Utah Jazz rally late to dethrone Kings

Jazz-Kings boxscore

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — As he helplessly watched his team squander an advantage, a Sacramento Kings' fan in the small Arco Arena audience hollered out in bemused frustration.

"We can't stand to have the lead!" the spectator shouted. "It hurts!"

Turns out, the Kings didn't need to ingest any pain-killers to dull the hurt of a lead that lasted.

Picking up an old habit, the Jazz snuck out of Sacramento with a come-from-behind 107-104 victory.

Utah, which trailed 87-80 to begin the fourth quarter and by as many as 10 points in the second half, won for the 13th time this season after trailing by double digits.

Even though this was against a struggling 12-win team, the Jazz admitted they needed a bounce-back win in a big way after Saturdays 121-106 home loss to Oklahoma City and after having lost nine of 12.

"It was huge," Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said. "Everybody knows the situation we're in and the way we've stubbed our toe here and there."

Along with the return of the team's early season M.O., the thriller also featured a comeback by Andrei Kirilenko.

After telling reporters he felt as excited as a little kid to return to action after missing three games with a sprained left ankle, Kirilenko scored 10 points, grabbed eight rebounds and blocked three shots to help lift Utah to its sixth straight win over Sacramento.

"Andrei, I thought he really made some good plays, rebounded the basketball, tough rebounds," Sloan said. "And (he) made some very good plays for us on the offensive end."

Though Kirilenko missed a 2 of 4 free throws in the final 22.2 seconds to keep things a bit more interesting than the visitors might have preferred, he gave the Jazz the lead for good at 103-101 with a strong drive with just under two minutes remaining.

Kirilenko also had a couple of key rebounds in the final moments, and fittingly ended up with the ball as the clock ran down to zero.

Offensively, several Jazz players took turns tickling the twine.

Center Al Jefferson came out firing in the first quarter, scoring 10 quick points as Utah took an early lead that it couldn't hold.