Rare road win — Victory moves Sloan into 7th-place tie with mentor Motta

HOUSTON — They hadn't won in so long, an otherwise sound mind was quite confused.

Jerry Sloan was so giddy after his Jazz beat the Houston Rockets 99-92 on Sunday, in fact, he gushed over what he said was his club's first road victory of 2005.

Actually, it was Utah's second — the other coming Jan. 17 over the Los Angeles Lakers.

Either way, though, the win was momentous: In snapping a four-game overall losing streak and a five-game road losing skid, the 18-37 Jazz finally allowed Sloan to tie his former coach in Chicago, Dick Motta, for seventh place on the NBA's all-time regular-season coaching victories list with 935.

"I think we can excuse Coach," Jazz co-captain Matt Harpring said after scoring a season-high 28 points, "because it's been so long he can't remember."

Truth be told, there was a lot Sloan could not recall after the win — the last time the Jazz were so into a game, for starters.

"That, to me," he said, "was the most excitement I've seen out of us all year long.

"It was fun," added Sloan, whose club is back at it tonight vs. the Los Angeles Clippers, "to see them have some success."

Something else Sloan hasn't seen in a while: the last time the Jazz executed in the fourth quarter like they did against the Tracy McGrady, Yao Ming and the Rockets.

"We executed for four straight quarters," Harpring said. "We haven't done that for that in a long time. . . . It shows we can do it. I mean, that's what we're capable of."

"When a guy was open, we got the ball to him at the right time — and he could shoot, pretty much, in his rhythm, rather than letting a guy go through, then all of a sudden passing when it's too late," Sloan added. "When you're running an offense, that makes a big difference."

Big enough to finally win one.

"We've played hard all year," Sloan said, "but haven't been able to finish with our execution."

Sunday, though, the Jazz did.

Tied at 69 heading into the fourth quarter, the period of doom that cost it a couple possible wins coming out of the recent NBA All-Star break, Utah took the lead for good when center Mehmet Okur took a pass inside from rookie Kris Humphries and converted it into a reverse layup.