One thing is clear after Tuesday night's Jazz victory over the Indiana Pacers: The All-Star break helped.

"We took advantage of it," Utah's John Stockton said after the 98-82 win at Conseco Fieldhouse. "Guys came back with smiles on their faces and ready to play basketball."
     
The smiles were a vast change from the way they looked closing out the pre-break portion of their season. One week ago they were in Memphis, getting knocked around by a bad team missing key players.
     
This time, against a Pacers team at full strength, and with the Jazz shorthanded, it was Utah doing the pushing around, from the opening tip.
     
"We got off to a little bit better start than what we've been doing," said Jazz coach Jerry Sloan. "We got up on them and tried not to give up easy baskets."
     
The Jazz game plan was to keep Reggie Miller and Jalen Rose, the Pacers' two most dangerous gunners, from getting the hot hand. It worked, as Rose missed 10 of 15 shots and Miller only took eight shots.
     
"Reggie's one of the best pure shooters in the league," said Jazz guard John Starks, who in his prime as a Knick had some classic playoff encounters with Miller. "But he likes to shoot off the down pick, and we did a good job of defending the down pick. That makes it tough for him to get shots off."