Utah Jazz down Timberwolves in thriller

Jerry Sloan won't celebrate his 20th anniversary.

The longtime Jazz coach might, however, celebrate the thrilling comeback his team made on his big day.

Mehmet Okur hit a running floater with 1.7 seconds remaining and Deron Williams sank two free throws after stealing the ensuing inbounds pass, and the Jazz pulled off a more-exciting-than-expected 99-96 win over a Minnesota Timberwolves squad that's been more pathetic than pesky this season.

After trailing by nine points with less than six minutes left in the game, the Jazz stormed back to give their coach a late anniversary present.

Ronnie Brewer, who tipped the T-Wolves' inbounds pass to Williams with 0.7 seconds remaining, led all scorers with 25 points. Okur finished with 21 points and 13 rebounds.

The Jazz also got double-double efforts from Williams (12 points, 11 assists) and Paul Millsap (15 points, 10 rebounds).

The Jazz (14-9) return to Utah for an 8:30 p.m. TNT game on Thursday against Portland.

This was the first game for the T-Wolves under the direction of Kevin McHale, who was moved out of the front office to be the head coach after previous coach Randy Wittman was fired Monday.

Al Jefferson topped the 4-16 T-Wolves, who led 89-80 at the six-minute mark, with 21 points.

The victory was No. 1,009 for Sloan as the Jazz coach since Dec. 9, 1988, when he took over for Frank Layden.

Jody@desnews.com