Jazz Win in Denver to Even Series

Filed under: Jazz, Nuggets, Playoffs

This is why you don't overreact after the first game of a best-of-seven series.



The Utah Jazz were already without Andrei Kirilenko before losing Mehmet Okur early in Game 1 to a torn Achilles'. The team was virtually left for dead before the series continued on Monday night, but behind a monster performance from Deron Williams, the Jazz went into Denver and took Game 2 by a final score of 114-111, taking home court advantage with them back to Utah in the process.



Williams finished with 33 points and 14 assists, and Carlos Boozer added 20 points and 15 rebounds. The Jazz shot almost 53 percent from the field, while holding Carmelo Anthony to 32 points on a 9-for-25 night of shooting. The teams combined to shoot 91 free throws, in what was one of Utah's famously physical playoff performances.



The Jazz pushed the tempo and made the most of their offensive opportunities, putting up 63 points by halftime and extending their 12-point lead that they held at the break to 14 early in the third. The Nuggets then went on a 14-0 run in a blistering four-minute stretch to tie it, at which point it seemed as though the shorthanded Jazz might have finally begun to run out of gas.



But Williams was able to stabilize his team, getting to the line for six free throw attempts to end the period, while assisting on two of Kyle Korver's three made jumpers in that stretch. Utah held Denver without a field goal for the final 3:50 of the third, and regained control with a six-point advantage as the teams headed into the fourth.

 

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Full story at http://nba.fanhouse.com/2010/04/20/jazz-even-series-with-nuggets-at-a-game-apiece/