Utah Jazz: Where amazing almost happens — Jazz stage late comeback, but come up one '3' short

An onslaught of late-game 3-pointers — one from Deron Williams, two from Mehmet Okur, two from Andrei Kirilenko — and two failed trey tries in the waning seconds sure did make things interesting.

But for a second straight year, the lure of rest and relaxation ultimately trumped the task at hand — and a Jazz season ended in disappointment tinged with controversy.

One night after Kirilenko skipped practice and traveled to San Francisco to tend to family vacation-related visa issues, the Jazz on Friday fell 108-105 to the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 6 of their NBA Western Conference semifinal series.

The Lakers beat Utah 4-2 in the best-of-seven playoff series, leaving all members of coach Jerry Sloan's club free now to pursue their fancy.

Fishing.

Golf.

All the ritz and glitz the south of France — Kirilenko's preferred destination — has to offer.

"It looked like if we could just get a little run, I thought we could get back in the ballgame," Sloan said. "But we couldn't settle down. We were fighting against ourselves a little bit."

Until, that is, the very end.

Before all was done, the Jazz did throw something of a fit, with not everyone, apparently, quite ready to part ways for the summer.

Down by 19 at halftime, and by 11 with fewer than three minutes to go, Williams — who after Utah's Western Conference finals loss to San Antonio last May criticized unnamed teammates for having made early vacation plans — hit the first of Utah's late five treys.

Kirilenko — who had Sloan's permission to tend to personal matters Thursday, though apparently not the blessing of unhappy teammates — made the last two, including one with 16.3 seconds remaining to make it 105-103 Lakers.

Lakers star Kobe Bryant — who scored a game-high 34 points, his fifth 33-plus-point game of the series — answered with two free throws, and a Kyle Korver-fed dunk by Paul Millsap left the Jazz down 107-105 with 13.1 seconds left.

Ex-Jazz guard Derek Fisher of the Lakers made the first but missed the second of two freebies with 12.7 seconds to go, giving the Jazz one last chance to force a potential overtime and perhaps extend the series to a Game 7 on Monday in Los Angeles.

That, though, is when the Jazz's trey-try luck dried up.