Salt Lake City, Nov 27: The Utah Jazz pull out an 83-76 win over the visiting Houston Rockets.
The Utah Jazz seem to be doing just fine at point guard. With Carlos Arroyo sitting out, backups Maurice Williams and Raul Lopez each scored 10 points to lead the Jazz to an 83-76 victory over the Houston Rockets. When John Stockton retired during the offseason, many thought the Jazz would struggle to find a replacement. But Utah's trio of young point guards has played well. A second-round pick, Williams has played sparingly but contributed six rebounds and four assists in a season-high 26 minutes while Lopez had five assists. Andrei Kirilenko led the Jazz with 23 points as they improved to 7-1 at home. Yao Ming paced Houston with 20 points and 10 rebounds. He made 14-of-16 free throws but shot just 3-of-15 from the field. Cuttino Mobley added 14 points, but Steve Francis was held to 13 and committed eight turnovers.


A 3-pointer by Eric Piatkowski got Houston within 71-70 with 3:39 remaining, but the Jazz answered with a 12-3 run and built an 83-73 cushion with 29 seconds left.


Bureau Report