Utah Jazz: Jazz comeback bid falls short

When Deron Williams hit a 3-point shot and was fouled by Kobe Bryant and made the free throw with 3:44 left in Thursday's game against the Los Angeles Lakers at EnergySolutions Arena, it cut what had been a huge Laker lead, 24 points at one point in the second quarter, to eight points.

"Yeah, we were rolling at that point," said Jazz power forward Carlos Boozer. after Williams' second big three in three minutes as the Jazz hopefully clawed their way back to some respectability.

"We came back and made a little bit of a run, and then Kobe made some tough shots with hands right in his face, so give him credit."

The Lakers made off with an important 106-95 victory to end Utah's 19-home-game win streak and keep this season's edition of the Jazz from breaking a team record that has now been reached three times. The Lakers now hold a 3-1 edge over the Jazz in games for the season series.

"I thought we had a shot," said Kyle Korver after watching Williams' four-point play. "he hit a few threes there at the end and gave us some life, but they were able to hit shots at the other end."

"I was thinking we would come all the way back for the whole fourth quarter," said forward Andrei Kirilenko. "We had a little streak, get going, but I think they did smart enough.

"The kind of cooled us down, and you know, made like very solid shots, concentrated and go inside and like free throws, under the basket, Lamar Odom lay it up.

"They don't just start shooting to fire back. They was playing pretty good," Kirilenko said.

"They hit a lot of shots with hands in their faces. Give them credit," Korver said. "We just never got into any kind of a flow or rhythm."

Boozer said the Jazz started in the "wrong offense" but worked it around to get into their automatic sets, and that helped.

With the Jazz falling behind by 20 in the first quarter, Jazz coach Jerry Sloan used point guard Williams all but two minutes of the game in the hopes of turning things around.

Williams did a pretty good job directing a comeback that ultimately fell short.

He totaled a team-high 26 points, 18 of them coming in the second half, and had a dozen assists plus seven rebounds and a blocked shot.