Jazz not completely content with 3-2 road-trip record

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Even after rallying to beat Memphis 100-97 on Saturday night, some with the Jazz were fussing and fuming about what might have been on a five-game pre-Christmas road that ended with three victories and a pair of losses.

"Bad trip, I feel," point guard Deron Williams said. "You know, we had a chance to go 5-0 on this trip. We lost to two teams with a combined 12 wins."

OK, slight exaggeration. New York and Charlotte aren't quite that bad. Still, point made.

"It is what it is," forward Matt Harpring said. "This was a long road trip, and we salvaged it by getting this win."

Others with the Jazz, however, weren't quite as down as Williams — or, for that matter, Harpring.

"I think it was a good trip for us," said Mehmet Okur, who hit Saturday's game-winning 3-pointer. "If you look at (Charlotte and New York), it was winnable games for us. But, we look forward. It's all behind us now."

"I would say it's good," added forward Andrei Kirilenko, who thought the Jazz should also have at least won what wound up as an overtime loss to the Knicks last Monday. "Not really successful, but it's good. 3-2 is more than 50 percent."

DENTAL DETAILS: Tales of Kirilenko's tooth-yanking episode, as told by Charlotte's Matt Carroll after the Bobcats beat the Jazz on Friday night, also may be slightly exaggerated.

Carroll had Kirilenko pulling out his entire dangling tooth after Carroll accidentally caught Kirilenko in the mouth with his elbow while taking a 3-point shot. Both Kirilenko and Jazz trainer Gary Briggs insisted Saturday, however, that what Kirilenko actually removed and discarded was a veneer-capped portion of a tooth that had chipped off.

"It's not the whole thing," said a still-in-pain Kirilenko, adding he would have the tooth repaired when he returned to Utah.

DRY RIBS: Okur played Saturday despite bruised ribs and a strained muscle near his rib cage, keeping alive a consecutive-games streak that now stands at 208.

"I felt sore at the beginning," said Okur, who was injured in Charlotte, "but when I warmed up it really (felt) better."

After former University of Utah point guard Andre Miller fell off the list following his trade last week from Denver to Philadelphia, Okur has now appeared in the fourth-most straight games among active players behind only San Antonio's Bruce Bowen, Detroit's Tayshuan Prince and Cleveland's Damon Jones.