SALT LAKE CITY — Alec Burks scored 27 points for his third straight game with 20 or more, and the Utah Jazz blew out the Washington Wizards 116-69 on Monday night for their sixth straight win.
Burks is on his best string since three straight 20-point games in February 2014. He helped the Jazz put on a show during the first 24 minutes to lead 64-30 at halftime, their second-biggest output in a half this season.
Utah moved the ball crisply, leading to wide open 3-pointers, layups and dunks. It shot 56.8 percent in the first half and knocked down seven 3s. Every Jazz player that played had an assist in the half, and the team scored 34 points in the paint.
Washington set a season low for points. Otto Porter Jr. led the Wizards with 14 points.
Utah used a 33-6 run that spanned the first and second quarters to take a 31-point lead. Donovan Mitchell highlighted the stretch with a tomahawk, alley-oop dunk on a fast break off a look-away pass from Ricky Rubio.
Mitchell finished with 21 points. The rookie has scored 20-plus points in 9 of 24 games. Monday’s effort followed a 41-point outing Friday.
Jazz center Rudy Gobert returned after missing the last 11 games with a bruised bone in his lower right leg. The defensive player of the year candidate wore a brace and was on a minutes restriction, but he started, played well and finished with four points and 10 rebounds in 21 minutes.
Washington’s 30 first-half points marked its second fewest points in a half this season. The Wizards shot 26.8 percent from the field and 14.3 percent from beyond the arc.
Bradley Beal added 11 points on 4-for-15 shooting for Washington.
WALL STILL OUT
All-Star John Wall missed his fifth straight game with a sore left knee, and the team is 2-3 without him. The Wizards began the day ranked No. 11 in the league with 107.8 points per game and had averaged 104.75 in the previous four without Wall.
“We’re scoring it in different ways,” coach Scott Brooks said before the game. “John is such a great attack player in pick-and-roll. We’re doing it with probably more passing and more misdirection plays.”
BANGED UP
The NBA has had a litany of injuries to major contributors early in the season. The Jazz have handled them fairly well after dealing with significant injuries for three years running.
“It does seem like there’s been a rash, particularly, the fact that they’ve all happened at the same time,” Jazz coach Quin Snyder said. “Ours happened earlier and we continued to have guys out. It’s something teams deal with consistently, it’s just a question of degree.”
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