Wolves hang tight till halftime, then falter

SALT LAKE CITY - Mehmet Okur and Andrei Kirilenko both returned Wednesday night in Utah's 117-107 victory over the Timberwolves at EnergySolutions Arena.

So, too, did the Jazz's shooting eye.

All three were missing at Target Center on Sunday, when the Wolves defeated an opponent nearly unbeatable at home but suspect on the road for the second time in five weeks there.

Kirilenko sat out that game because of injured calf muscles. Okur stayed home because of the stomach flu. And both forward Kyle Korver's outside shot -- its threatening effect on opposing defenses partly attributable to Utah's 34-10 record since it acquired him from Philadelphia just after Christmas -- and his teammates' aim went missing, as well.

On Sunday, the Jazz made one of 12 three-point shots. On Wednesday, they went 12-for-22 and busted open a close game when Okur hit three threes in a game-turning 20-5 third-quarter run.

Wolves coach Randy Wittman worried the Jazz -- now 35-4 at home and 16-22 on the road -- might knock his team out early on the second half of challenging back-to-back games in a dwindling season. Afterward, he said he was "proud" his team held tough through halftime, when the Jazz led by three points.

The debilitating uppercuts arrived early in the third quarter, when a 59-56 Utah lead quickly became a 79-61 bulge in a five-minute span. The Wolves never climbed up off the canvas until the fourth quarter and by then, it was far too late.

Early in the season, Witt- man lamented his team's poor body language when things go badly, a complaint he hadn't registered recently until Wednesday night.

"The thing we did for the first time in a while was we succumbed, put our heads down and felt sorry for ourselves," Wittman said. "We hadn't done that lately. Would it have made a difference tonight? No, but some nights it will make a difference. We can't just stop playing. I told them afterward, 'We have two weeks left in the season and we can't do that anymore.' "

The Wolves' starting five was responsible for that five-minute collapse and the hung heads. When the Jazz led by 20 points with more than two minutes still left in the third, Wittman turned to veteran center and new dad Michael Doleac, who hadn't played since the last time the Wolves visited Salt Lake City a month ago, and Mark Madsen in the game's closing minutes.

"Man, he hit like four threes in a row," Wolves forward Al Jefferson said, referring to Okur's third-quarter flurry. "It was just tough. We should have kept playing and kept fighting. We showed our emotions too much."

• Wolves forward Kirk Snyder, when told his coach thought the team had stopped playing in the third quarter: "It's a tough situation. Do you run the plays or do you take threes and try to come back? I'm a gambler. It's unfortunate that it seemed that way to coach. Guys were just trying to make a comeback. That's the American way."

• Jefferson's two rebounds were a season low. He scored 12 points.

• The Wolves had six players score in double figures.

• The Jazz had never recorded back-to-back games with 10 or more three-pointers made before this season and now have done it twice. They did it Feb. 4 and 6 -- and then followed Monday's franchise-record 15 threes against Washington with 12.

• The Jazz reached 50 victories Wednesday for the second season in a row and for the 13th time since the franchise moved from New Orleans to Salt Lake City in '79.

• Jazz star Carlos Boozer on Okur's open threes: "They're so worried about layups and dunks with me and [point guard Deron Williams]. They give Memo shots and Memo is going to knock them down. That's the great thing about him."