McGrady's 44 helps sink Jazz

HOUSTON — Tracy McGrady scored a season-high 44 points. Dikembe Mutombo pulled down a season-high 19 rebounds.

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The Houston Rockets certainly did not in a 100-86 dismantling of the Jazz on Friday night at the sold-out Toyota Center, where coach Jerry Sloan's 23-10 club got a lesson in just how much damage a scorer with will and a center with reach can do.

McGrady took a whopping 31 shots in 35 minutes, including 10 from 3-point range. But it was his 17 points on 6-of-10 shooting from the field in the first 12 minutes that really set the Jazz back.

"T-Mac came out on fire," Jazz point guard Deron Williams said. "They built they lead and were never able to come back from it."

The Rockets All-Star knocked down his first three trey attempts, helping Houston get off to a 15-3 start and making it easy for many to forget — or ignore — the fact he missed his final seven attempts from the behind the long-distance line.

"Shooting the ball the way he was (early) from the perimeter — that opens up his whole game," Jazz guard Derek Fisher said.

"Often times, if you can force him to settle for (tough) jump shots then you're maybe doing a good job," Fisher added. "But when he starts shooting the ball from distance the way he was to start the game, that opens up his entire repertoire — because you have to get closer on him, (and) now that opens up the drive, opens up his ability to make plays for other people."

Perhaps most maddening for the Jazz is that McGrady was simply doing what he had planned all along.

"(Utah) is a very well-coached team, a very well-disciplined team. They're a great execution team, and a team that is going to play hard," said McGrady, whose previous season-high was 38 on New Year's Eve. "I just wanted to set the tone right away and let my teammates know that this is how it's going to be until the final buzzer ends."

Message delivered, loud and clear, by someone who had no fewer than five different defenders — most with little help — take their best shots at him.

"Once I got rolling," said McGrady, who besides making 14 from the field also hit 13-of-16 from the free-throw line, "our guys followed my lead. They did a great job of getting me the ball in the right spots, and I was fortunate enough to knock down a lot of shots."