Utah Jazz blasted by Blazers

PORTLAND, Ore. — The Jazz started Tuesday tied with the Portland Trail Blazers for second place in the NBA's Northwest Division and for fifth in the Western Conference.

They were just a game-and-a-half behind the division-leader Denver Nuggets, whom they visit next on Thursday.

Moreover, they were a mere two games out of second place in the West.

By the time the evening was done, though, so much was so different. And with just eight games to go now in their 2008-09 NBA season, including five more away from home, so little of the change was good for the Jazz.

For that, especially after yielding a season-high number of points for a regulation-length game this season, they had mostly themselves to blame.

Utah was blown out by Portland 125-104 at the Rose Garden, leaving coach Jerry Sloan's 46-28 club - now 3-15 in the second game of back-to-back sets, and 0-10 on the road against the West's top nine — smack in the pack.

But a couple pinches worse than what it was.

Combined with a Denver win over New York and a New Orleans victory at Sacramento on Tuesday, the Jazz are now just seventh in the West, two games ahead of eighth-place Dallas, and third in the Northwest, two-and-a-half games out of first.

"We just have to regroup, put it behind us and get ready for Denver now," point guard Deron Williams.

Before that happens, though, there will be plenty to dissect.

From the start, Utah never really was in this one - and before the third quarter was even done, both Sloan and two-time All-Star power forward Carlos Boozer were finished.

"I think a lot of it had to do with we weren't ready to play on the defensive end," Sloan said. "They got after us, and we didn't have that desire.

"We panicked a little bit, and just started firing shots up, rather than staying in what we were doing."

Portland needed fewer than nine minutes to build an early 19-point lead, was up by 13 at halftime.

With the Jazz's defense largely nonexistent, the Trail Blazers shot 61.8 percent from the field.

That's six percent more than any opponent has hit this season - last time it was the Blazers too, in a Jan. 31 loss at Portland - and the highest against Utah since Houston converted 62.7 percent 14-plus years ago.

"That was ugly, man," Boozer said.