Bell made a bad pass that Boozer fumbled. Boozer missed inside, and Stephon Marbury made good on the other end, hitting a running jumper and the free throw that followed when Harpring fouled him to make it 86-83. Arroyo made a pass that was picked by Crawford, allowing Tim Thomas to put the Knicks up 88-83.

Utah's response? Another miss, this one by Mehmet Okur.

Bell did knock down a trey from the right corner to cut New York's lead to two, but a swap of baskets and free throws left the Jazz down 92-90 with 10.2 seconds to go.

Marbury then went to the line and made a pair, putting the Knicks up 94-90 with 6.4 left. Okur canned a 3-pointer to make a one-point game, but by then only 0.4 seconds remained and New York easily ran down the clock.

"We got away from what we were doing," an angry Harpring said. "I mean, we were beating them. I mean, we were beating them at our game. We were getting layups, we were moving the ball. And then it just stops. It just stops."

Where does it end?

Nobody knows, not even Sloan, who does still deem his club youthful.

"With a young team like (the Jazz)," he said, "they've got to learn how to fight through things like that, and not let it affect them the next two or three plays.

"I thought we tried a little harder," Sloan added. "You know, you can only feel sorry for yourself for so long— and then, some day, you're either going to get up and fight, or your going to go lay down in the corner in the fetal position and stay there the rest of your career."

For now, the Jazz are more curled than not.

They think they're coming out of it, but no one can be sure.

"Coach evaluates every game, and (Sunday) he said we were playing hard and trying to do the right thing," Boozer said. "We were making mistakes, but we were making mistakes trying to help the team. We were trying to help each other out, and when you make mistakes like that you can live with it."

Young, or old.

"I look at the good part of it: We played hard," Bell said. "And sometimes when you play hard, you make mistakes.

"It's tough to swallow," he added, "when you're making mistakes because you're being selfish, or because you're not playing hard — but we were playing really hard and trying to do the right thing, and it just didn't work out."

Like kids, crawling. Even after 25 games.

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E-mail: tbuckley@desnews.com