Mauled in Memphis: Utah's 5-game win streak ends on road

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Ever so briefly, Jerry Sloan had a flashback.

It was the night after Christmas, and all through the Delta Center the Jazz were stirring, so much so they were able to overcome an 18-point deficit against Memphis and eventually win in overtime.

Maybe, just maybe, it could happen again, the Jazz coach was thinking.

An 11-2 fourth-quarter run by the Grizzlies, however, snapped Sloan back into the real world and allowed Memphis to roll past the Jazz 87-65 on Friday night at FedEx Forum — ending 16-17 Utah's five-game win streak, and marking its third-lowest scoring game of the season.

"It was almost the same ballgame as we had in Salt Lake City," Sloan said of the Jazz's win over the Grizzlies just last Dec. 26, one in which Utah used a 20-0 second-half run to get back into the game. "They got out, and they got ahead of us. We got back . . . and it looks like we're gonna get in the ballgame."

But looks, in this instance, were oh-so-deceiving.

The Jazz, who opened a four-game trip in Memphis and play again tonight at NBA-leading Detroit, did get back into it briefly Friday.

After trailing by as many as 19 points early in the second quarter, they cut what had been an 18-point late third-quarter advantage to as few as nine at 66-57 with just more than six minutes remaining.

"We felt like we were in the game," captain Matt Harpring said, "and if we made a couple plays we were in striking distance to win the game."

Just like last time.

Yet that is precisely when it got away from them, in large part because the on-the-road Jazz — playing against a 21-10 Grizzlies team that has won five straight and seems every bit as good as its record would indicate — reverted to what appeared like a defeatist attitude from the start.

"We didn't get any stops after that," rookie point Deron Williams said. "We let them come down and get into their stuff easy . . . and it pretty much took us out of the game."

"We started fouling," forward Andrei Kirilenko added, "and giving them easy free-throw shots."

Bobby Jackson, starting at the point in place of injured and out-for-the-season Damon Stoudamire, knocked down a 3-pointer and the Grizzlies made 8-of-8 free-throw attempts during the aforementioned 11-2 run.

On the other end, the Jazz offense went to pieces, with Mehmet Okur called for a travel, Kirilenko taking an ill-advised trey try and both Williams and Milt Palacio missing jumpers.