"That all starts defensively for us," Hayward said. "When we get stops, then we can run and we’re able to use some of our athleticism."

Minnesota committed only 12 turnovers, but the Jazz forced seven steals and turned those turnovers into 15 points.

The game marked Kirilenko’s first time back at EnergySolutions Arena after playing the first 10 seasons of his career with the Jazz. After being received warmly during pregame introductions, the 31-year-old Kirilenko finished with 12 points and seven rebounds in 30 minutes.

"There’s a lot of memories," Kirilenko said "Every fan for 10 years has some good moments, and I have a lot of good moments here. So it’s very nice to play against this crowd. They’ve been very friendly."

However, Kirilenko was just one of many Timberwolves the Jazz held in check. All-NBA forward Kevin Love finished with a team-high 13 points on 4-of-14 shooting.

The T-Wolves finished just 34.5 percent from the field while the Jazz made 49.4 percent of their shots.

Even without Mo Williams, it was the kind of feel-good performance needed for a team that, before the game, didn’t feel so good.

"Everybody’s heartbroken about Mo," Derrick Favors said. "But we know he’s going to be all right. He’s a tough guy. He’s going to be cool. So we just come out there and play like he was with us."

And even though he wasn’t, the Jazz were, for a night, just fine.

"This is who we have," Corbin said. "Can’t feel sorry for ourselves, we can’t look around the corner and see what’s going to happen. This is who we have, and we have to figure out how we can be as good as we can be with this group right now."

boram@sltrib.com

Twitter: @tribjazz