Utah Jazz: Boozer bouncing back, looking like 'the old Booz'

He readily admits to having a rough go early on this season, and after a summer like he had — with one hatched plan after another for leaving Utah going awry — it's little wonder.

For the longest while last season, recall, many were convinced Carlos Boozer was headed to Detroit.

But the Pistons, who visit the Jazz tonight to open a six-game Utah homestand, weren't about to give him the pay raise he sought.

So he opted in for the final season of his current contract in Utah at $12.67 million, and the Pistons wound up spending their free-agency dollars on guard Ben Gordon and big Charlie Villanueva.

Boozer trade talk dominated the Jazz offseason, with rumors of possible deals with Detroit and Chicago and Miami and others, but nothing ever materialized.

Then the 2009-10 NBA season got under way, Boozer struggled and Jazz fans — in their own passive-aggressive sort of way — jeered more than they cheered.

And some still do.

"If we lose a game, it's his fault," coach Jerry Sloan said just the other day, before a victory in San Antonio for his now 6-6 club. "That's the way a lot of people already programmed that in to start with. Everything that he did had to be magnified, or was magnified."

Sloan cited last Wednesday's home win over Toronto, when Boozer scored a team-high 22 but missed 4-of-8 free-throw attempts "and the fans got on him a little bit."

"Everybody's going to jump on him, waiting for him to make a mistake," the Jazz coach said. "That's the way life is. You have to fight through that."

Lately, those around Boozer say, he's been doing just that.

Deron Williams, for one, thinks improved health has helped the cause, as Boozer is now nine months removed from arthroscopic knee surgery and the end of a stretch last season with 44 straight games missed.

"He's getting back to the old Booz, before he was hurt," the Jazz point guard said.

"He's getting more lift on his shots, getting more lift on everything," Williams added. "And you can see his confidence growing. He's got the fadeaway going now, and he just looks like a totally different Booz."

Boozer has nine double-doubles in 12 games this season, including four straight. That ranks second only to Toronto's Chris Bosh among early season NBA double-double leaders.

He's scored 18 or more in each of the last four games as well.

And he had 10 of his 18 points against the Spurs on Thursday during the final four minutes of a decisive fourth quarter, including a nifty pick-and-roll give-and-go with Williams that led to a win-sealing three-point play.

"For me, it's just playing with confidence," Boozer said. "If I mess up, you've just got to move on.