Utah Jazz: Win streak reaches a dandy dozen

INDIANAPOLIS — Another opponent with a losing record, another perilous first few quarters.

But another victory, too.

The Jazz beat Indiana 112-100 Tuesday night at Conseco Fieldhouse by breaking open a tie game with a 16-4 run in the fourth, then waved goodbye to a second-straight sub-.500 club and looked ahead to three upcoming road games against playoff-bound teams from the East.

They'll do it with a 12-game win streak in tow — the third-longest in Jazz history, and three shy of matching the franchise record of 15.

And it's all possible because they didn't fold down the stretch, which was also the case in recent streak victories over Minnesota, Sacramento, Golden State, Houston and — on Sunday, at the start of a five-game trip — Toronto.

"A lot of these last (few) games we would have lost if we had hung our heads a little bit," point guard Deron Williams said after the 41-23 Jazz — still fourth in the Western Conference standings — pulled out of a records-tie with Portland and back into sole possession of first place in the NBA's Northwest Division.

"But," Williams added, "we've been outlasting teams in the fourth quarter, which is big for us, and finishing games, especially on the road."

They needed to do just that Tuesday in large part because of the first-half performance from 23-point team-high scorer Troy Murphy, who before the break made a whopping 7-of-8 from 3-point range.

But some simple adjustments cooled Murphy, who had only two free throws in the second half for the 28-38 Pacers.

"In transition, he walks to the 3-point line and stops and waits for the ball," Carlos Boozer said of Murphy, whose seven treys were a career-high. "We're all used to running back to the paint."

So the Jazz, after halftime, did what they discussed before the game, which is remembering that Murphy frequently prefers to trail the play.

They also actually paid some attention to the Pacers big man.

"We just had some boneheaded plays (in the first half)," Williams said. "We were doubling guys we shouldn't have doubled, leaving him open."

Also critical for the Jazz after halftime was their recognition that with Williams struggling with his shot — he dished a game-high 12 assists, and made a career high-tying five steals, but hit just 1-from-9 in the field and finished with only five points — others had to help carry the scoring load.

And he saw to it that they did, as Mehmet Okur scored a game-high 24 points, Paul Millsap added 22 off the bench and four others — Ronnie Brewer with 18, Boozer and Kyle Korver (11 each) and C.J. Miles (10) — reached double-digits.