Utah Jazz: Open up 5-game road trip with win in N.J.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Deron Williams said nothing needed to be said.

About the Minnesota mess, that is: two losses in 10 days to a four-win team, including one at home just last Monday.

But you can bet your bottom Timberwolf a little mention was made of the fact New Jersey has just two victories — count 'em, two, one over Charlotte and one at Chicago — before the Jazz opened their five-game pre-Christmas trip with a 108-92 victory over the NBA's last-place Nets on Wednesday night at the Izod Center here.

"Coach brought it up, for sure," shooting guard Kyle Korver said. "We all talked about it."

"We were talking a lot, because we underestimated teams in past," center Kyrylo Fesenko added. "We have history of that."

The book from Wednesday, however, will show that 15-10 Utah had minimal trouble with a 2-24 Nets team that lost an NBA-record 18 straight games to start the season and fired coach Lawrence Frank as well along the way.

Williams paved the way with 20 points and a game-high 14 assists for his 11th double-double of the season, while Carlos Boozer also had a double-double — his 17th — with a game-high 26 points and team-high 10 rebounds.

Paul Millsap added 13 points off the bench and rookie starter Wesley Matthews 10 for the Jazz, who have won 11 of their last 15.

"I think we learned our lesson with Minnesota, and this game was a good jumpstart for us on this trip," Boozer said. "We learned our lesson, and we came here a lot more prepared."

The Nets did still have the Jazz tied five minutes into the second quarter, but a 10-2 run — featuring a Williams jumper, three Millsap baskets and a Mehmet Okur jumper — gave Utah some separation.

The Jazz went into halftime up 11, 52-41.

"We were kind of letting them do whatever they wanted to in that first quarter," Williams said, "and in the second quarter we locked up a little more and got a little confidence."

"We got some stops, pushed it, DWill pushed it, we ran the wings and got some layups, so it gave us a little bit of a spread," Boozer added.

The Jazz ran their advantage to 18 early in the final quarter before the Nets inched back, getting it down to eight at 92-84 via a three-point play from center Brook Lopez midway through the fourth.

"It was like, 'Here we go again; we've seen this before,' " Williams said. "But we got it back up to 20, real quick. We just locked up on defense. They took some quick shots, had a couple turnovers and it helped us out."

New Jersey came out of a timeout playing zone defense when it was still an eight-point game, and Utah had little trouble busting it en route to pushing its lead to 108-88 in the late going.