The Jazz get a chance to avenge Sunday's loss at Minnesota when they play the Timberwolves on Wednesday in Salt Lake City. The Jazz are 33-4 at home. Utah is 1-2 against Minnesota, both losses coming on the road.
Al Jefferson led the Timberwolves with 22 points in the recent game, in which the Jazz gave up 69 points to the Timberwolves in the second half. Carlos Boozer led the Jazz with 25 points and 10 rebounds and Ronnie Brewer had 20 points. Deron Williams had 15 points and 13 assists Sunday. Utah is in the middle of a three-game homestand.
Overall, Utah holds a 53-27 edge against Minnesota and has won the last four in Salt Lake City.
JAZZ 129, WIZARDS 87: Finally, the Utah Jazz gave themselves an easy night. The Jazz soundly defeated a Washington team that came to Salt Lake City seemingly eager to take a loss and get out of town as soon as possible.
The 42-point win was Utah's most lopsided of the season and the fourth-largest margin of victory in franchise history. It featured numerous team and player highs, a lot of work from the subs and several interesting lineups.
The latter was more of a result of injuries to Andrei Kirilenko and Ronnie Brewer than the state of the game, but the disinterest Washington showed in making it a game allowed Jazz coach Jerry Sloan to use whatever combination he liked.
Ronnie Price got his first start of the year, recently called up Morris Almond played for the first time since January, C.J. Miles scored a career-high 29 points, and the Jazz set a team record with 15 3-pointers and totaled a season-high 40 assists.
Everything worked for the Jazz as they built a 30-plus lead in the second quarter and kept it at an embarrassing margin. To be fair, the Wizards were coming off an overtime loss Sunday at Los Angeles and were without three players because of injuries.
But to be fair to the Jazz, too, this was just the kind of game they made more difficult than necessary in their last homestand, when they let Toronto, Seattle and Charlotte overcome big deficits to make games close again.
The Jazz, still smarting from their loss at Minnesota on Sunday, were in no mood to toy with Washington in similar fashion.
Utah opened the second quarter on a 17-2 run and had a 30-plus margin most of the night, even as starters Deron Williams and Carlos Boozer spent the final quarter on the bench encouraging their teammates. Every available Jazz player got into the game, including recently recalled players Almond and Kyrylo Fesenko.
