Jazz defeats Pacers to extend streak to 12

Mehmet Okur’s 24 points helped the Utah Jazz beat the Indiana Pacers, 112-100, on Tuesday night for their 12th straight victory, moving them one game closer to the franchise record of 15 consecutive set twice during the 1996-97 season.

“Don’t jinx us,” Utah forward Carlos Boozer said.

Longtime Jazz Coach Jerry Sloan wasn’t talking about 15, either.

“I don’t pay much attention to that,” he said. “We’ll just try to keep going day by day.”

To reach 15 will be a challenge. Utah’s next three games are at Atlanta, Miami and Orlando.

“We’re going to set our sights high,” Boozer said. “The thing about our streak is that we’ve been able to take it one day at a time. Today, we had to focus on Indiana.”

For a few minutes near the end, it looked as if the Pacers could end Utah’s winning streak.

T.J. Ford’s jumper with seven minutes left tied the score at 90, but the Jazz answered with a 16-4 run over the next three minutes to pull away.

“They’re the hottest team in the league and we just couldn’t get the stops coming down the stretch,” said Pacers forward Troy Murphy, who finished with 23 points and 13 rebounds. “We had a good shot tonight, but we weren’t able to take advantage of it.”

Murphy set an Indiana franchise record for defensive rebounds in a season, surpassing Jermaine O’Neal’s 594 in 2002-03.