San Antonio led by eight at the break, though only after shooting guard Ronnie Brewer threw the ball away on what could have been a final possession—allowing Mason to drive past Brewer on the other end and make it 61-53.

"That would have maybe kept us alive a little bit," Sloan said of the squandered late-half opportunity.

"But they came out to destroy us, and they did a good job of doing it," he added. "We didn't stand up to them. We weren't strong enough mentally to stay with what you've got to do if you're gonna have a chance, especially against this team. We haven't beat them here in 45 years. So, it's kind of disheartening."

Utah did get to within six when Miles fed Brewer for a dunk early in the third quarter.

But the Spurs — who actually last lost to the Jazz in San Antonio back on Feb. 28, 1999, when John Stockton and Karl Malone still were running the pick-and-roll, and Bill Clinton still was in the White House — led by double digits for the game's final 23-plus minutes.

"They just got up and got after us defensively," said Sloan, whose Jazz trailed by 22 or more, and by as many as 30, throughout the fourth quarter. "They were terrific defensively, and they took us out of our offense, and we started kind of going a little bit on our own.

"We never did have much of a team concept at all, it seemed like, on the offensive end," he added after Utah hit just 2-of-13 from 3-point range while San Antonio made 15-of-25 from behind the long-distance line. "Same thing defensively. We couldn't get over screens. Didn't have any energy. I don't know where our energy is."

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E-mail: tbuckley@desnews.com