Winless? Jazz can help

Down on your luck? Utah is the place to be.

Need a new car? Call Larry. Need a win? Call the Jazz.

In yet another game featuring final-minute follies for the Jazz, Utah fell 101-99 to the Chicago Bulls on Wednesday night at the Delta Center — its second straight loss to a previously winless club, and its fourth loss in its last five games.

Just last Monday night, All-Star forward Andrei Kirilenko missed two free throws with 4.4 seconds remaining and starting shooting guard Gordan Giricek missed a last-chance jumper as New Orleans won for the first time in nine outings.

This time, Chicago came in 0-9 — tied for the worst start in the Bulls' 39-year history.

But, thanks to the generous Jazz on Thanksgiving Eve, Scott Skiles' club managed to avoid going 0-10.

"The best thing about this game," Jazz starting point guard Carlos Arroyo said after Utah fell to 7-5, "is that we've still got 70 games to go."

That's looking on the bright side.

Here's the dim for Jerry Sloan's team, which finishes a three-game homestand Friday night against Houston:

Utah got off to another dismal start, trailing the entire first half and by as many as 12 midway through the second quarter.

"I thought we were going to have a little run at the end of the first half," Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said, "and then the third quarter they came out and got after us again."

The Jazz did not take their first lead of the game until 20-point team-high scorer Kirilenko made a layup and hit the free throw that followed to make it 64-61 with just under five minutes to go in the third.

After the lead changed hands multiple times, Utah pulled to within one when Carlos Boozer went inside for a layup that cut Chicago's advantage to 95-94 with 19.9 seconds remaining.

Rookie Ben Gordon answered less than a second later with two free throws, and that's when things really went wrong for the Jazz.

Forward Matt Harpring, playing for the first time after missing three straight games with a bruised left knee, in-bounded to Boozer with 19.3 seconds left. Boozer passed back to a cutting Harpring, but Harpring was called for the charge.

Gordon would hit two more freebies to put the Bulls up by five, then Arroyo hit a 3-pointer to make it 99-97 Chicago with 9.2 seconds left. Giricek intentionally fouled Bulls guard Kirk Hinrich, who calmly hit both of his free throws to make it a four-point game.

Arroyo then tried one more trey, but missed, and Harpring's final-second putback left the Jazz two points short of forcing overtime.