Jazz road woes continue with loss to Indiana

INDIANAPOLIS — One club's confidence. Another's awfully long losing streak. Even a coach's clipboard.

All were broken Saturday night, when Indiana beat the Jazz 117-97 at Conseco Fieldhouse here — ending the 4-6 Pacers' skid of consecutive losses at six, and chipping away at the pride of a now 7-4 Utah team that until falling Friday night in Cleveland had won five in a row.

"We just came out lackadaisical," Jazz point guard Deron Williams said after Utah yielded 65 opening-half points to the Pacers — eight more than any previous opponent this season has mustered. "I don't know why."

Truth be told, though, Williams — who shot just 4-of-17 against the Cavaliers, and scored only eight points against the Pacers — sort of does know.

"We haven't really done a good job of executing," he said after the Jazz, who came into the night leading the NBA in assists per game with an average of 27.4, dished just 20. "We're kind of selfish out there. Everybody's just one-pass-and-shot."

For it all, Williams pointed at no one but himself.

"I'm gonna put these last two games on me," he said.

Yet Utah's weekend woes truly have been a team effort.

The Jazz found themselves down by as many as 16 points in the opening quarter and trailed by 19 — 65-46 — after Indiana's Shawne Williams knocked down a 3-pointer with 2.6 seconds to go in the opening half.

It was just one dagger among many for the Pacers, who wound up hitting 47.8 percent — 11-of-23 — on trey tries as they led from beginning to end.

The Jazz, ending a three-game trip that started with Wednesday's win at Toronto, did open the third quarter on a 10-0 run that included eight points in the period's first 1:34.

And when Ronnie Brewer finished a rare onslaught of attacks to Indiana's interior, the Pacers lead was down to just nine at 65-56.

Indiana answered, however, with baskets on their next three possessions, capped when All-Star big man Jermaine O'Neal scored a turnaround to make it 69-58.

Jazz coach Jerry Sloan immediately called a timeout with 8:31 to go in the quarter, and it was in the ensuing bench huddle that he slammed down his quick-erase playboard — shattering it in pieces.

"We just didn't help each other at one position," center Mehmet Okur said, "so he got mad and threw the board on the floor."