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SALT LAKE CITY -- Big Turk lived up to his nickname. Sebastian Janikowski Raiders Jersey . After two games in which he was nearly invisible, Enes Kanter loomed large in the middle and scored 24 points to lift the Utah Jazz past the Washington Wizards 104-101 Saturday night. "The big man played big tonight," said Gordon Hayward, who hit two free throws with 2.6 seconds left to seal the win. Kanter made 11 of 13 shots and the Jazz overcame a 13-point deficit to take control in the fourth quarter and keep the Wizards from moving above the .500 mark for the first time in more than four years. Kanter also took the pressure off of Derrick Favours, who is dealing with a sore hip. "Enes was doing the scoring, so I just tried to go out there and play defence and get rebounds," said Favours, who had 11 points and 14 rebounds. Hayward finished with 16 points and Alec Burks added 15 as the Jazz swept the two games with the Wizards for the second straight season. Trevor Ariza led Washington with 23 points, including a 3-pointer with 52 seconds left that drew the Wizards within 101-98. John Wall banked in a 3-pointer to get within 102-101 with 3.6 seconds left, but Hayward made two free throws and Wall missed at the buzzer. Kanter scored a total of eight points in two blowout losses to Minnesota and drew his coachs ire for often being in the wrong spots. But in this one, Kanter consistently found himself in the right place at the right time -- picking up loose balls, making timely passes and changing the Wizards shots in the paint. "I personally was really bad two games against Minnesota, but tonight I wanted to come out with lots of energy," Kanter said. The muscular centre from Turkey displayed a deft shooting touch on jumpers and power moves to the basket. When Arizas 3-pointer cut the lead to 92-90, Kanter hit a jump shot. With 57 seconds left, he made two free throws to give Utah a 101-95 cushion after a nifty reverse-pivot down the lane that drew a foul. Utahs schedule has allowed for practices in the past few weeks and the young Jazz players have benefited from the extra work. "My coaches have given me a lot of confidence and weve been practicing really hard," Kanter said. "The things I have been trying to do and now showing in the games." Burks and Hayward drove through the Wizards defence for layups as the Jazz scored on four straight possessions to open the fourth quarter and take an 85-77 lead. "We did a good job of attacking them after playing inside-out. We attacked them in transition, attacked them in the half court," said Trey Burke, who had 12 points and eight assists. The Jazz seemed a step quicker to loose balls as the game wore on, but the Wizards made it interesting in the final minute before yet again failing to move above .500. "We were running in mud half the game, in my opinion," Washington coach Randy Wittman said. "We wouldnt commit ourselves to our pace." Ten times over the past five seasons, the Wizards have had a chance to surpass .500. Theyve lost every time. "I feel like we had this game won. We just didnt do a good job in stopping them and they just kept making good plays," Wall said. Wizards last won a game to go above .500 on Oct. 31, 2009, when they beat the New Jersey Nets to improve to 2-1. They lost to Cleveland on Nov. 3 and havent had a winning record since. The Wizards, who led most of the game, have lost this season at 0-0, 9-9, 14-14, 19-19, 20-20 and 21-21. No one on the current Wizards roster was on the team when it was last above .500. Though Utah is at the bottom of the Western Conference standings, the Jazz are competitive when healthy. The starting lineup of Burke, Hayward, Marvin Williams, Richard Jefferson and Favours is 12-8 this season. Favours was a game-time decision but felt his right hip strain had healed enough to give it a go and the Jazz needed his defence and rebounding prowess. When Favors needed a rest, Kanter made his presence known, especially with his 10 points in the fourth quarter. After stumbling through a subpar January, Ariza has found his groove. He scored 23 points in a win over Phoenix Friday and made 6 of 10 3-pointers against Utah. But his fellow perimeter players couldnt find their range. Beal was 5 of 16 and Wall made just 4 of 14 attempts from the field. "I thought Trey and the guys playing Wall made him work for everything he got," Utah coach Tyrone Corbin said. Nene had 19 points, including a handful of emphatic dunks, and Marcin Gortat had 14 points and 11 rebounds, but they couldnt stop Kanter when it mattered most. NOTES: The Jazz claimed third-year forward Malcolm Thomas off waivers on