After 32-point game-high scorer Carmelo Anthony got called for pushing off on Harpring on Denver's next trip down following Boozer's basket, the Jazz had the ball and a chance to tie. But Harpring missed an 18-footer that would have matched his career-high scoring total at 33, and the Nuggets used a layup from Nene to go back up by five.

A glimmer of hope remained for the Jazz even then, but it was dashed when Harpring drove a step with the ball and passed back to center Mehmet Okur for a 3-point attempt.

Okur, though, had moved a couple steps off his usual spot on the line, and Harpring's pass sailed out-of-bounds, sending the Jazz off to Dallas for Friday's final road game of the regular season.

"It's frustrating, man, continuing to lose," said rookie point Dee Brown, whose nine points came on three 3-pointers (he came into the game with just two all season, on 18 attempts) and were a career-high. "But I think now we just have got ... to understand that we've got to rebound from this."

And the Jazz can, Harpring firmly believes.

"We go through good spurts out there, and we go through a couple minutes where we get sloppy and (opponents) get some easy shots," he said. "And when you're playing against playoff teams, and good teams, it's the layups and the fastbreak points and the easy shots that kill you.

"We've just got to get back to passing the ball, getting everyone involved, playing as a team — because when we play as a team, we're definitely a tough team to guard. Other teams have said that in the papers, and have told me that. That's what makes us a good team. But when we don't do that, we become easier to guard.

"The positive thing," added Harpring, who opened the second half at small forward the second half because rookie Ronnie Brewer struggled starting in place of injured Andrei Kirilenko, "is we know we can back to that, because we've done it this year. We've just got to get back to playing the way we're capable of playing ... I still have confidence that we're gonna be fine, especially in the playoffs."

And who knows? Maybe they will be fine.

Stranger things have happened.

After all these years, for instance, the Jazz finally got around to retiring Adrian Dantley's number.

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E-mail: tbuckley@desnews.com