Paul Millsap continued to make his case for a regular season starting spot as his game-high 20 points led the Utah Jazz to a 109-87 rout of Spanish club Real Madrid on Thursday in the finale of the NBA’s preseason tour of Europe.
Point guard Deron Williams added 16 at the Palacio de los Deportes stadium as the Jazz rebounded from Tuesday’s one-point loss to the Chicago Bulls in London.
The victory put the NBA back on even-footing in Spain after having lost two of its last three matches in the country.
“We’re athletic, our system definitely helps, [we’re] tough to guard. We just had more talent,” Williams said, summarizing the match.
Both Millsap and Carlos Boozer are battling to start the season in the power forward’s role with four preseason games to go.
Millsap followed up an 18-point effort against the Bulls by combining with Alexander Johnson for 22 points during a second quarter run when the Jazz outscored the hosts 33-16 to breakout.
“That’s what I’m trying to do, to push myself to do better this whole year, be more assertive on the offensive end and play my role on the defensive ending,” Millsap said. “I was about business on this trip.”
With Madrid missing pivot men Felipe Reyes and Thomas Van den Spiegel, Millsap dominated in the paint to key an 8-2 run to start the period before Johnson hit back-to-back jumpers to help Utah out to its first double-digit advantage.
“They went on that run and that sealed the game,” Madrid forward Jorge Garbajosa said.
The Jazz dominated under the basket at both ends — outscoring Madrid 64-26 inside the paint — and kept the Spanish club without a field goal for nearly the last six minutes of the second period.
Madrid also made nine of its 22 turnovers during that time.
Rookie point guard Eric Maynor’s three-pointer gave the Jazz a comfortable 19-point cushion to close the first half.
Utah coach Jerry Sloan brought Williams and Boozer back out to start the second half and the Jazz stretched their lead to 28.
Boozer finished with 14 points.
Ronnie Brewer’s tomahawk slam with two minutes remaining in the third period put the exclamation point on a night that had started slowly for the jet-lagged Jazz.
The last time the NBA was in the Spanish capital in 2007, Madrid beat the Toronto Raptors by a single point.
“It wasn’t our best effort this evening,” said former Michigan player Louis Bullock, who led Madrid’s scorers with 18 points. “It was fun but obviously we would have liked to have played a little better.”
Former Portland player Fernando Martin was honored before the start of the second half. Martin, who died in a traffic accident in 1989, was the first Spanish player to play in the NBA.
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