Well, it would appear Paul Millsap's knee is okay. He just dropped a 27 and 14 on David West's bald little dome as the Jazz handed the Hornets their worst loss of the year.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/recap?gameId=290107026SALT LAKE CITY -- After running slightly behind New Orleans in the first quarter, the Utah Jazz ran over the Hornets in the second and kept on going.
The Jazz held the weary Hornets to two field goals in the second period during a 116-90 victory Wednesday night, pulling down more than twice as many rebounds and shutting down everybody except Chris Paul.
Paul Millsap extended his NBA-leading streak of double-doubles to 19 games with 27 points and 14 rebounds as the Jazz easily won the first of three meetings against the Hornets, who were exhausted from a win over the Lakers in Los Angeles the night before.
"We expected them to come in and give us a good ball game -- especially coming off that good win against the Lakers," said Millsap, who also had five assists. "We came out with more energy and more intensity and came out with the win.
Paul had 26 points and seven assists for the Hornets, but got little help from his teammates as Utah controlled everything inside and outrebounded New Orleans 55-26.
The Hornets held off the Lakers 116-105 the night before and the fatigue set in after the first period Wednesday.
Utah led 58-46 at halftime after New Orleans shot 2-for-13 from the floor and was outrebounded 18-7 during the second quarter.
"Obviously it's a long trip for them to have to come up here, but that's the way it works out. You try to take advantage as much as you can," Utah coach Jerry Sloan said.
Mehmet Okur added 20 points for Utah, and Andrei Kirilenko had 13 points and eight rebounds. Kyle Korver had 15 points, Matt Harpring 10, and Deron Williams, who has been fighting a cold, added eight assists.
"I just tried to push the ball and get everybody involved," Williams said. "Luckily everybody else stepped up and I didn't have to do much scoring tonight."
The Jazz are 9-2 in the head-to-head meetings between Williams and Paul, the U.S. Olympic teammates who have been compared since Utah passed over Paul to pick Williams third overall in the 2005 draft.
Paul had the better scoring night, but Williams and the Jazz ran away with the game after outscoring the Hornets 29-13 in the second quarter.
Millsap scored nine in the period and had 13 points and nine boards in the first half. He grabbed his 10th rebound in the first minute of the third period, then scored six straight as the Jazz pulled ahead 65-46. He started with a dunk on an alley-oop from Ronnie Brewer and also had a reverse layup to spark a 10-2 run to open the period for the Jazz.
"I don't know what we're going to do with Millsap. He keeps getting better every game," Sloan said.
Paul was the only member of the Hornets who appeared to have any energy left after the first period, but he wasn't nearly enough to beat the Jazz by himself.
David West, who scored 40 points against the Lakers on Tuesday, had 13 points and led the Hornets with six rebounds -- less than half of Millsap's total. James Posey was the only other Hornet to score in double figures, finishing with 11 points.
"The second quarter, they really jumped on it," Paul said. "When you let a team like this get easy buckets, then they get rolling."
