Jazz unimpressed with W

Their best January in 13 years, second-best in franchise history.

Hey, it was nice.

But the Jazz have set their bar higher than the way they finished the month Wednesday night with a 100-89 win over the New York Knicks in EnergySolutions Arena.

The Jazz won, wire-to-wire, but a 17-point lead evaporated to three midway through the third period, and a 10-point lead at the end of the third quarter was cut to six, and the Jazz were only up seven with 4 1/2 minutes left.

"It really wasn't our best game," said power forward Carlos Boozer, who had 17 points but was three rebounds away from his 32nd double-double.

"We're very happy with the victory, but we expect much more of ourselves than what we showed tonight, and for us to stay where we are in the Western Conference, we've got to do a much better job offensively."

And defensively.

"We still played good enough 'D' to win the game, which we're happy with," said Boozer, "but we have bigger goals."

Boozer's point guard, Deron Williams, was of the same opinion.

"I just think we expect more. We had a chance in the game to blow it open and extend the lead, and we didn't do that because we got lazy on defense, and that can't happen.

"We've got to learn to finish teams off even more, early on in the game instead of at the end," said Williams, who had his fifth straight double-double with 22 points and 12 assists.

Still, the 28-18 Jazz are where they want to be, having won their sixth straight game and holding a half-game lead over Denver in the Northwest Division, thanks to that 11-2 January after a 5-11 December. It was their best January since the franchise record 14-1 in 1995.

They've won 10 straight at home — their longest streak since winning 10 in a row in March/April 1999, and they have won 12 of their last 14 games.

Utah now has a two-game weekend in the East, at Washington Friday and at Memphis Saturday before returning home for a Monday game with the New Orleans Hornets.

The Hornets had the longest current win streak in the league at nine, but when they lost Wednesday night, the Jazz took over that title with their six.

Utah has not been behind in a game since 71-70 at 7:46 of the Houston game Sunday.