"Only four other coaches have done something like that," Williams said. "That says a lot about Coach Sloan, and what kind of coach he is. He's been one of the greatest coaches in this league for a while, and he continues to do that."

And the Jazz, as a team, did it by playing to near-perfection against the Mavs, getting 31 points and 11 rebounds from Carlos Boozer, double-digit scoring from four others, a 48-24 point advantage on the paint and a 42-26 edge on the boards.

Utah, which improved its NBA-leading record to 16-5, also did it by holding Mavs All-Star Dirk Nowitzki to a rather ordinary 26-point, 10-rebound night.

The Jazz did it in style, too, running a lead of 12 points heading into the fourth quarter to as many as 28 against a now 14-7 Dallas team that had won eight of its previous 10 games.

"I know he's probably definitely pleased with it," Williams said, perhaps covering his bases because one can never be certain if Sloan truly is happy or not after any victory.

"We played our type of basketball, and we got a win," he added. "It feels good, especially because this team (Dallas) looked pretty hot coming into this game."

No one, though, must feel better than Sloan— if for no other reason than the fact he no longer has to hear talk or answer questions about winning No. 1,000.

The magic mark really is no big deal to him, evidenced by his postgame reaction, telling his club — in Kirilenko's paraphrased words — to "pick it up, we have next game to play," then announcing that practice this morning would be at its usual 10 a.m.

With that, the Jazz coach faced media members curious to at least know when was the last time Sloan heard his name chanted like it was late Monday night.

His response? Actually, he said, it came Monday morning, from his wife, "trying to get me out bed."

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E-mail: tbuckley@desnews.com