Saturday. He has appeared in 16 career NBA games over three seasons with San Antonio (this season), Golden State and Chicago, averaging 1.1 points and 1.8 rebounds in 5.4 minutes. . The teams combined to miss their first seven shots. . The Jazz reserves outscored their Washington counterparts 52-18 but all five Wizard starters scored in double figures. Cheap Lester Hayes Jersey . Tuesday nights 5-3 victory over the Boston Red Sox fit that category perfectly. Michael Bourns two-run double in the seventh inning snapped a 3-all tie and extended Clevelands winning streak to a season-high five straight games. James Jones Raiders Jersey . The Kings were beaten on a goal by Logan Couture after the Sharks played the entire 89 seconds of overtime on the power play. The Kings were received penalties for both hooking and goaltender interference in the final minute of regulation play. SAITAMA, Japan -- European champions Anna Cappellini and Luca Lanotte received 69.70 points to finish first in the short program. Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje of Waterloo, Ont., trailed by half a point. Nathalie Pechalat and Fabian Bourzat of France were third on 68.20. "This is definitely where we want to be, in the attacking position of the top spot, because we feel that we put great work into this season especially and we want to end on a high note and put out two solid performances," said Poje. Torontos Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier of Unionville, Ont., were 10th with 59.42 points. Alexandra Paul of Midhurst, Ont., and Mitchell Islam of Barrie, Ont., scored 57.68 points for 11th place heading into Saturdays free dance. Ekaterina Bobrova and Dmitri Soloviev, the top-ranked Russians, were forced to withdraw after Soloviev injured his groin in the morning practice. Defending champions and Olympic gold medallists Meryl Davis and Charlie White of the United States were not taking part. The ice dance concludes on Saturday with the free dance. Japanese teenager Yuzuru Hanyu came back with a brilliant free skate to become the first man in 12 years on Friday to win the Olympic and world figure skating titles in the same year. The 19-year-old Hanyu, who trailed compatriot Tatsuki Machida by nearly seven points after the world championships short program, produced a near-flawless free skate to finish with 282.59 points, just three-tenths of a point ahead of Machida. Javier Fernandez of Spain was third with 275.93. "That was very close," Hanyu said. "I work hard to become a skater who can always end with strong performances. I felt the responsibility to win the event." Hanyu fell twice during the free skate at the Sochi Olympics but had no falls on Friday. Skating to "Romeo and Juliet," he opened with a quad salchow and followed with a quad toeloop. His only deduction came onn the triple flip and he got extra points on five straight jumps. Cheap D.J. Hayden Jersey. The mens Olympic-worlds double was last achieved by Alexei Yagudin in 2002. Machida captured his first major medal with a graceful performance to Stravinskis "Firebird." "I showed everything I have at this moment," Machida said. "I tried to perform without caring about the score or ranking but it got into my head and I had a really tough four minutes." Fernandez, who was fourth in Sochi, was deducted points when he singled a planned triple lutz. "I popped the triple lutz," Fernandez said. "And I didnt do my quad salchow triple toeloop combination, but still it was a good program even though Yuzuru did better than me." Maxim Kotvun of Russia was fourth followed by Jeremy Abbott of the United States. Canadian Patrick Chan, who had won the last three world titles, decided to skip this years competition. Kevin Reynolds of Coquitlam, B.C., was the top Canadian in 11th place. Its been a tough season for Reynolds, who struggled with ill-fitting skates for several months. "The whole season was a giant learning experience, and I can take from that knowing I can still skate my best even though Im not feeling even close to where Id like to be in terms of being comfortable and being ready, being prepared," said Reynolds. "What I can take away from this is that even if Im not feeling 100 per cent, I know that I can still do the job, and that should give me confidence when I do feel good." World junior champion Nam Nguyen of Toronto was 12th while Elladj Balde of Pierrefonds, Que., was 18th. "Skating in front of 20,000 plus people, its amazing," said the 15-year-old Nguyen. "Im not intimidated at all. Im very excited to skate for them. I love to hear them cheer for me. I just want them to skate with me." -- With files from The Canadian Press ' ' ' |
