Bulls dominate Utah Jazz down stretch

CHICAGO — If it wasn't fatigue or travel trouble — and everyone with the Jazz insisted it was neither — it had to be something else.

Because the Chicago Bulls dominated down the stretch in a 106-98 Jazz loss Saturday night at the United Center, and they were a team that had made a less-than-convenient weekend trek as well.

"We're not going to make excuses," point guard Deron Williams said after the 17-12 Jazz fell to 2-2 on a five-game Eastern road trip that concludes Tuesday night in Milwaukee.

"They had to fly, they didn't get in till late," Williams said. "You know, they played (Friday) night. We've just got to have a little bit more energy."

Perhaps a few late-game calls, then, turned the tide.

Or non-calls.

After rookie point guard Derrick Rose put the Bulls ahead with two free throws that made it 93-92 with just fewer than five minutes to go — and followed that with a fastbreak dunk sparked by an errant Mehmet Okur-to-Paul Millsap pass, one of 20 Jazz turnovers leading to 29 Chicago points — Williams tried unsuccessfully to answer with a drive to the hole of his own.

He thought he got wacked by Andres Nocioni of the Bulls, but referee Gary Zielinski signaled Nocioni was straight up.

And as Williams stood and stared at Zielinski in disbelief, 26-point game-high scorer Ben Gordon was well on his way to knocking down a 3-pointer on the other end that made it 98-92 with 4:04 left.

Twenty-three-point team-high scorer Okur did respond after a timeout with a conventional three-point play, but the 13-14 Bulls hit 6-of-8 free throws in the final 2:23 to notch just their second sweep of the Jazz in 12 seasons.

"I don't think he got what he wanted a couple times as he went in there," Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said of Williams and the lane. "I thought maybe he got fouled on a couple of 'em, but that's just wishful thinking on my part."

Asked if he was frustrated by the no-call, Williams — who after the game iced not only his sprained left ankle, but also a knot in his right calf and a bruise near his right knee — asked which one.

"That was frustrating," he said of the Nocioni play. "The one before that was frustrating. You know, a lot of them were frustrating."

Sloan was quite flustered, too, albeit more so by the Jazz's late-game shot selection.