Utah Jazz: Carlos Boozer turns in beast of a game in win

SALT LAKE CITY — On Friday night, Carlos Boozer called fellow power forward Paul Millsap a monster.

Apparently, it takes one to know one.

Denver fans and players might have slept with one eye open Sunday night, fearing that Booz the Beast might crawl out from under their beds and terrorize them like he did the Nuggets in the Utah Jazz's 117-106 victory.

In a big game, Boozer had a big-time performance with 31 points, 13 rebounds — including six on the offensive glass — five assists and a couple of blocked shots.

"It was monstrous," Utah's Kyle Korver said of Boozer's outing. "He really set the tone. That's what we need."

Boozer's breakout game was hands-down his strongest of the series, and it couldn't have come at a better time as it helped the Jazz take a commanding 3-1 series lead.

Reminded what Boozer called him after Friday's impressive effort, Millsap returned the compliment.

His description of Boozer on this night: "A beast-slash-monster-slash-whatever else you want to call it."

Boozer certainly gave Nene and Kenyon Martin fits, especially down low where he had nine of his 13 baskets.

"He just controlled the paint," Korver said. "Whatever was in the paint was his. He was getting offensive rebounds, putbacks. He was just bullying everybody."

Bullying and banging his way to big buckets, something he did once he started getting into the offense after a quick Denver start.

Boozer began asserting himself about 3 1/2 minutes into the game with the Jazz trailing by seven. He put his body into power reverse mode on his first bucket, backing his big 6-foot-9, 260-pound frame up against the 6-11, 250-pound Nene for an inside bucket at the 8:37 mark.

That made it 14-9 for Denver, but by the time Boozer left with two minutes remaining in the quarter he had 11 points and two swats and the Jazz were up 26-23.

The Jazz Monster made some more Denver kids scream in the third quarter. Boozer drove past Nene and Carmelo Anthony for the first of 11 third-quarter points to put Utah up 58-47.

He then got his soft-touch jumper going for a couple more baskets in that pivotal third quarter in which the Jazz raged to a 20-point lead on a couple of occasions.

Boozer about brought the rim and the EnergySolutions Arena roof down when he spun around Nene and slammed in a two-handed jam to give Utah a 90-71 lead.

"Boozer do what he do, and he had a great night tonight," Millsap said.

Boozer even might have had the assist of the night. He made a quick pass to Kyrylo Fesenko, who got fouled en route to a dunk. The ball squirted out of Fes' hands and plopped into the net later in the fourth quarter.

Boozer, whose previous scoring high in this series was 20, added one of his patented fading jumpers from the free-throw line with just over three minutes left as the Jazz held off the Nuggets.

Just another big Boozer play that made a week ago Wednesday, when he was all but vilified by some fans and media members for not playing with a strained oblique in the Jazz's regular-season finale, seem like an eternity ago.

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