"They just had us totally confused as to what we were trying to do. . . . Everything we tried to do offensively, they had us confused with that — and they had us confused with their ability to get an offensive rebound. It really hurt us," Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said. "Reggie Evans had 18 rebounds and seven offensive boards — and those types of things kept giving their team chances.

"We had a difficult time," Sloan added. "We were concerned about the guy making a 3 (Lewis and Vladimir Radmanovic both made 3-of-5 from behind the line), then would go to the other end of the floor and starting walking around."

Not all of the Sonics, though, had everything go their way as Seattle won for the fourth time in its last five games.

All-Star Ray Allen struggled much of the night, and big man Danny Forston spent most of his seven off-the-bench minutes pouting.

Forston, a favorite target of NBA referees, picked up his first technical foul in the opening half after allowing Jazz big man Jarron Collins to get under his skin. He then retreated to the Sonics lockerroom area, where he supposedly was seen chatting on a cell phone as play continued.

He picked up his second tech and was ejected in the second half for whacking Collins in the head, but left only after charging toward ref Mike Callahan — an incident cut short before it got any uglier thanks to the quick reaction of an interceding Allen, Sonics coach Bob Weiss and Seattle assistant Jack Sikma.

On the way out, Forston sent water cups sailing.

Allen, meanwhile, is known is the one of the NBA's top sharpshooters. But he has been struggling with his shot lately, and wound up hitting just 2-of-11 from 3-point range.

Yet Allen still finished with 19 points, leaving Palacio and the other Jazz's other defenders the ones ultimately flustered.

"I was more frustrated with my teammates," Palacio said. "We had no energy. We had long faces, it seemed like, all night."

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E-mail: tbuckley@desnews.com