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PDF versionSLIDESHOW: Jazz vs. Trail Blazers basketball
SALT LAKE CITY -- As quiet as a library at closing time just a few days earlier, the Utah Jazz locker room felt more like a fraternity house on Saturday.
Minutes removed from a high-flying, 108-92 beatdown of the visiting Portland Trail Blazers, Jazz players laughed loudly and teased each other as they celebrated the first victory of the season over a Northwest Division opponent.
It certainly seemed like quite a contrast from the way the place felt last Tuesday, following a surprise loss to Oklahoma City.
"(The win) was huge for us," Utah forward Carlos Boozer said. "We see other teams (playing well) -- Oklahoma City's been rolling, (Portland has been) rolling, and obviously Denver's rolling -- so for us, we've got to play catch-up. It was one step in the right direction. We've got to keep playing like this."
Boozer finished with a game-high 26 points to go along with 12 rebounds, seven assists and a blocked shot.
Point guard Deron Williams added 24 points and 15 assists for the Jazz (9-7), who own a modest two-game winning streak going into Monday's home game with Memphis.
After Saturday's game, Boozer took a fair amount of razzing from his teammates, who insisted on pointing out how he'd come up three assists shy of a triple-double.
Even so, assists were plentiful in the boxscore. In all, Utah players combined for 36 of them on 43 field goals.
As a team, the Jazz shot 77 percent from the field in the first quarter and raced out to a 32-17 lead, which they never relinquished.
They wound up shooting 61 percent for the game.
On the heels of their Thanksgiving night waxing of the Chicago Bulls, the Jazz now have strung together two straight games shooting 60 percent or better.
The last time that happened? February 1995.
"They were good shots," Williams said. "We had confidence to take them and make the."
The Jazz broke out to a 13-2 lead less than four minutes into the game. Except for a brief moment late in the second quarter, their lead never dipped below 10 points.
It got as high as 27 early in the fourth quarter.
Coming off a 10-point home loss to Memphis on Friday, the Trail Blazers got 19 points from Brandon Roy and 14 from LaMarcus Aldridge.
If there was a low point for the Jazz, it came late in the second quarter when their two top bench players -- Andrei Kirilenko and Paul Millsap -- left the game with injuries.
Millsap sustained a knee injury after colliding with Portland's Rudy Fernandez; Kirilenko strained his lower back.
