The Utah Jazz had no Deron Williams and no Mehmet Okur, and with Paul Millsap and Al Jefferson struggling to produce, an underwhelming performance at Oracle Arena seemed inevitable. The Golden State Warriors pulled away in the third quarter and cruised to an uncharacteristically comfortable victory, snapping their three game losing streak at home with a 96-81 victory; Utah has now lost seven of their last eight games and are starting to find themselves slip out of the top of the conference.
Stephen Curry led the Warriors with 27 points, seven assists and six rebounds, Dorell Wright chipped in with 16 points; Reggie Williams had 15 points, and David Lee had 14 points and 5 rebounds. Monta Ellis was uncharacteristically quiet, not scoring a single point in the first half, but the Warriors didn’t need his services offensively tonight to beat the Jazz; it was his defense that surprisingly set the tone and kept Golden State on task, as they led by double digits for most of the fourth quarter.
For more from the Warriors perspective, go to Golden State of Mind; for more from the Jazz perspective, check out SLC Dunk.