On successive possessions after Boozer hit one of two free throws to make it 107-104, Williams committed a backcourt violation after dribbling into a double-team, Knicks big man Eddy Curry blocked a Williams scoop shot off the backboard, Williams made a steal, but Ronnie Brewer threw the ball away on the ensuing fastbreak, and Williams followed with an errant pass of his own.

"I got a little careless with the ball," Williams said after a 26-point, eight-assist night, "and they made us pay for it."

The Jazz got back to within two for a second time in the fourth when Brewer converted a Williams-fed reverse layup to make it 111-109 with 34.7 seconds remaining.

But Randolph — whose double-double came after he scored 13 points during an opening quarter in which he was matched mostly against Boozer — controlled the rebound of a failed Crawford trey try, and Crawford, after a 20-second timeout, converted both of two ensuing free throws.

The Jazz's final possession ended, perhaps appropriately based on how the evening had gone to that point, with Boozer throwing away a pass intended for Williams.

"We turned the ball over, like, two times in the last minute (actually 1:22). How do you expect to win the game?" asked forward Andrei Kirilenko, who himself was tagged with a team-worst five turnovers. "That's lack of our concentration.

"I understand missed shots. It happens," Kirilenko added after an outing in which the Jazz lost despite shooting better than 50 percent from the field. "But you can't lose the ball."

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E-mail: tbuckley@desnews.com