Utah Jazz: Team wakes up in time to beat Clippers

While holding a seventh consecutive opponent under the century scoring mark, Utah's offense was solid all game. The Jazz shot 58.6 percent and got double-figure scoring from all five starters and sixth man C.J. Miles (16 points).

Williams topped the surging and resurgent Jazz with team-highs in scoring (26 points), passing (nine assists) and rebounding (five).

"Give Utah credit," Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro said. "They execute so well. ... Deron Williams gets them in their sets and they push the tempo when he controls the game.

"You knew they were going to make a run no matter what. Once they got control of the game, we were trying to fight back and fight back."

Griffin ended with 35 points and 14 rebounds and Eric Gordon scored 21 points for L.A. Outside of them, the Clippers were seriously outmatched with Baron Davis and Chris Kaman out with injuries.

And L.A. simply had no solutions for the on-again-off-again gadget defense Sloan only occasionally resorts to but proved pivotal in this one.

"That definitely helped," Williams said. "It seemed like we couldn't stop anybody. They were hitting shots from everywhere. We went to that zone a little bit, switched in and out of it, giving them different looks, and I think it halted their efforts a little bit."

The Jazz, who play Milwaukee at home tonight, will happily trade a few extra winks to get those kind of results any day.

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