Favors, Jazz dominate Celtics Friday

SALT LAKE CITY— Derrick Favors was not happy after Utah's disappointing loss the previous night. He took it out on the Boston Celtics.

Favors had 23 points and 10 rebounds to help the Jazz beat the Celtics 111-93 on Friday night in the second game of a back-to-back.

"I was just trying to be aggressive," Favors said. "I had a bad game in Washington and a lot of stuff was said, so I just wanted to come out and be aggres- sive and play my game."

The Jazz were coming off a 103-89 loss to the Wizards on Thursday night.

"We didn't play as good as we wanted to last night in Washington, so we just wanted to come out, set the tempo early, be aggressive and try to get a win."

Utah, which snapped a two-game skid, pulled away midway through the third quarter with a 10-0 stretch to take a 79-62 lead. Trevor Booker's fast-break dunk and Favors' layup in traffic capped the run.

Gordon Hayward finished with 22 points for the Jazz, while Rudy Gobert had 11 points, 15 rebounds and four blocked shots. Favors also had a careerhigh six assists.

"The first thing, maybe, is for (Favors) to say I'm not going to worry about someone getting me to do it," Jazz coach Quin Snyder said. "I'm going to focus. I'm going to keep doing that. He can do that.

"We can keep trying to encourage him, but part of his maturation as a player is just having that level of focus. ... Be precise. Because when he's precise, he's usually really forceful. That's hard to deal with as strong and as big as he is — when he plays that way and imposes his will."