Texas-sized flop: Spurs teach Jazz 'how to play basketball' in blowout victory

SAN ANTONIO — Coach Jerry Sloan's club spent most of Thursday evening doing all it could to dodge the Spurs, all it might to avoid drawing guns with one of the West's true best.

Yet the Jazz couldn't escape San Antonio's wrath for the life of them, trailing by 15 or more throughout the second half — and by as many as 31 early in the fourth quarter — before eventually falling 106-83.

"These guys gave us a lesson in how to play basketball," Sloan said after Utah — which now trails Dallas, San Antonio and Phoenix in the NBA's still-young Western Conference race — fell to 21-9. "They came out and took us right out of what we wanted to do, and we started kind of feeling sorry for ourselves.

"I never saw us flop around to try to draw a foul so much in my life," he added. "I mean, if we'd have been an airplane we'd have taken off and flown, probably."

Which might have been the only way the Jazz would return to Utah on Thursday night, since — it seems so fitting — their charter plane incurred mechanical problems and was unable to get to San Antonio to whisk the team back home.

Holiday-season travel interruptions, however, were the least of Sloan's worries.

For starters, there was two-time NBA MVP Tim Duncan of the 22-8 Spurs, who had two steals, three blocks and nine rebounds to go with his 20 points on 8-of-13 shooting from the field.

Then there was San Antonio point guard Tony Parker, who worked his way to the hole virtually at will — and wound up with a game-high 22 points on 9-of-15 field shooting.

Finally there was Utah's starters, a group that collectively managed just 41 points — one fewer than Parker and Duncan combined — and watched from the bench for the entire fourth quarter.

"I thought we'd come back with a little bit of life (after halftime)," said Sloan, whose Jazz were outscored 24-10 over the final minutes of the second quarter and went into the break down 58-43. "But we turned the ball over. We were really casual in what we were doing."

It wasn't much better on the defensive end, where Sloan said Jazz players lost confidence in each other and started "passing the buck from one guy to another."

"It happened enough that we lost all confidence at trying to come back in the ballgame," said Sloan, who pulled the last three of his starters — Mehmet Okur was first to go, early in the second half, and point Deron Williams soon followed — with three minutes and 22 seconds still left in the third and the Jazz down 80-54 at the time. "That's why I sat 'em down.