Utah Jazz: Thunder rolled as Sloan gets historic win

As victory No. 1,000 for him as head coach of the Jazz wound down, a hand-held sign was raised congratulating Jerry Sloan and urging him to "Go for 2,000."

Sloan wasn't so sure he'd make it that far, especially after enduring the toll of ebb and flow in a 104-97 win over Oklahoma City on Friday night at sold-out EnergySolutions Arena.

"I'm just trying to get the next one," said Sloan, whose Jazz — now 5-0 for the first time since the start of the 2000-01 NBA season, and for just the third time in franchise history — open a five-game road trip on Sunday at New York.

With such a meaningful milestone at stake in this one, though, the Jazz really did want to take care of business.

That much was evident with a 21-0 run in the first quarter — their answer to a 10-3 start from the relocated and renamed Seattle Sonics, now known as the Thunder.

By the time the second quarter was done, the Jazz lead stood at 58-29 — and the only question to be answered seemed to be whether Sloan might get recognized for his accomplishment at halftime or between the third and fourth quarters.

As it turned out, though, Oklahoma City (1-4) wasn't about to make it so quite so easy for a Jazz club that played its fifth straight game without injured point guard Deron Williams.

Sloan — with 1,810 previous games' worth of NBA coaching experience behind him, including 1,595 with the Jazz — naturally saw it coming.

"Everything kind of fell in place for us. The game became a little easy," he said. "But then you try to tell them at halftime the second half's not gonna be like the first half.

"You see that a lot of times," Sloan added. "You go out and score 50, 55 points, and think you're gonna have the same kind of play the second half. And invariably the other team is gonna switch that around."

The Thunder did just that, chipping away at the Jazz's comfy cushion and getting to within eight points three times in the fourth quarter — something Sloan called "a little disheartening."

But after the second such occassion, at 86-78 midway through the period, Jazz sixth man Andrei Kirilenko — who finished with a 16-point, 12-rebound double-double — answered with a couple free throws that ignited a 13-3 run.