With All-Star power forward Carlos Boozer missing a 30th straight game due to his arthroscopically repaired knee and sixth man Andrei Kirilenko exiting early Tuesday because of pain in an ankle that will be surgically repaired in the offseason, Utah held on to beat Minnesota 112-107 at EnergySolutions Arena.

"Guys go out, you still have to try to win," Sloan said after the Jazz improved to 25-17. "And I give our guys a lot of credit for stepping up and continuing to play and winning the ballgame."

He did, yet Sloan also spent the first 66 seconds of his postgame comments heaping praise upon a 13-27 Timberwolves team that trailed 12-0 early and never did lead - yet still got to within one point twice in the fourth quarter.

"That team, they've really turned the corner and come a long way since we played them (last)," said Sloan, who celebrated his 20th anniversary as Jazz head coach Dec. 9 -- the same night ex-Boston Celtics great Kevin McHale began his second stint as coach in Minnesota.

"What a difference a little time makes when all of a sudden change comes about, and they go out there and play their hearts out," he said. "That's what you try and look for in everybody."

The Jazz did get some spirited play from both replacement-starter power forward Paul Millsap, who scored a game-high 28 points and pulled down a game-high 15-rebounds, and center Mehmet Okur, whose 22 points included two key 3-pointers in the fourth.

Utah needed it all, especially with Kirilenko skipping the second half.

"When he went out it limited what we wanted to do," Sloan said. "(Rookie Kosta) Koufos had to step up and play some.

"He's a young guy trying to figure out where he is -- and it's really rough sometimes to know what he's supposed to be doing."

The Jazz had to be wondering what they were doing when Minnesota first made it an 87-86 game with a Ryan Gomes 3-pointer early in the fourth and later a 97-96 game following a Randy Foye 3-pointer with four minutes and 28 seconds left.

"We could have folded our tents and said, 'Okay, this is it,'" Sloan said. "But we made some stops on 'em."

The Jazz went on a 9-0 run after Foye's trey, with Okur hitting back-to-back 3-pointers of his own -- both assisted by point guard Deron Williams -- and Williams knocking down a 20-footer with 58.7 seconds remaining.

On the other end, Minnesota had four Al Jefferson misses, two failed Foye free throws and a Sebastian Telfair turnover.

"I knew it was going to be a long game," Okur said, "so I stayed focused, I stayed hungry.

"Deron told me to just 'Stay ready,'" he added, "so I was there."

And now the Jazz are in Houston, preparing for tonight's game against the Rockets and hoping to continue the second half much like they began the first.

That would be on a five-game win streak -- sans the 100-plus man games lost to injury. E-mail: tbuckley@desnews.com