Not all of Jerry Sloan's 1,000 wins as the Utah Jazz's head coach were quite this easy.
Then again, not all of his blowout wins were quite this hard, either.
The Jazz, who beat Oklahoma City 104-97 Friday night, seemed to quickly take the drama out of whether or not Sloan would reach the millennium mark for wins as Utah's head coach.
Sparked by a massive 21-0 first-quarter run, the Jazz built a 29-point lead and looked to have Sloan's 1,000th win in Utah wrapped up by halftime.
The Thunder made things a bit more interesting in the second half, though, outscoring Utah by 23 in the first 18 minutes to trim the Jazz's lead to single digits at 86-78.
Utah, however, answered with another nice run — an 13-2 spurt capped by a Carlos Boozer dunk — to turn the game into a blowout again.
Boozer scored 21 points with nine rebounds to lead Utah and Mehmet Okur and Andrei Kirilenko added 16 points apiece as the Jazz helped Sloan improve his coaching record in Utah to 1,000-596. Sloan, whose overall record as an NBA coach now sits at 1,094-717, became the first coach in league history to hit the milestone for wins with one franchise.
More importantly to Sloan, who has said this achievement means little to him, the Jazz improved their record this season to 5-0. And that, despite the fact star point guard Deron Williams has been sidelined so far with a sprained left ankle.
Williams hopes to play for the first time this year during the Jazz's five-game Eastern road trip, which begins Sunday afternoon (1 p.m.) at New York.
Friday night's game looked like a blowout from the beginning — though, somewhat surprisingly, for the former Seattle SuperSonics at first. The Thunder, who relocated to Oklahoma City over the summer, jumped ahead 8-0 after three minutes.
C.J. Miles, who signed a qualifying contract offer with the Thunder in the offseason that was matched by the Jazz, hit a 3-pointer to put Utah on the scoreboard.
Kevin Durant answered with a jumper to give OKC a 10-3 advantage.
But then the Jazz poured it on, holding the Thunder scoreless for more than eight minutes while scoring 21 in a row to seize a 24-10 lead. While Oklahoma City couldn't buy a bucket — missing 14 shots in a row — six Jazz players scored in the momentum-shifting surge. Brewer (seven points) and Boozer (six) did the most damage in the spurt for Utah.
The Jazz built their lead up to 29 at the end of the half — taking a 58-29 lead into the locker room — before the 1-4 Thunder made it a little more respectable of a thumping for a while in the second half.
Durant led the Thunder with 24 points and Jeff Green added 22.
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