Utah Jazz: Top Warriors, keep pace in playoff race

SALT LAKE CITY — They might have flipped to the Food Network. Turned to CNN. Checked out HGTV to watch paint dry, for goodness sakes.

But apologies, ESPN.

Sorry, FSN Utah.

There probably weren't many viewers left by the end late Wednesday night, when the Jazz were mopping up what remained of a 128-104 big-time blowout win over Golden State at EnergySolutions Arena.

Utah improved to 50-26 behind Carlos Boozer's game-high 25 points and game-high 13 rebounds (his 51st double-double this season), Kyle Korver's season-high 21 points (including 8-for-12 field shooting), Deron Williams' season-high 19 assists and Paul Millsap's 19-point, 11-board double-double, marking its third time in four seasons with at least 50 wins.

The Jazz did it largely behind the strength of a 76-point first half, their highest-scoring half of the season by a whopping six points — and just four off their 1989 franchise record for points in an opening half, also realized against Golden State.

It also was the third-highest-scoring half since late in 1997 for the Jazz, who remain third in the NBA's Western Conference — but picked up a half-game on Denver for the lead of the Northwest Division, with the idle Nuggets now a game-and-a-half behind leader Utah.

"We shot the ball pretty well in the first half," said coach Jerry Sloan, whose club hit 53.1 percent (29-for-49, including 6-for-13 from 3-point range) in quarters one and two.

"You hope that you'd be able to do that," added Sloan, whose Jazz visit the defending NBA-champion and Western Conference-leading Los Angeles Lakers on Friday night. "You just to have to keep your focus so you can."

Boozer, though, was curiously more impressed by a second half in which Utah actually was outscored 55-52.

"Honestly, to me, it was that second half. We came out great in that second half," he said. "We had a good first half, don't get me wrong.

"But the second half we came out better," Boozer added. "We played good defense, we went to our zone a little bit to work on (that) ... just in case we have to throw that at somebody else in the playoffs, and it worked for us. We got stops."

A 40-26 first quarter in which Williams scored nothing and shot 0-for-4 from the field but dished nine of his 19 assists, however, was got the Jazz going from the get-go.