Burned out: Suns blow out Utah as Jazz lose playoff ground

The Jazz started the evening knowing that winning their final three games of the regular season was all they had to do to secure homecourt advantage in their upcoming playoff series with the Houston Rockets.

But by the time they were done fumbling what was in their hands by bumbling their way through a 126-98 loss to the Phoenix Suns on Saturday night at sold-out EnergySolutions Arena, a defeat leaving everyone from owner Larry H. Miller on down fuming about just how terrible they played, the Jazz needed help.

In more ways than one.

"It's been pretty rough for us lately," starting point guard Deron Williams said after Utah (49-31) lost for the sixth time in last seven outings. "You know, we haven't been playing basketball. It looks like we don't even know how to play basketball."

Yet Williams holds out hope that the Jazz's 4-5 seed first-round postseason series with the Rockets, which will start sometime next weekend, will open in Salt Lake City and not Houston.

"I think we're capable of winning the next two games," Williams said. "We've just got to turn it on. As for Houston, we've just got to hope they lose."

Twice, actually.

Here's how the homecourt-advantage picture quite clearly stands after the Jazz fell to the 61-19 Suns and Houston beat Oklahoma City on Saturday night:

For Utah to have the homecourt edge in their best-of-seven series, the Jazz must beat Portland and Phoenix must beat Houston on Monday, followed by a Jazz win over the Rockets in Wednesday's regular-season finale for both clubs at EnergySolutions.

Anything else, and the series starts at the Toyota Center in Houston with Tracy McGrady, Yao Ming and the rest of the Rockets having homecourt advantage.

That's what the Jazz were reduced to pondering after allowing Phoenix to go up by double-digits in Saturday's first three minutes, then watching as the Suns — virtually at will — increased their advantage to as many as 31 points in the third quarter.

Jazz coach Jerry Sloan's team did manage to trim Phoenix's 13-point second-quarter lead to as few as five behind the play of kids Dee Brown, Ronnie Brewer, Paul Millsap and C.J. Miles — three rookies and an NBA sophomore.

And at that point there was a sliver of hope for Utah, especially considering that the Jazz overcame deficits of 15 and 16 points in two of their three wins over Phoenix earlier this season.