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SALT LAKE CITY -- To say Rodney Hood was eager to return to the court after a hamstring injury sidelined him for three games might be an understatement.The third-year guard knocked down basket after basket from the opening tip and finished with 25 points as the Utah Jazz defeated the Oklahoma City Thunder 109-89 on Wednesday night to break a tie between the teams atop the Northwest Division.These last few games have been so tough to watch, Hood said. My teammates have been out there just battling and playing and you cant do nothing but watch. It was good to be back out there.Utah led from start to finish behind 58.3 percent shooting and showed why its one of the best defensive teams in the NBA, holding the Thunder to 36.6 percent from the field.Gordon Hayward scored 17 for the Jazz, who have won nine of 11. Rudy Gobert added 12 points, 12 rebounds and three blocks.Russell Westbrook paced the Thunder with 27 points, six rebounds and five assists. He shot 7 for 25 from the floor.When he has an off shooting night, you dont take credit for it with your defense, Jazz coach Quin Snyder said. You just try to make sure you do as good of a job as you can, not giving up offensive rebounds when he drives and try not to give him layups. Sometimes thats hard to do.The guys that were guarding him worked hard. And thats really all you can ask.Enes Kanter scored 19 for Oklahoma City against his former team.The Jazz took a 55-41 lead into halftime thanks to a 15-6 run in the second quarter. Hood sank a pair of 3-pointers to highlight the stretch.The Thunder shot just 32.5 percent in the first half and had little offense outside of Westbrooks 14 points on 3-for-11 shooting.I know Gobert is a great rim protector, but I thought we had some shots around the basket that we normally could have made, Thunder coach Billy Donovan said. I thought that bled into our struggles scoring.TIP-INSThunder: Victor Oladipo missed his second consecutive game with a right wrist sprain. Jerami Grant started in place of Oladipo for the second straight night. The Thunder had the same starting lineup for the first 24 games of the season.Jazz: George Hill missed his sixth straight game with a sprained left big toe, but is no longer in a walking boot. ... Utah is 15-2 when leading at halftime.A LITTLE RESTThe Jazz played their first game in four days after a stretch of eight games in 13 days. The injury-ravaged roster got Derrick Favors (knee) back after a 13-game absence, and Hood (hamstring) returned after missing three games. Snyder said the injuries didnt allow the team to practice much, but the Jazz tried to be smart and efficient in the things they could do. They also tried to get some rest and get healthy.Theres always a fine line between, you want to rejuvenate and recharge, but then you also dont want to lose timing and things like that, Snyder said.OVER ITWestbrook failed to get a triple-double for the third consecutive game and is starting to get annoyed with all the talk about him averaging a triple-double for the entire season.Honestly, people with this triple-double thing, is kind of getting on my nerves, he said. People think if I dont get it, its like a big thing. When I do get it, its a thing.If I get it, I get it. If I dont, I dont. It is what it is. I really dont care, not for the hundredth time. I dont care. All I care about is winning.UP NEXTThunder: Oklahoma City hosts Devin Booker and the Phoenix Suns on Saturday.Jazz: Utah hosts a Mavericks team Friday that has lost 11 of 12 games on the road. Yadier Molina . Clarkson had been dealing with an elbow injury in early January and will be out of action for at least one week. He has three goals and five assists through 36 games with the Leafs this season. Lane Thomas . Perhaps Carroll was so prepared for a break because he believes there is very little the Seattle Seahawks need heading into the off-season. "I dont see anything that we need to add. We just have to get better," Carroll said. http://www.custommlbcardinalsjersey.com/custom-marcell-ozuna-jersey-large-1391q.html . -- If this was Aaron Gordons final home game at Arizona, and it almost certainly was, then he went out in style. Adolis Garcia . Reigning world champion Eve Muirhead of Scotland opened with a 12-2 rout of Winnipegs Jennifer Jones in a battle of teams bound for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. Ken Boyer .500 on the season. The Jets are now 0-5-1 in the second game of back-to-backs. The game started the same way the Vancouver game started the night before, with the Jets taking the first two penalties of the game and killing off the first, but the Oilers getting on the board first, scoring on the second man-advantage. In Sharjah this week, Kraigg Brathwaites slender shoulders grew as broad as Samsons of biblical fame. Refusing to be moved, he knocked down for the belaboured West Indies a wall that has stood for some 26 years, helping deliver a five-wicket win over Pakistan, their first against