Jazz overcome tired Bucks; Sloan passes Auerbach

One week earlier, the Jazz were in precisely the same boat as the Milwaukee Bucks were Saturday night.

On the road. End of a five-games-in-seven-nights trip. Very nearly out of fuel.

Just as the Jazz did in a one-point loss at Washington the previous Saturday, Milwaukee gave Utah a game. Just like Wizards, however, the Jazz managed to hang on.

Utah beat the Bucks 94-89 at the Delta Center, sending coach Terry Porter's club — coming off an overtime loss at Golden State on Friday night — home to catch its breath.

"Maybe they were tired. Maybe not," Jazz guard Gordan Giricek said. "Who cares?"

Certainly not Jazz coach Jerry Sloan, who with the win — the 939th of his career — moved past legendary Boston Celtics coach Red Auerbach for sole possession of sixth place on the NBA's all-time regular-season coaching-victories list.

"That stuff's not important to me," Sloan said of the milestone. "That stuff never has been important to me."

What is meaningful to Sloan is the fact that for a fourth straight game the Jazz — now 22-47 with 13 games to go in a season with little remaining meaning — played to win.

Even with its top two scorers on the injured list in Carlos Boozer and Andrei Kirilenko, Utah had four point-producers in double figures, topped by Raja Bell's game-high and season-high 23. Rookie Kris Humphries added a career-high 17 on 7-of-9 shooting from the field, with Gordan Giricek pitching in 13 off the bench and Matt Harpring an additional 12.

Just like the Jazz's last three outings — two one-point losses to the Wizards, and Tuesday's win over the Los Angeles Lakers that snapped a nine-game losing streak — this one went down to the end.

Only when Michael Redd clanked a would-be tying 3-point attempt with 7.9 seconds remaining, in fact, were the Jazz able to breath comfortably themselves.

Harpring rebounded Redd's miss, was fouled and made the two free throws that followed with 5.7 seconds left to put the Jazz up by five.

The final few seconds, though, didn't cost the 27-42 Bucks nearly as much as the first seven minutes of the fourth did in this meeting of division cellar-dwellers.

The Jazz — using their 24th different starting lineup of the season, with Keith McLeod at point guard, Bell at shooting guard, Harpring and Humphries at the forward spots and Jarron Collins at center — jumped to a 9-0 lead at the start of the game.