Utah Jazz: Brewer fuels fourth-quarter Jazz surge in win over Sixers

PHILADELPHIA — The pregame talk revolved around the absence of Jazz center Mehmet Okur and Kyrylo Fesenko, along with the Philadelphia return of former 76er Kyle Korver.

The chatter then turned to Deron Williams, who made his first appearance of the NBA season.

But by the time the fourth quarter ended tonight, all talk was about Ronnie Brewer. He scored all 16 of his points in the final 12 minutes to help lead the Jazz to a 93-80 road win over the Sixers.

The Jazz improved to 6-1, but don't have much time to celebrate this victory with another road game coming Wednesday night at Washington.

Similar to Sunday's loss in New York, it looked like the Jazz might suffer another road setback after a rough third quarter. After building a double-digit lead, Utah got outscored 22-6 by the 76ers in the final minutes of the third as Philly took a four-point lead into the fourth quarter.

But sparked by Brewer and Andrei Kirilenko, Utah went on a 13-2 spurt to begin the fourth quarter to regain the lead and momentum.

Carlos Boozer led Utah with 19 points and 16 rebounds, and a bunch of other Jazz players contributed to the win. Brewer, who missed his first nine shots tonight, finished with nine assists, six rebounds and four steals to go with his fourth-quarter scoring explosion.

The Jazz also got 16 points apiece from Kirilenko and Paul Millsap.

In his first start after suffering a preseason ankle sprain, Williams finished with seven points, nine assists and a block in 30 productive minutes.

Kosta Koufos ended up starting for Okur, who was excused from the team to attend to a family illness in his home country of Turkey. Utah also played without Fesenko, the second-year big man from Ukraine who left the team temporarily to deal with visa issues in Toronto.

Jarron Collins (elbow) dressed but did not play.

Koufos picked up his first start of his NBA career, scoring six points with five rebounds and two blocks.

Former University of Utah star Andre Miller had a big outing for the 2-5 Sixers, finishing with a game-high 25 points and six assists.