Utah Jazz: Team pulls a road no show

DALLAS — The Jazz's victory at New Orleans on Sunday was not the start of a trend reversal, and most definitely did not foretell good things to come for a franchise that really could use some.

Rather, evidently, it was an anomaly. An aberration. A blip on the road-trip radar.

Because after Wednesday night's 130-101 tail-kicking loss to Dallas — one in which the Mavericks used a victory over Utah to clinch a playoff berth, their ninth straight, for the second April in a row — it's clear that the Jazz's propensity for poor performance while on the road against the West's best is the real deal.

The defeat was Utah's 10th in 11 away games against the NBA Western Conference's other seven playoff qualifiers, and put the Jazz perilously in danger of a potential 1-8 seed first-round playoff series with the Los Angeles Lakers.

"It seemed like they wanted it more," said point guard Deron Williams, who had an 18-point, 12-assist double-double and led the Jazz in scoring on a night all five starters managed double-figures. "The game meant more to them, which is unacceptable — because this was a big game for us as well."

The loss was the Jazz's worst of the season by way of points — four more than the 25-point margin San Antonio, which Utah visits on Friday night to close out a three-game trip, enjoyed back in November.

It also dropped the Jazz into a tie with the Mavs for seventh in the West.

Both teams are 47-31, with four games to go in their respective regular seasons and the season series between the two having ended in a 2-2 tie.

"It's very disappointing," Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said after his club fell for the fourth time in its last five outings.

"They beat us all four quarters, all night long," Sloan added. "They were so much quicker. We looked like we'd been on the road for 10 months."

But it's only been a few days, and the Jazz even had full ones off — all of Monday and Tuesday — before playing Wednesday.

"I thought our energy level would be higher than that," Sloan said, "but we really weren't able to put up much of a fight for them.

"They just destroyed us. ... They certainly deserved to win, because we weren't any contest for them. ... They had us all night."

The Mavs — who got a game-high 31 points and 12-of-18 field shooting from star Dirk Nowitzki — led by 11 after an opening quarter that they closed with a 6-0 run.

They enjoyed a 9-0 spurt late in the first half to go into the break up 16, 61-45, at sold-out American Airlines Arena — where Utah is now 2-13 all-time.

The Jazz did trim that advantage to as few as nine with a three-point play the old-fashioned way that Williams delivered midway through the third.