Jazz pick, roll past Seattle

SEATTLE — When the going got tough Friday night, the Jazz got by reverting to what they do best.

The ol' pick-and-roll. Some old-fashioned hustle.

Both played key roles as Utah beat winless Seattle 103-101 at KeyArena, giving coach Jerry Sloan's 4-2 club its first winning streak of the 2007-08 NBA season.

The pick-and-roll was performed to perfection with not by John Stockton and Karl Malone, but rather Deron Williams and Carlos Boozer — who are growing into quite an experienced tandem in their own right — for the winning basket with 17.6 seconds to go.

"It's tough to run a pick-and-roll like Boozer and Deron did," Sloan said, "if you haven't been together for a while. That's what basketball's all about — develop(ing) continuity with your players."

Boozer, who finished with a game-high 27 points and game-high 15 rebounds, set the pick on Sonics guard Delonte West.

And Williams, who had a double-double of his own with 14 points and 11 assists, shipped the pass to a slipping Boozer for a finger roll lay-in that helped salvage Utah's night.

Even then, though, the Jazz's work was not yet done.

After Jazz center Mehmet Okur hacked Sonics big man Chris Wilcox across the arm and forced him into a down-low turnover with 8.9 seconds remaining, West committed a foul.

Andrei Kirilenko tried to in-bounds the ball after the resulting whistle, but his pass was stolen by Seattle rookie Kevin Durant, who took off the other way for what could have been a game-tying basket.

Kirilenko raced back, though, just in time to deflect Durant's shot and seal the Jazz's victory.

"How 'bout the hustle he made to get back after he lost the ball?" asked Sloan, whose Jazz face Memphis tonight at EnergySolutions Arena in the back half of a back-to-back set. "That was the main thing.

"He (Kirilenko) could have stood there and felt sorry for himself," Sloan added. "But he jumped back right in and went down there and got a piece of the basketball. That was the encouraging thing."

It was hardly the only optimistic sign shown by Kirilenko, who finished with an 11-assist, 10-point double-double and also pulled down eight rebounds, made four steals and blocked four shots.

During one short but crucial stretch in the fourth quarter, he delivered key passes for baskets to Okur and Boozer, blocked a shot inside by West and nabbed a steal from 20-point team-high scorer Durant.