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Finally, the Utah Jazz gave themselves an easy night. On Monday the Jazz soundly defeated a Washington team that came to Salt Lake City seemingly eager to take a loss and get out of town as soon as possible.
The resulting 129-87 win was Utah's most lopsided victory of the season, and fourth-largest margin of victory in franchise history. It featured numerous team and player highs, a lot of work from the subs and several interesting lineups.
The latter was more of a result of injuries to Andrei Kirilenko and Ronnie Brewer than the state of the game, but the disinterest Washington showed in making it a game allowed Jazz coach Jerry Sloan to use whatever combination he liked.
Ronnie Price got his first start of the year, the recently called up Morris Almond played for the first time since January, C.J. Miles scored a career high 29 points, the Jazz set a team record with 15 three-pointers and totaled a season high 40 assists.
Everything worked for the Jazz as they built a 30-plus lead in the second quarter and kept it at an embarrassing margin for the Wizards. To be fair, the Wizards were coming off an overtime loss at the Lakers Sunday and were without three players because of injuries.
But to be fair to the Jazz too, this was just the kind of game they made more difficult than necessary in their last homestand, as they let Toronto, Seattle and Charlotte overcome big deficits to make games close again.
The Jazz, still smarting from their loss at Minnesota Sunday, were in no mood to toy with Washington in similar fashion. Utah opened the second quarter on a 17-2 run and had a 30-plus margin most of the night, even as starters Deron Williams and Carlos Boozer spent the final quarter on the bench encouraging their teammates. Every available Jazz player got into the game, including recently recalled players Almond and Kyrylo Fesenko.
"It was fun to get a quarter off and watch guys like Mo and Fes get out there and get a chance to play," said Williams, who had 12 points and 16 assists in 28 minutes. "It was a good victory for us after that bad loss."
Boozer said the loss to Minnesota was already forgotten, but he didn't play like it early, scoring 14 of his 19 points in the first quarter. His two blocks, along with some hustle plays from Miles and Price and three-pointers from Price and Mehmet Okur marked the start of the onslaught.
By halftime the Jazz led 73-41 and had nine of their 15 three-pointers as they beat the Wizards inside and out.
"Hopefully we can learn from what they do and how they play," Washington coach Eddie Jordan said. "That was pointed out tonight. As far as the game, we just didn't have it. When we tried to take away the paint, they made shots, they got the juice going."
By the end of the night Miles was the only starter remaining on the floor. Logging extra minutes wasn't something he minded as he blew past his former career high of 23 points set almost two years ago against Golden State.
Miles has the most inconsistent role on the team, going from starter to hardly used bench player depending on what teammate is hurt. His 30 minutes were a season high.
"It was great to be in the game from start to finish," he said. "I've been in situations where I might play five minutes or I might not play at all and to be in that much was great. I thought every shot was going in."
Blowouts
Utah's largest margins of victory:
48 vs. Milwaukee (144-96) Jan. 27, 1990
45 vs. Chicago (109-64) Nov. 18, 2000
44 vs. Memphis (114-70) Feb. 28, 2002
42 vs. Sacramento (130-88) Jan. 25, 1995 and vs. Washington (129-87) March 31, 2008