Millsap, Jazz beat tired Hornets

SALT LAKE CITY(AP) After running slightly
behind New Orleans in the first quarter, the Utah Jazz ran over the
Hornets in the second and kept on going.The Jazz held the weary
Hornets to two field goals in the second period during a 116-90 victory
Wednesday night, pulling down more than twice as many rebounds and
shutting down everybody except Chris Paul.Paul Millsap extended
his NBA-leading streak of double-doubles to 19 games with 27 points and
14 rebounds as the Jazz easily won the first of three meetings against
the Hornets, who were exhausted from a win over the Lakers in Los
Angeles the night before."We expected them to come in and give
us a good ball game - especially coming off that good win against the
Lakers,'' said Millsap, who also had five assists. "We came out with
more energy and more intensity and came out with the win.Paul
had 26 points and seven assists for the Hornets, but got little help
from his teammates as Utah controlled everything inside and
outrebounded New Orleans 55-26.The Hornets held off the Lakers 116-105 the night before and the fatigue set in after the first period Wednesday.Utah led 58-46 at halftime after New Orleans shot 2-for-13 from the floor and was outrebounded 18-7 during the second quarter."Obviously
it's a long trip for them to have to come up here, but that's the way
it works out. You try to take advantage as much as you can,'' Utah
coach Jerry Sloan said.Mehmet Okur added 20 points for Utah, and
Andrei Kirilenko had 13 points and eight rebounds. Kyle Korver had 15
points, Matt Harpring 10, and Deron Williams, who has been fighting a
cold, added eight assists."I just tried to push the ball and get
everybody involved,'' Williams said. "Luckily everybody else stepped up
and I didn't have to do much scoring tonight.''The Jazz are 9-2
in the head-to-head meetings between Williams and Paul, the U.S.
Olympic teammates who have been compared since Utah passed over Paul to
pick Williams third overall in the 2005 draft.Paul had the
better scoring night, but Williams and the Jazz ran away with the game
after outscoring the Hornets 29-13 in the second quarter.Millsap
scored nine in the period and had 13 points and nine boards in the
first half. He grabbed his 10th rebound in the first minute of the
third period, then scored six straight as the Jazz pulled ahead 65-46.
He started with a dunk on an alley-oop from Ronnie Brewer and also had
a reverse layup to spark a 10-2 run to open the period for the Jazz."I don't know what we're going to do with Millsap. He keeps getting better every game,'' Sloan said.Paul
was the only member of the Hornets who appeared to have any energy left
after the first period, but he wasn't nearly enough to beat the Jazz by
himself.David West, who scored 40 points against the Lakers on
Tuesday, had 13 points and led the Hornets with six rebounds - less
than half of Millsap's total. James Posey was the only other Hornet to
score in double figures, finishing with 11 points."The second
quarter, they really jumped on it,'' Paul said. "When you let a team
like this get easy buckets, then they get rolling.''Notes: John
Stockton holds the Utah record with 27 double-doubles in a row, set in
1989. ... Utah radio broadcaster "Hot'' Rod Hundley called his 3,000th
Jazz game. ... Utah G C.J. Miles sprained his right ankle when he came
down from making a jump shot late in the third quarter. ... Utah was
31-for-44 from the foul line whale New Orleans was 18-for-21. ... The
Hornets were fresh in the first period despite the fast pace they had
the night before in LA and led 33-29 after the first period. Paul had
12 points, including a 3-pointer followed by a three-point play as New
Orleans took a 20-11 lead, the Utah started to rally.