Pacers hand Jazz 7th straight setback

INDIANAPOLIS — There was a time the Jazz would make their opponent work for the win in the late-going of a game like their latest.

Not so anymore.

Or at least certainly not so Wednesday, when Indiana handed Utah its seventh straight loss, handily beating the Jazz 103-84 at Conseco Fieldhouse here.

The reason, Jazz co-captain Raja Bell senses, is apparent.

"We give up. We quit," Bell said. "That's all I can say about it: We quit."

The losing, however, is going strong.

"You know, it's like an avalanche. You can't stop it," Jazz forward Andrei Kirilenko added. "The only thing we can try to do is come out and play hard every night, but that's not happening."

With just 18 games remaining from now through April 20th for 20-44 Utah, the Jazz's will to win seems to have gone the way of errant jump shots, missed dunks and a torrent of turnovers.

"I hate to say it," Bell said, "but it seems like have cashed it in."

Jerry Sloan looks down the way, and envy is in his eyes.

He watches Indiana whip his Jazz in the third outing of a five-games-in-seven-nights Eastern road trip that continues Friday night at New Jersey, and yearns to have a team willing to play like the playoff-pushing Pacers.

It's not perfect, but at least its aim is straightforward.

"They're well-coached. They execute. They know what they're doing," Sloan said after Rick Carlisle's 32-31 Indiana club won with a whopping 44-27 rebounding advantage. "They've guys that can execute, they've got guys that can make shots.

"They get after you, they push you around, they set screens. They do a very good job of trying to help their shooters that can shoot the ball."

The Jazz?

"We can execute all we want, (but) if we can't make shots it doesn't look very good," said Sloan, apparently unimpressed by the fact Utah shot 48.4 percent to Indiana's 43.9. "Sometimes that happens with our team. If they miss a shot, the open shot, then we feel sorry for ourselves again.

"For whatever reason," the Jazz coach added, "we just haven't had the desire to try to finish plays."