The Utah Jazz's high-powered offense never got in sync their last game, and they were handed their first loss of the month. The Northwest Division-leading Jazz try to get their offense back on track Wednesday against a Milwaukee Bucks team that has struggled to stop anyone lately.
Utah (42-23) is coming off a 108-96 loss to Chicago on Tuesday that snapped a five-game winning streak. The Jazz, who were averaging 118.4 points on 55.6 percent shooting during their first five games in March, shot 42.7 percent and trailed by as many as 17 points in the third quarter Tuesday."(The Bulls) were the aggressors from the beginning and we never did get to that point. We just tried to outscore them," Utah coach Jerry Sloan said.
The Jazz still have a four-game lead over Denver in the division, and are 26-7 since last dropping consecutive games on Dec. 28 and 29.
Overshadowed by the loss was another impressive outing from Mehmet Okur, who had 22 points and career high-tying 18 rebounds. Okur is averaging 21.6 points and 12.1 boards in his last eight games after averaging 11.8 points and 7.7 rebounds in his previous six. He had nine points on 3-of-11 shooting and six rebounds in Utah's 98-87 win over Milwaukee on Jan. 14.
The Jazz have had little trouble with the Bucks (23-41) lately, winning the last six meetings and nine of the last 11.
Deron Williams had 33 points and 10 assists against Milwaukee in January, and is averaging 19.0 points and 9.4 assists in five career games versus the Bucks. Williams had 20 points and 10 assists against the Bulls, his eighth straight double-double.
Carlos Boozer, who had 21 points and 10 boards against the Bucks earlier this season, is averaging 27.8 points and 10.3 rebounds in his last four games versus them. Boozer had an off night Tuesday, hitting just 5-of-14 shots to finish with 10 points - more than 11 below his season average.
Andrei Kirilenko returned to Utah's starting lineup Tuesday after missing three games with a sprained right hip following a hard foul by Dallas' Dirk Nowitzki on March 3. Kirilenko finished with 12 points in 29 minutes.
Milwaukee lost to Washington 105-97 on Tuesday behind another lackluster defensive performance. The Bucks have lost six of seven, allowing 111.0 points on 50.9 percent shooting in those contests.
On Tuesday, Milwaukee allowed 10 first-half dunks, and yielded 66 points in the paint overall.
"I don't care if it's eighth grade or what league you're in, if you want to get a guy going and feeling good about himself, you let him dunk his first couple baskets - and then we couldn't stop the bleeding from that point," Bucks coach Larry Krystkowiak said. "It's real important that we didn't let that happen."
Charlie Villanueva had another strong performance on Tuesday, scoring 24 points and matching a season high with 16 rebounds. Villanueva is averaging 24.3 points and 9.8 rebounds in his last four games, after putting up 5.0 points and 4.7 boards in his previous three.
Villanueva, averaging 10.7 points this season, was held without a point in eight minutes against the Jazz in January.
Andrew Bogut had 23 points and 12 rebounds against the Wizards, a big improvement from the one point and two boards he had in Milwaukee's 119-97 loss to Philadelphia on Sunday. Bogut had 23 points and 10 rebounds in the January loss to the Jazz.
