Kirilenko's all-around play has Jazz on streak

CLEVELAND — Four games ago, he missed making his third career triple-double by two rebounds. Three games ago, he came up just one assist shy. Two games ago, he was off by only two boards and two assists.

And in the 7-2 Jazz's most-recent game, a 92-88 victory Wednesday at Toronto that extended their winning streak to five, only two points and one rebound kept starting small forward Andrei Kirilenko from realizing the statistically significant achievement.

The cynic might say that he is merely doing all he must to play his way out of Utah. The romantic might say he is doing all he can to help the Jazz prove their appearance in last season's NBA Western Conference finals was no fluke.

Kirilenko — who was unhappy and requested a trade in the offseason that he still has not publicly retracted — steers clear of all that, and suggests only that his inspired play so far this season stems solely from a genuine desire to do what his team needs.

"That is not the goal," Kirilenko said when asked about the elusive-this-season personal marker.

"The goal is to get a win," he added. "It's nice to have a triple-double, but I like the (result) of the game anyway."

He'll get another chance tonight as the Jazz pay a visit to LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Kirilenko scored only eight points against the Raptors, hitting just 1-of-6 from the field. But did so much else that hardly anyone seemed to notice the sorry shooting, or care.

He made five steals. Blocked a couple shots. And he dished 11 assists, matching his season high and giving him a total of 39 over his past four outings.

Kirilenko did it in style at Toronto, too, from a picture-perfect lob to Mehmet Okur to open the third quarter to an on-the-button in-bounds pass to a cutting Gordan Giricek for an easy layup later in the same period.

That's not to mention the backward and between-his-legs number that went to Deron Williams early on, when that could have pushed his eventual assists count to 12 had Williams not missed the resulting jumper.

The points?

Oh well.

On one hand, a perhaps inadvertent blurt sheds light on how he really feels. "I don't really shoot a lot," he said.

On the other, Kirilenko says he is "trying to do everything" — and suggests he is quite content doing just that.