From Deseret News archives:
Jazz suffer All-Star slump
Loss to Portland snaps a 6-game winning streak
Rather than the club that came into the game with the NBA's third-best record at 35-17, Utah — missing two of their top three scorers, injured Carlos Boozer and Deron Williams, on Tuesday night — looked quite ordinary in a 103-100 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers that snapped the Jazz's winning streak at six straight.
Even big-shot All-Star Mehmet Okur, fresh from playing in Sunday's showcase game in Las Vegas, had no luck trying to double down in the late going.
Okur did hit a 3-pointer that pulled the Jazz to within one at 101-100 with 7.2 seconds remaining, but — after Blazers All-Star snub Zach Randolph made two free throws a second later — the big Turk's next two from long distance did not drop.
Coming out of a timeout with 6.3 seconds left, Okur's first attempt — it was called a 3-pointer, though his foot appeared to be on the line — missed the mark.
Brandon Roy knocked the rebound out of bounds, though, giving the Jazz, and specifically Okur, one more shot.
This time, Andrei Kirilenko in-bounded to Okur with 1.8 seconds to go. But two Blazers were on him, and again the man who has multiple game-winners this season came up dry.
"Sometimes the ball falls for you," Okur said. "Sometimes not." Jazz coach Jerry Sloan only seemed to wish Okur had more cracks at the basket, especially in the fourth quarter.
Instead usual starting shooting guard Derek Fisher started at the point in place of Williams, and Fisher largely tried to bring the Jazz back from a seven-point fourth-quarter deficit by himself.
"Our finish was pretty difficult," Sloan said after watching the veteran Fisher both miss a jumper and lose the ball trying to drive to the basket on Roy in the late going.
"Hopefully (in the future) we do a better job getting basketball spread around. We never had decent looks at the basket," the Jazz coach added. "Sometimes you go, sometimes you throw it to somebody else and let somebody else handle it. But (Fisher) he hasn't been in that situation a great deal. We've had it in somebody else's hands."
The Jazz played for the first time this season without Williams due to a strained left groin sustained while playing in last Friday's Rookie-Sophomore Challenge game in Las Vegas, part of the All-Star Weekend.
"Down the stretch — that's where we missed him (Williams) most," Fisher said. "I don't think I did the things we needed in the fourth quarter to get the job done. I'll single-handedly take the blame."
"I was trying to force the action," Fisher added, "as opposed to allowing it come to me and come to our team."
