Jazz hope Memo has big encore

As they enjoyed the aftermath of a second straight 22-point victory — this one over a shorthanded Phoenix Suns team missing starters Steve Nash, Grant Hill and Shawn Marion — Mehmet Okur's Jazz teammates could not help but gush over the big Turk's 22-point, 17-rebound performance.

"Hopefully that will continue," point guard Deron Williams said after Okur pulled down seven more boards than he has in any other game this season.

"It was fun to watch him play like that," power forward Carlos Boozer said. "When he plays like that, we're virtually unstoppable."

It was vintage Okur, circa pre-2007 NBA All-Star Game.

He knocked down a trio of 3-pointers, hallmark of the long distance-shooting center's game.

He dared to venture inside, using Suns big man Amare Stoudemire as a personal prop to make many wonder why he isn't willing to do so more often.

He pulled down 12 defensive boards, and five on the offensive end, finishing just a rebound shy of matching his career high and posting only his second double-double this season.

"When we get that kind of production out of him," Boozer said. "We're pretty ... good."

Okur doesn't deny it.

Nor does he, much like Jazz coach Jerry Sloan, feel such play is the sole missing link separating last season's NBA Western Conference finalists from this season's rather mediocre 20-17 Jazz team.

"Not just me," Okur said as the Jazz prepared Friday to play burgeoning All-Star center Dwight Howard and the Orlando Magic tonight.

"He's not the only guy we have to have," Sloan added. "It's not a one-man team."

Still, there's no denying that the Jazz looked much more Thursday like a fully represented five-man club than they have when Okur has struggled previously.

There's also no denying that his production problems of late may stem at least partly from a seven-game, two-week layoff prompted by a strained left shoulder muscle.

"He's just now getting his legs back because of not playing," Williams said.

"Yeah, I'm feeling a lot better now," said Okur, who missed only two games over his first three seasons in Utah. "Feeling healthy really means something to me, because if you look at my career, I never miss that much games ... and all of a sudden I'm like, 'What's going on?' "

Before the injury, Okur averaged 12.2 points and 5.0 rebounds per game.

In his seven post-return games prior to Thursday, those numbers had dipped — albeit just a bit, to 11.0 and 4.9.

Yet in all, even with Thursday's high numbers, Okur's 2007-08 averages of 12.3 points and 5.4 rebounds are down drastically from 17.6 and 7.2 a season ago.