From Deseret News archives:
Spur-ned again: Early schooling leaves Jazz too far behind
By the time they were done, the Jazz's feel-good attempt at a comeback having fallen short as NBA Western Conference-leading San Antonio held on for a 95-86 win on Tuesday night at the Delta Center, there really was little the doctor could order for coach Jerry Sloan's club and its fast-fading playoff hopes.
"It's kind of sad," rookie point guard Deron Williams said.
No one could be happier than Sacramento or New Orleans/Oklahoma City, the two teams ahead of the Jazz in the fight for the West's eighth and final postseason position.
Both the Kings and Hornets also lost Tuesday, meaning the Jazz squandered an opportunity — with just eight games now remaining in their regular season — to gain ground on both.
"It's frustrating, knowing we're right there," said Williams, also knowing the Jazz remain 2 1/2 games behind Sacramento and just a half-game behind the Hornets. "It's just frustrating. But we're still not out of it."
The 35-39 Jazz did, however, seem quite out of it as the Spurs came out firing Tuesday.
San Antonio (58-16) shot a whopping 72.7 percent (16-of-22) from the field en route to a 37-21 lead in the opening quarter, and before the first half was done the Spurs would lead by as many as 24 at 47-23.
"They jumped on us," said Jazz forward Carlos Boozer, who finished with a game-high 27 points and game-high 17 rebounds.
"San Antonio," Williams added, "kind of did anything they wanted in the first half."
Sloan could only concur after Manu Ginobili finished with a team-high 26 points, Tony Parker added 23 along with eight assists, and Tim Duncan fought off flulike symptoms to pull down 13 rebounds to go with his 11 points.
"We gave up a big first quarter," the Jazz coach said. "They shot every shot they took and knocked it down. We made terrible mistakes as to what we were doing defensively.
"We couldn't get into our offense," Sloan added. "We thought we were gonna play a little soft game. We had a difficult time. They put us in a standing mode, where we could get into what we wanted to do."
The Jazz did anything but stand around, however, in the second half.
In a third quarter that featured technical fouls on mild-mannered Andrei Kirilenko and Mehmet Okur of the Jazz, plus a technical on San Antonio's Robert Horry and a flagrant foul on the Spurs' Nazr Mohammed, Utah did manage to trim an 18-point advantage to 10 at 72-62.
The Jazz even got to as close as five when Williams fed Boozer for a dunk that made the score 87-82 with three minutes remaining.
But after Duncan made one of two free throws on San Antonio's ensuing possession, Jazz big man Okur missed a fading turnaround jumper on the baseline with 2:16 to go.
