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SALT LAKE CITY -- Big Turk lived up to his nickname. Nike Air Force 1 Sort Dame . 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. Asics Gel Saga Køb . Chief operating officer Jeff Wilpon and general manager Sandy Alderson were among those there. The get-together also included sports agent Brodie Van Wagenen, but not Cano. Nike Air Force 1 Dame Hvid Danmark . The Canadiens accomplished both. Alex Galchenyuk scored the only shootout goal, and the Canadiens got their fifth win in six games, 2-1 over the Bruins on Monday night.When the Carolina Hurricanes went into the 2002 playoffs, they didnt necessarily think they were Stanley Cup contenders. Then Paul Maurice worked his magic behind the bench. "We could feel it within our room, we could feel it on our bench, we could feel it on our plane" former Carolina goaltender Kevin Weekes said. "And we knew that we were a prepared group, we knew that we were a committed group, we knew we were a group that believed, and Coach Maurice went a long way in creating that atmosphere." Maurice got that group to the Cup final as part of an impressive tenure in Carolina. Almost 12 years after that run, Maurice on Sunday replaced Claude Noel as coach of the Winnipeg Jets, and a handful of his former Hurricanes players consider it a good fit based on what he did for them. "I think hes a very underrated coach," said Hall of Famer and former Carolina captain Ron Francis, who also worked as an assistant under Maurice. "Hes a very bright guy, hes good at assessing the talent he has and then structuring the system that he believes will get the most out of the lineup that he has on a game-in, game-out basis." Maurice has his fair share of issues to deal with to fix what ails the Jets, who are 10 points out of the Western Conferences final playoff spot after losing five in a row. "I would imagine the strategy for him, hed be a little bit of a detective going in there," said Jeff ONeill who played for Maurice in Carolina and Toronto. "Hes going to find out what the problems are and hes going to address the issues. And thats probably the first order of business." Its not exactly new business, either. When Maurice became Whalers coach early in the 1995-96 season, he inherited a Hartford team that missed the playoffs in each of the past three years. The Jets missed the playoffs in their first two seasons in Winnipeg and havent made it since 2006-07 as the Atlanta Thrashers. At least its a familiar challenge for Maurice. "It almost works in his favour that this is not a new situation for him," said former defenceman Aaron Ward. "Hes never really walked into a situation where hes had a cupboard full of unbelievable talent." Winnipeg doesnt have unbelievable talent, but theres a core in place beginning with captain Andrew Ladd, U.S. Olympian Blake Wheeler, Evander Kane and Dustin Byfuglien. Those early Whalers teams were led by Geoff Sanderson, Andrew Cassels and Keith Primeau. Maurice didnt turn things around right away, but by the second season of the Hurricanes after the move to North Carolina, they were in the playoffs thanks to contributions from Primeau, Sami Kapanen, Francis and goaltender Arturs Irbe. The 2002 run to the Cup final was Maurices most memorable achievement, taking an unheralded group led by Francis and Rod BrindAmour to within three victories of knocking off the talent-rich Detroit Red Wings. Even today, Francis wondered what wouldve happened if Carolina didnt lost Game 3 in triple overtime. "I think he just had the guys believing that we were capable of doing it," said Francis, whos now vice president of hockey operations for the Hurricanes. "We kept everything sort of simple and the focus on the direction it needed to be kept on, and as a result you had a team that believes in itself, believes in each other and some may say overachieved, but not according to the guys in that locker room or the coaching staff. We certainly believed we belonged right to the end." Maurice isnt the same man he was when he got his first NHL head-coaching job at the age of 28 or even the same from 2002. Maurice has coached 1,084 games with the Whalers, Hurricanes and Toronto Maple Leafs and isnt a fresh-faced youngster anymore. "Obviously he knows what works and wwhat doesnt work now," ONeill said. Asics Gel Lyte III Tilbud. "I think maybe when he was younger he thought he had to be a hard ass all the time for guys to kind of buy in and believe it, and then later on the message didnt have to be that because he was established, he had coached so many games." Maurice is 46 now, armed with experience from coaching Metallurg in Russias Kontinental Hockey League and doing some television analysis. Francis worked on Maurices staff in 2009-10 and 2010-11 and saw how he matured and changed over time. Francis has no doubt Maurice has adjusted with a changing league. "Hes very bright, hes a good student of the game and hes watching whats happening and how things are evolving," Francis said. "He incorporates that into his game plan and his systems. Theres no question he doesnt get stuck on one particular thing but more or less moves with the times." Times now are about youth, as Weekes pointed out the NHL has never been younger. Maurice will be charged with figuring out how to best use defenceman Jacob Trouba, centre Mark Scheifele and others in the pipeline in Winnipeg. Based on what Maurice did at the junior level, including winning the 1995 OHL title with the Detroit Jr. Red Wings, and how much he accomplished with the Hurricanes, his former players know where his strengths lie. Most notably, he can maximize the talent at his disposal. "Its one thing to coach somebody up, its another thing to just coach and its another thing to coach somebody down," Weekes said. "Paul Maurice is somebody that Ive seen, and one of the few that Ive seen as a head coach in my time, that coached you up." If the Jets hope to make up a substantial deficit to get back into contention this season or at least make strides for the future, itll be up to Maurice to coach up like he did in Carolina. That job starts with creating an identity for a team that has been lacking one. Those Hurricanes teams are a nice blue print. "I think its a team that works extremely hard," Francis said. "I think its a team that tries to be very solid in its own end and then try to get in on the forecheck as quickly and as aggressively as possible. Those are some of the trademarks that he really liked to incorporate into his team." Personal relationships also are a trademark of Maurices coaching. Weekes said Maurice knew how to treat players as players and as people, and Francis lauded his "open-door policy," which could benefit Ladd. "At any point as a captain, if I wanted to walk in and have a conversation with him, I felt comfortable doing that," Francis said. "We could talk about everything from my individual game to team concepts and systems or strengths and weaknesses and how to adjust things. And it was no different being a part of the coaching staff. He gave everybody a voice. Youre allowed to kind of say your piece and what you thought, and at the end of the day it was his job as head coach to make the final decision. But he certainly gave you that opportunity to express what you felt." Maurice certainly hasnt been perfect. During his 13 full seasons as an NHL head coach, his teams made the playoffs five times and missed eight. But Weekes, who was part of just one Maurice-led playoff team, praised him as "hands-down" the best coach he ever played for. "He set the right tone with the staff, certainly with all of our players, and for the most part youd have to say he put all of us in a position to succeed," Weekes said. "Everything was structured, our work ethic as a team was through the roof, and I think that really reflected our coaches, starting with Coach Maurice, just in terms of the preparation, the practice detail, the tempo -- us doing all the little things that it took the be successful."