the Dallas Mavericks.

Deron Williams had 18 points and seven assists and Matt Harpring added 15 points off the bench as Sloan became the fifth coach in NBA history to win 1,000 games.

"It's a blessing to play for a coach like coach Sloan," Williams said. "He's had so much history in this game and has been one of the best coaches in this league for a long time. It feels great to be a part of this win."

Sloan, who is in his 19th year of coaching the Jazz and 22nd overall, joined Lenny Wilkens (1,332), Don Nelson (1,200), Pat Riley (1,160) and Larry Brown (1,010) as the only coaches to reach the 1,000-win plateau.

"I'm glad that's all behind us and now we can play basketball," Sloan said. "I thought our team did a great job. ... that was the most important thing to me. I thought we played hard pretty much all through the game."

"He's been doing it for a long time, and I went over to congratulate him," Mavericks coach Avery Johnson said. "He deserves it. You would hope that you could watch this on TV and that he would get this win on somebody else, and that that team would have a rough night. But it was us tonight."

In the final seconds of the contest, the partisan Jazz crowd began to serenade Sloan on his accomplishment.

"That's better than hearing them boo me," Sloan said. "I've had a few of those over the years. The most important thing is they were having fun because our team was playing well and I think they enjoyed that. Our fans deserve a great deal of credit for getting excited about that."

"It was awesome," Boozer said. "The fans just appreciate what he has done for the game of basketball and for the Jazz. I think it was great for him to hear the fans celebrating while the game was still continuing."

Boozer shot 13-of-25 from the field and scored 11 of his points in the first quarter and 16 at the half to give Utah a 51-39 lead entering the third quarter.

"Boozer's been playing on an MVP-type level," Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki said. "He's making his shots, he's a factor in the paint. ... He's playing solid defense, he's a beast on the glass. He's definitely an early MVP candidate."

"He played well against another All-Star (Nowitzki) again," Williams said. "I think Booz takes these matchups personally. He just wants to come out and show that he's one of the best players in this league."

Harpring scored 13 points in the second quarter on 5-of-8 shooting for the Jazz, who improved to a league-best 11-1 at home and 16-5 overall.

"Dallas is a good team," Boozer said. "They are obviously very talented, and well-coached, and it's a big win for us. But we have to continue to get better ourselves and keep improving so we can do the same thing later on."

Nowitzki scored 26 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for Dallas, which shot 38 percent (26-of-69) and has lost three of its last five games after a 12-game winning streak.

"A very disappointing game for us," Johnson said. "We just didn't have it. They came out and jumped on us. We've done it to other teams before. They were the aggressor from start to finish, and we were unable to get anything going tonight."

"I thought obviously it wasn't our best outing," Nowitzki added. "They really got the best of us on both ends of the floor, really executed well. Our offense just couldn't make shots. It's tough to win on the road when you shoot 38 percent."