Jazz drop Hawks

Utah was down by seven, 72-65, when with nine minutes and 18 seconds remaining Sloan replaced scoreless-in-four-minutes Moore with All-Star forward Andrei Kirilenko.

The Jazz went on an 8-0 run over the next 2:37, getting a 16-foot jumper from swingman Raja Bell, a nifty reverse layup from driving point Raul Lopez, a steal and ensuing fastbreak layup from Kirilenko, who matched Bell for team-high scoring honors with 18, and a high-arcing jumper from the free-throw line by rookie reserve Sasha Pavlovic.

After Atlanta guard Bob Sura answered Pavlovic with two free throws, Russian-born Kirilenko combined with Spainard Lopez for what had to be the play of the game.

Kirilenko delivered an alley-oop style pass to Lopez, who one-timed a layup — no dunk, just a little jump — that made it 75-74 Jazz with 6:11 left.

"That's how we do it in Europe," Kirilenko said of the forward-to-guard reverse roles.

Pavlovic — another European, from Serbia & Montenegro — followed 19 seconds later with a fastbreak dunk, American-style, and the Jazz led the rest of the way.

"Utah is in the playoff hunt," Atlanta guard Jason Terry said, "and they wanted it a little bit more."

Not that Sloan was very impressed with how the Jazz showed it.

"I compliment them a little bit (Friday night), thinking that we had a little bit of a step forward," he said. "And then we take two steps back."

With the race Utah is in, that's not a good cadence. Even if there did happen to be a win amidst all the missteps.

"We have 12 more games, and we need to be able to concentrate — because (Saturday night's) game shows there are no weak teams in the NBA," said Kirilenko, looking ahead to a return to the Delta Center for Tuesday night's meeting with woeful Washington (22-46).

"Everybody can play good basketball," he added, "and everybody can beat us — especially with a team that is right now out the playoff picture."

That's a message, too — one that suspiciously sounds hammered home by a man named Sloan.

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E-mail: tbuckley@desnews.com