Miami Heat centre Shaquille O'Neal (left) is fouled by centre Nick Collison of the Seattle Supersonics in Miami on Wednesday night. Seattle won 104-95. - Reuters

TORONTO (Reuters):

THE UTAH Jazz scored their fifth consecutive victory with a hard-fought 92-88 win over the Toronto Raptors on Wednesday night.

Utah (7-2) lead the NBA in points scored per game but had to rely on their defence to extend the winning streak against the Raptors (4-4), who dropped to 1-3 at home. It was just the second time this season the Jazz failed to score 100 points in a game.

"They did a good job defensively and we did a good job defensively," said Utah's Carlos Boozer, who finished with 23 points and 14 rebounds.

Meanwhile, the Boston Celtics continued their best start in 35 years, improving to 7-0 with a 91-68 win over the New Jersey Nets. Kevin Garnett had 16 points and eight rebounds for Boston.

The Orlando Magic improved to 7-2 with a 117-116 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers in overtime, despite a 39 point, 13 rebounds and 14 assist performance from LeBron James.

Sonics open account

Miami's Dwyane Wade had 15 points in 25 minutes in his first game of the season but still ended up on the losing side. The Seattle Supersonics won their first game of the season after eight straight losses, downing Miami 104-95.

The Atlanta Hawks got a season-high 34 points from Joe Johnson to improve to 4-4 with a 117-109 win over the Charlotte Hornets.