Jazz Outlast Suns
Posted on February 3rd, 2007 by
Man… talk about choking in the clutch, Diaw missed both of his free throws in the final second to send the game into overtime, and the Jazz came out with the win. Disappointing finish for the Suns who were without their leading 3-point shooter; Raja Bell, who was out with a knee injury.
Mehmet Okur and the Utah Jazz apparently know something about the Phoenix Suns that the rest of the NBA does not.
Okur scored 19 of his 29 points in the second half, including a decisive 19-footer with 5.1 seconds remaining, and the Jazz beat Phoenix 108-105 Saturday night for their third win over the Suns this season.
Deron Williams added 28 points and 10 assists for the Jazz, who have handed Phoenix three of its 10 losses this season and have won four straight against the Suns overall.
“This year when we’ve played them we’ve tried to defend them and cut down on some of their baskets,” Williams said. “That’s hard to do. We try to make them work on the defensive end and that’s why we’ve had success.”
The win was Utah’s second in three games since Carlos Boozer went down with a fractured left fibula.
“We have to play 110 percent right now without Boozer, so it was a great win for us,” Okur said.
Amare Stoudemire had 28 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Suns, who were without guard Raja Bell because of an inflamed right knee.
“Tonight we did not come to play and we did not come to play until we got ourselves in a hole,” said Steve Nash, who finished with 22 points and 10 assists. “We finally fought our way back and had a chance to win, but maybe we didn’t deserve to win because we didn’t really have the attitude we needed to start the game.”
The Suns had a chance to tie when Boris Diaw was fouled by Derek Fisher with 2.1 seconds remaining. But Diaw missed both free throws and Okur pulled down the rebound and was fouled immediately.
Okur made the first free throw to give Utah a 108-105 lead but missed the second and the Suns secured the rebound with 1.1 seconds left.
Andrei Kirilenko deflected Leandro Barbosa’s inbound attempt out of bounds with 0.3 seconds remaining and Phoenix was unable to attempt a tying shot. #
