Jazz pounce on Blazers, 108-97
By ANNE M. PETERSON, AP Sports Writer

PORTLAND, Ore.(AP) After a dominating preseason win over the Portland Trail Blazers, Carlos Boozer feels like the Utah Jazz are ready for the regular season.

"We've got to tighten up some stuff,'' he said. "We've got to take care of that full-court press a little better at the end of the game, I'm sure we'll get over it tomorrow. But for the most part, I think we did a good job defensively, especially in the half court. We did a good job of helping each other.''

Deron Williams had 27 points and Boozer and Ronnie Brewer each added 16 in Utah's 108-97 preseason victory over Portland on Tuesday night.

The Jazz (4-2), missing Kyle Korver and C.J. Miles because of injuries, led by as many as 25 points.

"I don't have all our players here, that's the thing that's always difficult,'' coach Jerry Sloan said about the impending season. "But we're going to play anyway, and I've always believed that if you come and play hard as a team, you always have a chance.''

Jerryd Bayless had 16 points for the Blazers (3-4), who overall seemed both tired and out of sorts. Brandon Roy had 15 points and Travis Outlaw added 10, all in the first quarter.

"We just looked like we hadn't seen each other today,'' Roy said. "It's almost like a quarterback playing with a receiver he's never played with before.''

Utah center Mehmet Okur returned after missing Sunday's victory over Charlotte with a sore back and contributed five points.

The Blazers made a surprise move when Juwan Howard started at forward instead of LaMarcus Aldridge, who had a left shin contusion and was a last-second scratch. Howard was acquired by Portland as a free agent in the offseason.

Portland lost forward Nicolas Batum early in the game with a hip injury.

The Blazers were already without center Greg Oden, who bruised his thigh on Sunday in Portland's come-from-behind victory over Denver.

Blazers swingman Rudy Fernandez missed the game because of a bad back, and coach Nate McMillan said he's unlikely to play in the preseason finale Thursday against Phoenix in Vancouver, British Columbia.

The Jazz led by as many as 13 points in the first quarter, jumping on the dazed Blazers. About the only spark for Portland was Outlaw, but even that was short-lived.

Utah's dominance continued as Kyrylo Fesenko's running jumper extended the lead to 40-26.

The Jazz led 59-40 at halftime, and Boozer's tip-in stretched the lead to 85-61 at the end of the third quarter.

Both teams pretty much sat their starters for the final quarter.

The officials drew the ire of fans - who chanted their displeasure - with a few questionable calls, but there was word earlier Tuesday that the NBA's labor dispute with the referees' union may be drawing to a close.

A person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press that the league has made a new proposal. The person, who requested anonymity because the negotiations are ongoing, said it's "highly likely'' the referees will be back for the opening of the season.

The Jazz, who went 48-34 last season before falling to the eventual NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers in the first round of the playoffs, visit the Sacramento Kings for the preseason finale before opening at Denver on Oct. 28.

Portland won 54 games last season but fell to the Rockets in the first round of the playoffs. After wrapping up the season against the Suns, the Blazers open at home against Houston next Tuesday.

Portland tried to acquire Utah forward Paul Millsap in the offseason, signing the restricted free agent to an offer sheet. But the Jazz matched the offer.

BOX SCORE | HIGHLIGHTS

POSTGAME NOTES
Utah 108, Portland 97
October 20, 2009

POSTGAME QUOTES

HEAD JERRY SLOAN
“I thought we played pretty well. We seemed to try to help each other a bit more. I thought we did a pretty good job trying to defend. Obviously they didn’t have all their players there but we’ve got to worry about getting our guys ready for the regular season. I thought they responded pretty well to going in and out of the game more than what they’d been doing so I felt better about that. At least we tried to defend more and help each other. It gave us an easy opportunity to get a couple baskets in transition because of that.

“I hope there’s something in the fact that we have to help each other defensively. We don’t have any shot-blocking to speak of. We are not a long team. We have to play together in order to try to have a chance to be able to win and not give teams some easy baskets. You take some of those away and hopefully do a better job.”

On Deron Williams:
“He’s got pressure out there on him. He always knows that he’s got opportunities to try to get on top of the basket. You can’t just let the guy eat you alive and stay out on the perimeter all the time. Sometimes you’ve got to let him know that you’re going to get around him. Otherwise he’s going to be chopping you all the way down the floor so that’s why we’ve always given point guards the option to go to the basket.

Looking forward to the regular season:
“I’ve always been confident. I don’t have all our players here – that’s the thing that’s always difficult. But we’re going to play anyway and I’ve always believed that if you come and play hard as a team, you always have a chance. It’s a lot more refreshing to win under those conditions than it is to win another way.”

CARLOS BOOZER:
“I feel great. I’m just having fun and getting warmed up for the regular season”

“We’ve got to tighten up some stuff. We’ve got to take care of that full court press a little better at the end of the game. I’m sure we’ll go over it tomorrow. But for the most part, I think we did a good job defensively, especially in the half court. We did a good job of helping each other. That’s the reason we got the lead we had. We played good defense I thought.”

On Deron Williams offensively:
“He’s got a lot of stuff with him and we saw a little bit of everything tonight.”

Are you ready for the regular season?
“I feel like we are. The good thing about it too is that we’re getting more guys back… I think more and more guys are getting healthy. We’ve got to wait for CJ for a couple more weeks but for the most part we’ll be at full strength. Guy’s look sharp.”

“The biggest thing is our defense. The reason why we win on the road is our defense. We beat a really good team tonight. They were shorthanded with a couple big guys out but they’re very good team regardless.

HEAD COACH NATE McMILLAN
“I told the players after the game that they are really going to have to pick up their effort. We were just going through the motions in the first half. I did think that the unit at the end of the game was scrapping. Guys were trying to get into the rotation and they did show some effort. But we really got to pick it up in order to open the season in one week with some momentum.

“Admittedly, we didn’t have the total group with LaMarcus, Greg and Rudy not there and then Nick hurting his hip in the first minute. Also, we have some guys who haven’t played together before. Some of that is going to take some time. But they know what they have to do.

“We planned to play LaMarcus tonight but the doctors said to hold him back because there is no reason to take chances. We feel he and Batum are going to be okay and even though we lost pretty significantly tonight, its still the preseason. I thought Deron Williams set the tempo for them. He’s so great with the ball and he caused our defense a lot of problems.”

BRANDON ROY:
“We just looked like we hadn’t seen each other today. It’s almost like a quarterback playing with a receiver he’s never played with before. But we just have to keep working and hope guys get healthy because we have one more game before the real test.

“Our defense was just terrible today. There’s no excuse on how we played defense. Offensively we struggled but on the defensive end they were just getting easy baskets. Deron Williams was getting in the paint. I guess we have to watch the film to see why he was there all night. It seemed like a new team versus a team that had played together for years.”

JERRYD BAYLESS:
“I was telling everybody (during the comeback) that if we could get it to within five or ten we could make a game of it. We were within 10 with five minutes left. That was our goal but then we had a couple of slipups as a team and they were able to pull it out.

“Everybody’s just not on the same page yet. It’s a work-in-progress and everybody’s going to continue to get better. Once we do that we’ll be fine.”

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2009-10 Jazz Preseason Roster