Jazz win big vs. Hawks

The Utah Jazz weren't really satisfied Saturday night when they came back to the Delta Center after a terrible loss at Denver Friday to beat Atlanta easily, 92-71. This was even though Utah led by a season-high 36 points at one time, earned its second-best winning margin and held the Hawks to the lowest point total by a Jazz opponent this season.

"We did enough to win, and we have to be satisfied by that for now," said guard Raja Bell, adding a far better performance will be needed Tuesday night when a Golden State team that has already beaten Utah visits the DC.

Several from the Jazz locker room said the Hawks didn't seem to want to play, one reason the large point differential meant little.

Bell called the game, "A little easier than I thought. They've (Atlanta) got a lot of talent, but they didn't seem like they wanted to play."

In fact, Jazz coach Jerry Sloan — who picked up his 800th win as Jazz coach Saturday — intimated that one team on the court Saturday was playing like it was "probably trying to get another coach fired."

"You hate to say, yeah, but at times you look out there," said Jazz center Greg Ostertag, "and they've got a lot of talent on that team, and there's nights the can come out and beat anybody, and there's nights it doesn't look like they want to play — but that's none of my business. I don't know what to say about them tonight. We got the win. That's the important thing."

Especially because Sloan was upset with Ostertag and his other post players in the first half.

"Here's what I had the first half — I had two centers and a forward who had two rebounds (total), and they tell me they want to win," snapped Sloan. "Give me a break. You tell me how bad you want to win, how bad you want to play, and then you go out and do that? When they're getting paid to play this game? That's not interest. That's just being bored."

Ostertag finished the game with two rebounds but 10 points. Forwards Andrei Kirilenko and Michael Ruffin had four boards each, as did backup center Jarron Collins.

Swingman Sasha Pavlovic had six rebounds in the first half and a career-high seven for the game to lead the club. He also came up with 5-for-6 shooting and a dozen points.