that opponent away from home since 1990.Test cricket was still being played in Pakistan when a team led by Desmond Haynes won in Faisalabad by seven wickets. It is a sporting irony that arguably the weakest West Indies side to face Pakistan on foreign soil should be able to match what a team stacked with legends did.Brathwaites work in Sharjah could come to define his career. Bettering his most resolute self, his ten and a half hours at the crease in the third Test for 142 and 60, both not out, ensured that his bowlers work in this series finally paid off.The problem of bowling teams out with regularity had reached crisis proportions over the last 12 months for West Indies, especially in the series away to Australia and at home to India. When it was announced they were going to a region traditionally unkind to seamers, it did not inspire confidence that such impotence would be overcome. But in the UAE, West Indies eventually achieved success on the back of their bowling. Big contributions from different members of the attack kept them in all three Tests, and almost set up a win in the first, in Dubai.In that first game, Devendra Bishoos 8 for 49 was also career-defining, and it turned a Pakistan walkover into a compelling match that Darren Bravos sheet-anchor 116 threatened to convert into a storied West Indies win. Perhaps the aggressive, slightly complacent Pakistan batsmen played a part in the turnaround, but that second-innings Bishoo effort changed the series for West Indies. Bravo built on the momentum his team-mate had started. And while he could not take his heroics all the way, the visitors went to the second Test with greater self-belief.While Bishoo deferred to Shannon Gabriel in Abu Dhabi, where the big fast bowler got his first five-wicket haul in all first-class cricket, the leggie had a platform on which to build. Injury and lack of faith by the selectors have stymied his progress since his debut against Pakistan five years ago. Bishoos seven wickets in the final Test ought to buy him time so he can truly settle down.His effort, and captain Jason Holders second-innings five-for in Sharjah, ensured that the targets in front of the sides unsteady batting line-up were not too challenging. And it was the ability of the bowlers to progressively get at the Pakistan batting that will encourage Holder and the selection panel. The more sustained threat of Gabriel as a result of an improved fitness reegime and greater balance on delivery is bringing him better results.ddddddddddddhe decline of the injury-plagued Kemar Roach and the retirement from Tests of Jerome Taylor have left the already depleted West Indies fast bowling stocks in a critical state. They desperately need Gabriel to stay fit, and to find a reliable new-ball partner for him. Teenager Alzarri Joseph, the Under-19 hero, was given his second game in the third Test. He will have to be carefully managed, but sooner rather than later must be given the chance to establish himself alongside Gabriel.Bravos excellent first-Test effort of 87 and 116 demonstrated the kind of leadership in batting that West Indies require of him. But, not for the first time, he was unable to keep to those high standards in the other two Tests.While Bravo did at least distinguish himself, the same could not be said for team veteran Marlon Samuels, who averaged just 23.83 in the series, and did not shoulder the burden a player of his experience and expertise should. That meant the pressure was all on Bravo at No. 3 and Brathwaite at the top of the order. Brathwaite has also not been helped by the lack of a steady, productive opening partner.Those are significant problems for a side woefully short of Test match experience. From captain to wicketkeeper, West Indies are a team of on-the-job trainees. As such, they are getting their share of hard knocks.People forget this is a very, very young side. When you look at the number of players under 25, it is unbelievable that a side in Test cricket could be so young, bowling coach Roddy Estwick reminded the world. But its a good thing, and once the people of the Caribbean and the selectors remain patient, I think weve got the making of a pretty decent side in 12 to 18 months.Estwick was speaking in the absence of a head coach. Phil Simmons, if anyone needs reminding, was removed just before West Indies left for the UAE for their series. Turmoil and inevitable negative fallout followed, so that the Test side entered their final match searching for the teams only win all tour. That they managed to secure it was to their great credit. The last time West Indies had beaten a side above them in the rankings away from home was back in 2007, when South Africa were surprised in Port Elizabeth, where Samuels engineered a 128-run victory.But just as West Indies transformation in the Pakistan Tests could not have been predicted, so also is the future progress of this team unpredictable. Consistent selectors and broad-minded administrators in West Indies cricket are just hard to find. ' ' '