Hornets can't sting, but Jazz enjoy victory

In a season like the Jazz's, victories come so few and far between that it's hard for those who care most to knock them.

So forget that Utah's 108-92 win over New Orleans on Saturday night came against the NBA's last-place team, the Jazz would suggest.

Forget that the Hornets have only eight wins in 47 games this season, and that they have now lost five straight overall and seven in a row on the road.

Forget that New Orleans was without its top three scorers this season, injured star point guard Baron Davis, and forwards Lee Nailon and Jamaal Magloire.

Focus instead, All-Star Andrei Kirilenko insists, on how the 16-31 Jazz played to snap a three-game losing streak and win for just the second time in seven games.

"Much better," Kirilenko said. "We beat the team by (16) points. Even if it's not the greatest team in the NBA, they actually lost one.

"We need this kind of win, you know, just for the feeling — to start feeling we can win the game, and get back our confidence. Because were struggling for the last 10 games."

Or more.

Consider that the Jazz took a 20-point advantage into the fourth quarter, and did not blow it — despite the reality that lately they'd become all too accustomed to late-game collapses.

A big push came at the end of the third, when Jazz guard Raja Bell got Casey Jacobsen into the air with 0.3 seconds left in the quarter.

Jacobsen was called for a foul, and exploded. Bell hit the first free throw that resulted, and Hornets coach Byron Scott was called for a technical foul as he and Jacobsen tried to plead their case. Bell also made the freebie stemming from the technical. He missed the second one from the Jacobsen foul, but Mehmet Okur tapped in the rebound to beat the period-ending buzzer and put Utah up 83-63.

"We allowed them (to take out their anger). That's the bottom line," Scott said of the Jazz. "They came out with a very physical and aggressive mindset, and we basically stood there and took it."

Look, too, some with the Jazz might tell you, at the fact seven Utah players Saturday scored in double figures — just the second time since 1999 that has happened, with the occasion actually coming in the Jazz's last win, Jan. 26 vs. Seattle.