Back on track: Jazz rebound after two losses to defeat Spurs

Outside of EnergySolutions Arena, environmentalists distributed glow sticks to protest naming rights to the building formerly known as the Delta Center being sold to a company that disposes of low-level radioactive waste.

Inside, the Jazz — off to the NBA's best start despite dropping their last two outings — took issue with those suggesting they looked like garbage in losses Saturday at Golden State and Monday to Orlando.

Utah made its case by beating San Antonio 83-75 Wednesday night, doing so behind the challenged-by-a-teammate play of power forward Carlos Boozer and a moving rah-rah speech delivered pre-game by veteran guard Derek Fisher.

"He told us that if we want to be recognized and we want to become a team that's gonna be reckoned with, that we've got to beat teams like this, that these are games we've got to show up for," point guard Deron Williams said after the beating the 1999, 2003 and 2005 NBA-champion Spurs. "And then he pulled out ... one of his championship rings and showed us (that) if we want to be like them, we've got to bring it night in and night out."

The message, according to Fisher, came with a purpose.

"Sometimes when things are going bad, you lose sight of the goal of why we're all here. You get so focused into one loss, or two losses, or one week, and I think you lose sight of how long the season is, and what the objective is," he said. "So, I just wanted to remind the guys that there's a bigger purpose here — don't get so caught up in what we did the last couple games, let's go ahead and play against a team that knows how to be champions ... and show them we're capable of getting to that level as well."

As it turns out, the Jazz — who improved to 13-3, and avoided falling into a tie with the now 11-5 Spurs and 12-4 Magic for the league's best — didn't start out too terrifically.

Utah was down by as many as 10 points in the second quarter, and went into the break trailing by two. But the Jazz rebounded after halftime and took the lead for good when Boozer hit a Matt Harpring-fed 16-footer with just more than six minutes remaining.

Boozer wound up with a 21-point, 16-rebound double-double as the Jazz out-rebounded San Antonio 50-34 — but, perhaps more importantly, he gave Spurs star Tim Duncan fits on both ends of the floor.

"I told him before the game that's one of the guys that can keep him out of the All-Star Game," Williams said. "And you see what he (Boozer) did."