DENVER — Afterward Linas Kleiza ran through a hallway at the Pepsi Center, shouting to everyone in general and no one in particular, "Read it in the paper tomorrow; read it in the paper," as he made his way to the Denver Nuggets locker room.
How fitting.
Kleiza ran circles around the Jazz all night Thursday, scoring a career-high 41 points to help push the Nuggets past Utah 120-109.
That's 12 points more than the previous high for Kleiza, a University of Missouri product by way of Lithuania who is in his third NBA season.
It's also a big reason the 23-15 Nuggets were able post 38 fastbreak points, 21 more than they were averaging coming into the night.
But it wasn't the only factor that propelled Denver, which led by just two points heading into the break, during the second half in the first meeting of four this season between the two NBA Northwest Division title contenders.
There was Nuggets center Marcus Camby pulling down 24 rebounds tying him with Phoenix's Shawn Marion for tops in the league this season — and blocking a career high-matching 11 shots while he and Kleiza helped make up for the absence of ailing big men Kenyon Martin (staph infection) and Nene (testicular tumor surgery).
There was a quick trigger tendency on the part of the 22-18 Jazz, who saw their four-game winning streak come to a close while their string of consecutive road losses stretched to four.
And there was a general lack of success getting back on transition defense for Utah, prompting coach Jerry Sloan to question his club.
Or at least try.
"I don't know what to ask them," Sloan said. "Maybe you ask those guys what their problem is (that) they can't run back down the floor.
"If I wrote in the newspaper, I'd ask them that question. I can't answer it. I'd say, 'Hey, why can't you guys run the floor?' ... I mean, I asked them that — and I didn't get much response."
There were honest answers, however, in a disheartened Jazz locker room.
Especially when it came to the issue of Kleiza, who finished 13-of-21 from the field, 4-of-8 from 3-point range and 11-of-14 from the free-throw line — and pulled down nine rebounds to boot.
"He didn't go to the (defensive) board," Jazz center Mehmet Okur said. "He just took off, and they grabbed the rebounds and just throw the ball to him and he had easy baskets."
"He's one of those guys that leaks out and takes off. ... He got a lot of his stuff on the fastbreak," power forward Carlos Boozer added after an 18-point, 11-rebound night — his 27th double-double of the season. "We didn't a good job of getting back. Our transition D wasn't very good."
Why not?
"As soon as the ball was shot, he's just running — and it's tough to get back, especially for me a lot of times, because I'm penetrating so much," said point guard Deron Williams, whose team-high 23 points and 11 assists marked his 19th double-double this season. "And he's just gone. By the time the shot goes off, he's gone.
"There's not many teams pushing like them, make or miss. But that's no excuse. We've just got to make an effort, I think, with guys like that. You know, our big guys like to go to the offensive board — so it's tough for them to get in their mind that you have to get away from that, because he's getting out.
"But it wasn't just leak-outs," Williams added. "When he got it on the wing, he was attacking. He hit 3s. You know, we didn't really expect for him to come in and have a game like that. We expect Carmelo (Anthony) and A.I. (Allen Iverson) to have big games, but we definitely didn't expect that one (from Kleiza)."
Iverson did finish with 28 points, and Anthony 23.
It was Kleiza, though, who stole the show.
He started in Martin's spot at power forward, and scored 20 of his 41 in the second quarter alone — joining Portland's Martell Webster as the second player this month to score at least 20 in a quarter against the Jazz.
And if it wasn't for a 13-point second period from Kyle Korver — who finished with 16 points, his most since joining the Jazz in a late-December trade with Philadelphia — Denver's lead would have been healthier heading into the second half.
Utah even led by as many as three points in the third quarter, when Williams knocked down a 3-pointer with just more than eight minutes remaining in the period.
But Kleiza scored in quick transition following a 3-second call on Okur to put Denver ahead to stay at 73-72 with 6:55 left in the third, and by the end of the quarter the Nuggets' lead was up to 10.
Denver led by double-digits throughout the game's final 11:37, and pushed that advantage to as many as 21 when Kleiza — still running on full — knocked down a pair of free throws with 3:44 remaining.
"They were better than we were. By far," said Sloan, whose Jazz play host tonight to the Los Angeles Clippers. "Glad they didn't have all their players. We probably would have lost by 40."
E-mail: tbuckley@desnews.com