Utah youngsters thrive in games' 4th quarters

Three of the eight players who toiled for the Jazz in the final quarter of Wednesday night's win over the Houston Rockets are NBA rookies. Five of the eight are age 23 or younger. Six have a combined total of just 160 starts among them.

They're just pups, really.

Yet early in the 2003-04 NBA season, Utah has developed into one of the league's most dogged fourth-quarter clubs.

Consider:

• The 8-6 Jazz are outscoring opponents by an average score of 25.9 to 22.9 in fourth-quarter play this season.

• They have outscored opponents in 10 of 14 final quarters, including Wednesday's 29-25 decision over the Rockets.

• Their norm of 25.9 in the fourth is a point-and-a-half more than their own next-highest scoring quarter, the third.

• And their typical fourth-period opponent yield of 22.9 is no worse than in any other quarter.

Coincidence?

Not likely for a rebuilding team that, heading into tonight's Delta Center game against the Seattle SuperSonics, is off to a much better start than virtually anyone predicted.

"I think it's proven so far that even though we're young, we're not afraid in the fourth quarter," said Jazz guard Raja Bell, a virtual elder statesman at the ripe ol' age of 27.

"We know that fourth quarters are when games are won," Bell added, "so we try to step it up, intensity-wise, to that next level."

Jerry Sloan, naturally, pooh-poohs the trend.

"Well, they should be a little bit more energized (in the fourth) — because they're young guys," the Jazz head coach said. "I mean, I don't know why young guys ever get tired."

Moreover, Sloan suggests there is no great secret as to why the Jazz were able to get it done down the stretch even against an older team like the now 9-5 Rockets.

"They (the Jazz's youngsters) just executed the offense, and tried to run a play," Sloan said. "It's not like it's something that's impossible to do."

But there may be more to it than that.

One factor seems to be the efforts of 22-year-old forward Andrei Kirilenko, who in just his third NBA season is turning into something of a crunch-time player.