Utah Jazz come back to top the Blazers

PORTLAND, Ore. — Know that shooting slump C.J. Miles struggled through the past couple of weeks?

Yeah, it officially ended in a big way Saturday night.

If that wasn't clear after he drilled back-to-back 3-pointers in the first half against Portland, you might have had a clue his cold spell was over after he fired in a couple more long bombs in the third quarter.

After a sizzling fourth, the bottom of the snapping visitors' nets were simply calling out for mercy. That sympathy plea sounded like this: Swish, swish, swish, swish and swish.

By the time Miles was done tickling the twine and torturing the crowd, the Jazz's sixth man had drained a career-best seven 3-pointers, scored a season-high 25 points and shot his team to a 103-94 victory.

"He bailed us out big-time," Jazz point guard Deron Williams said. "He shot it and shot it well, especially when it counted."

Miles' five fourth-quarter treys helped spark Utah to yet another double-digit come-from-behind win on the road — the Jazz's sixth of that sort this season, if you're counting.

Struggling to get going a night after a lackluster loss to San Antonio in Utah, the Jazz fell behind the Trail Blazers by 11 in the second quarter.

But Utah closed that gap to three by halftime, and showed renewed signs of life.

Road, sweet road. Go figure.

"We were hanging in there," said Jazz fill-in coach Phil Johnson, who again subbed for a funeral-attending Jerry Sloan. "At halftime, I felt like we had a chance if we just played strong."

The Jazz saved their best for the final quarter, which is their specialty this season. The Blazers entered the fourth with a nine-point lead after a bizarre turn of events, which included Jazz assistant trainer Brian Zettler getting called for a technical, one of Miles' rare misses ending up resting on top of the backboard and Miles missing a dunk.

But it was all Jazz after that.

Utah surged to an 82-80 lead thanks to a quarter-opening 17-6 run, which included two of Miles' threes.

And he was just getting warmed up on his 7-for-10 3-point shooting night.

This coming from Miles, who missed 12 straight from long distance over three games earlier this season and who had only hit 4 of his last 29 from beyond the arc.