Jazz struggling to finish games

That six-game winning streak the Utah Jazz put together in late February and early March, and the three home wins they had March 24-28, may have put the Jazz in good NBA standing.

But those wins may also have been costly.

"I think a lot of people thought we were playing well," said Jazz coach Jerry Sloan, whose team has befuddled itself in losing three straight games to teams who won't make the NBA playoffs and has a tougher assignment tonight at 8:30 p.m. at 37-40 Golden State — a team fighting desperately for a playoff berth.

"I tried to tell these guys (and) they got a little upset with me the other day ... I said we've won some ballgames by 15-20 points, and they wondered why I was upset."

He was piqued because, though they were winning, "We were playing exactly like we were (Saturday) night (when Utah lost a 22-point lead and a 106-103 game at home to Seattle, which brought only two regular starters to EnergySolutions Arena).

"(We're) not really getting a lot of stuff done" — now and even a few weeks ago, when - in Sloan's mind - they were winning in spite of themselves.

"We just haven't been able to finish games," he said, thinking of Friday's cave-in at Sacramento, in which a 17-point lead melted into a 107-103 loss, and Saturday's, when a 22-point lead wasn't enough to save the Jazz from themselves.

"We really haven't competed that hard for a while. It hasn't been that important to us," Sloan charged, harkening back to that darned win streak that apparently bred some complacency.

"We have to learn to compete harder and not be satisfied by just hanging in there. That has happened to us all year long, but since we won some games, it falls on deaf ears," Sloan said.

Even forward Matt Harpring said the Jazz might become complacent when they have big leads. "Maybe. I don't really have an answer," he said.

"We cannot play this way in the playoffs," added center Mehmet Okur, "so we've got to be more focused. We've got to figure out what's going on right now because we are not like last few games. We are better than that."

Saturday's passive defense was a problem even early in the game against the Sonics, who got eight quick inside points from forward Chris Wilcox to compound inside-out problems Nick Collison, Damien Wilkins and Rashard Lewis presented.

"They started the ballgame off and marched right underneath their basket and threw the ball right in their basket. We didn't have any resistance at all. Our big people didn't keep them away from the basket at all," complained Sloan, whose team will face Warrior forward Al Harrington, who had 22 against Tim Duncan and the Spurs in a Saturday loss.

In Saturday's second half, Utah couldn't stop Lewis (35 points, 28 in the second half) anywhere.