Eric Maynor, a rookie out of Virginia Commonwealth, ran the team for much of the fourth quarter, while Deron Williams moved over to the two-spot. The move paid off nicely for the Jazz, who blew open a tight game to defeat Hedo Türkoğlu’s Toronto Raptors 104-91 in Salt Lake City on Wednesday night for their ninth straight win over the Raptors. The Turkish superstar scored 11 points with six rebounds and four assists, but that was not enough to save his team from defeat.
The Utah Jazz were without another Turkish star, Mehmet Okur, who was sidelined by the flu. His teammates nonetheless did a very good job.
“Two words: Eric Maynor,” was how Jazz forward Carlos Boozer loudly greeted reporters for his postgame interview. “Eric’s been playing great, man. He’s stepped in, he’s got swag, he’s got confidence. When he comes in the game, he knows what he’s supposed to do out there and does a great job of doing it.”
The Jazz opened the fourth quarter leading by three and with a seldom-used lineup combination of Maynor, Williams, Boozer, Andrei Kirilenko and Paul Millsap. Maynor quickly took charge, as he made a free throw and assisted on a reverse layup by Kirilenko to put Utah up by four.
Boozer had a team-high 22 points and 18 rebounds for Utah, while Williams and Kirilenko each had 20 points.
Maynor also hit a jump hook and scored on an uncontested layup -- thanks to an assist from Williams to put the Jazz up 89-79 with six minutes remaining. Maynor scored 11 of his 15 points in the fourth quarter, including a stretch where he scored eight straight points. Those eight points gave the Jazz a 91-79 lead.
Chris Bosh helped the Toronto Raptors trim an 18-point deficit to just nine in the final three minutes of the first half. Bosh scored 22 points on 8-of-11 shooting in the first half and the Jazz didn’t look to have anyone that could guard him.
Both teams adjusted well defensively after the break. The Jazz finished with a total of 54 points in the paint and Bosh scored 32 points. It was the fourth time Bosh has scored at least 30 points this season, but he got four of them in the final two minutes with the game already decided. Bosh recorded his NBA-leading 10th double-double of the season with 17 rebounds.
Other NBA results on Wednesday: Dallas 99, San Antonio Spurs 94; Houston 97, Minnesota 84; Washington 108, Cleveland 91; Boston 109, Golden State 95; New York 110, Indiana 103; Orlando 108, Oklahoma City 94; Atlanta 105, Miami 90; Philadelphia 86, Charlotte 84; Memphis 106, LA Clippers 91; Portland 87, Detroit 81.
Benzer Haberler 
International
