Jazz down Spurs in NBA

LOS ANGELES, April 9 DPA – The San Antonio Spurs gave their Big Three the night off, but the Utah Jazz were at work putting on a superb blue-collar effort.

Devin Harris scored 25 points, including 11 in a row in the final quarter, Paul Millshap had 18 and 10 rebounds, and the hosts Jazz snapped the Spurs’ 11-game win streak with a 91-84 victory on Monday night.

The Spurs rested Frenchman Tony Parker, Tim Duncan and Argentine Manu Ginobili because of a gruelling three games in four nights schedule.

Australian Patty Mills enjoyed a start with the Spurs and had nine points in his 24 minutes game time.

“They rested their players tonight, and we did what we had to do,” Harris said.

“I thought we did a good job of playing for 48 minutes.”

Gordon Hayward netted 16 points while Al Jefferson contributed 12 and 10 boards for the Jazz, who kept their playoff hopes alive with a split of the home-and-home series after Sunday’s 114-104 loss at San Antonio.

“We wanted to come out and get a little revenge from last night,” Haywood said. “We battled and they battled and we were able to come out on top.”

The victory keeps Utah one and half games behind Denver for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference race.

“We want to get to the playoffs, that’s our goal,” Harris said. “Tonight was a huge step for us but we have to keep going forward.”

Gary Neal and Tiago Splitter had 14 points apiece to pace San Antonio, who dropped out of a tie with Oklahoma City atop the Western Conference after suffering their first loss since March 17.

“The guys played great, I was really proud of them, they left it out on the court,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said.

“The big difference like in a lot of NBA games down the stretch was you have to make shots. Devin came down and knocked down two in transition and we couldn’t throw it in the ocean … Game time.”

In other games Oklahoma City easily accounted for the Milwaukee Bucks 109-89 with Russell Westbrook scoring 26 points and Kevin Durant adding 19 allowing the Thunder to regain sole possession over San Antonio atop the Western Conference.

Los Angeles downed New Orleans Hornets 93-91; Memphis Grizzlies were too strong for the LA Clippers 94-85, Denver Nuggets thrashed Golden State Warriors 123-84 and Phoenix, Houston, Orlando, Indiana and Washington all enjoyed wins.

Publisher: AAPNewswire

10 Apr 10:12 PM