Okur perfect in Jazz victory

The last couple of games, Jazz backup center Mehmet Okur spent a lot of time hanging around the 3-point line.

Friday night, even with 7-foot-6 Yao Ming or 7-2 Dikembe Mutombo in front of him, Okur stepped a little close to the basket — maybe not much closer, but hey, those guys are tall. He ran the floor on the fast break, and he played a more mid-range offensive game.

"I tried to do my best, run on the floor, bring energy to my teammates, finish the layup or make them foul trouble," said Okur.

The result was perfection shooting — 8 for 8 from the field and 4 for 4 on free throws — and a season-high 20 points as the Jazz broke a two-game losing streak with a 90-80 win in the Delta Center over the Houston Rockets.

"Are you saying I did better tonight?" Okur asked playfully. Eight-for-eight and 20 points would seem to be a little better, no?

"Especially when I play big guys like Yao Ming, I can take the 3-point or put the ball on the floor and go all the way or make him get in foul trouble. It depends how they going to play our offense.

"Sometimes they tried to push our people (to) the baseline side, and sometimes I roll inside. They don't want to come out, maybe. Maybe they don't want to rotate against us. We had many wide-open shots. We made those shots."

Okur had a 12-point second quarter, helping the Jazz go from four points down to a 50-40 halftime lead. And in the final 2:08, he had two nice shots over Yao to help the Jazz stay a dozen ahead when their lead had dropped as far as five just 2 1/2 minutes earlier. One was a jab step that sent Yao toward the basket while Okur pulled up for a 19-footer, and the other was a little pump fake for a 14-footer.

"I thought he was going to block my shot, but he didn't come out, and I just make the shot," Okur said of the jab step, something he prides himself on.

Yao was impressed: "Any team he play for he could start, but he play bench for Utah Jazz and make them much stronger."

"He was playing against a different type player and got good looks at the basket," said Jazz coach Jerry Sloan, noting that smaller players can get more quickly to Okur shots than players like Yao or Mutombo, so he at times had time to shoot. "He'll get open because he knows how to get open," Sloan said.

"If we execute whatever the play is — of course we ran a lot of pick-and-rolls for him so he would get opportunities at the basket — those are things (where) it's important he finish the play off.

"He obviously finished and made a couple shots, but he also made a couple real nice passes. That's really a big plus for your teammates," Sloan observed.

Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said Okur's penchant for the long ball is sometimes "a little bit of a problem in trying to execute our offense. I'm not looking for 3s, I'm looking to execute in that situation, so if he'll dive to the basket — we've had opportunities to dive to the basket, but he's stepped back."

Friday, he took a few steps in.

"That's something he has to get more familiar with as to how we're playing," said Sloan.

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