Jazz rise past Suns

When wins come against the two best teams in the NBA standings, it puts a lot more bounce in the step, a little bigger smile on the face.

Perhaps it even evokes the spirit of giving.

It was that unselfishness that Utah Jazz coach Jerry Sloan pointed to first on Wednesday night after the Jazz had knocked off the best team in the league, Phoenix, 115-108 (and really worse than that because the Suns made a last-second 3-pointer that no one was guarding) in the Delta Center.

"It's amazing how much they have a chance to succeed when nobody cares who gets the credit," said Sloan, who used McLeod and Raul Lopez mainly at the points again. "We did a terrific job passing the ball trying to hit the open man, for the most part."

Point guard Keith McLeod had a career-high 11 of Utah's 25 assists on 48 made baskets n 15 more makes than the Pacific Division-leading Suns, who came into the game scoring an NBA-high 110.1 points a game, eight points better than second-place Dallas, and shooting .481 on field goals.

The Suns also came into Wednesday's game with a 31-4 record and a seven-game win streak. Utah has now taken back-to-back games from the Southwest and Pacific division leaders and carries a 13-24 record in the Northwest after breaking a nine-game losing streak.

The Suns were .429 from the field Wednesday despite making eight of their first 12 shots and running off to a 23-9 advantage.

That was down to 29-26 at the end of the first quarter as Lopez and two who sat out Monday's stunning win over San Antonio with sore knees n Matt Harpring and Raja Bell n aided Utah's offense and Lopez (two) and Mehmet Okur (four) made free throws.

The key to the Jazz's spurt to the lead was a smaller, quicker lineup than the one that started the game, though Okur was in there much of the time. Utah wasn't getting back on defense quickly enough at the beginning against a team run by Nash. The other part was several pick-and-rolls by Lopez.

Okur, who got Monday's winning basket on a putback of a McLeod missed layup, had 21 points and a season-high 17 rebounds, 10 on the offensive boards, to lead all Jazzmen. He had about five putback baskets Wednesday, and the Jazz had 26 second-chance points to 10 for Phoenix. Utah also had 54 points in the paint to the Suns' 36.

Okur said he's been making "an all-out effort. I'm trying my best."