Utah Jazz notebook: Team vows not to take Timberwolves lightly

SALT LAKE CITY — The Minnesota Timberwolves are in town to play the Utah Jazz tonight, and you can guess what that means.

OK, aside from the overuse of the adjective pesky?

Yep, the Jazz are revisiting painful early season outings against the pestering T-Wolves (how's that for a change?) who shocked Utah twice within a two-week period in December. Minnesota also gave the Jazz fits in the one game Utah actually won, a 107-103 squeaker in late December.

The Jazz, who are in the thick of things in the upper half of the Western Conference playoff positioning battle, are once again promising to not overlook a team that sits at the bottom of the standings.

"This season we're not going to take any more teams lightly," Jazz forward Carlos Boozer said. "We did a bad job of that earlier on in the season where we would get up for the good games or the tough matchups, but we wouldn't get up for the teams that we're supposed to beat, quote-unquote."

Boozer said the Jazz "took lessons from that" — a claim that certainly seemed to be the case when Utah waltzed by woeful Washington 112-89 on Monday night.

"This is a team we're supposed to beat and, nothing against them, but we're going to take a different course of action," Boozer continued. "We did a good job of bringing it (Monday). We've got to do the same thing on Wednesday."

Minnesota comes into tonight's showdown limping severely, having fallen to the second-worst mark in the NBA at 14-54 and riding a 10-game losing streak, having been pasted by Phoenix, 152-114, Tuesday night.

Utah, which took Tuesday off, stands at 43-24, although the Jazz did lose to the T-Wolves when they only had four wins in December, so nothing is a given.

"They've played really well against us," Jazz guard Kyle Korver said. "We've got to come with the same mindset we had (Monday) and just play hard, pass the ball, play defense, and we'll take whatever happens."

That should be a win, according to Boozer, who almost channeled Joe Namath while talking about tonight's outcome.

"Minnesota is another team that beat us earlier in the year. We took them lightly," Boozer recalled. "I guarantee we won't take them lightly this time."

TIMELY ATTIRE: You won't be able to pinch Jazz players tonight for not wearing the correct St. Patrick's Day color. The Jazz will again sport their green jerseys, which have seemed to be accompanied by some luck of the Irish. Utah has won seven in a row and eight of nine games overall while wearing their throwback Hardwood Classics Nights uniforms.

The Jazz have only one more game — at Toronto on March 24 — in their green uniforms.

INJURY UPDATE: Small forward Andrei Kirilenko (strained left calf) and backup guard Ronnie Price (bruised right wrist) will be game-time decisions for tonight's game. Kirilenko has missed the past two games and Price has been sidelined for three straight with their injuries.

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