Utah Jazz: Blemishes exposed as Utah gets blasted by Rockets' red-hot Lowry

HOUSTON — The Utah Jazz should bottle whatever it is they do on the road and sell it as makeup remover.

It doesn't help them win, but, heck, they could make a fortune off of it.

Once again, the Jazz left the Beehive State only to have all of their flaws, pockmarks and blemishes exposed.

Tears weren't shed during a 101-85 loss to the Houston Rockets, but the mascara they use for a pick-and-roll defense was running all over the place after Kyle Lowry and Luis Scola got through with them.

The Jazz couldn't cover up their lack of outside shooting, inconsistent offensive execution and costly mental lapses, either.

"I'm disappointed in ourself," Jazz center Al Jefferson said. "We knew coming in how important this game was. We played like we didn't want it. We made silly turnovers. We didn't block out, gave them a couple of chances at the basket. We just didn't do a good job tonight."

Lowry became the latest in an ever-growing line of point guards to torch the Jazz, exploiting soft spots in Utah's rotations early and taking advantage of even bigger weaknesses in the visitors' pick-and-roll D late.

The quick playmaker scored 32 points, buried seven 3-pointers and fueled a game-ending 21-7 Houston surge that left the Jazz's glaring defensive deficiencies out in the open for all to see.

"It's a mystery," Jazz guard Raja Bell said of Utah's late-game meltdown. "We've go to figure that out."

Lowry was one guy they couldn't figure out, which left point-guard Earl Watson fuming after the Jazz's third road loss in a row left Utah at 15-15 overall and 3-10 away from home.

"We do a pretty good job of taking care of our home business," Jazz coach Tyrone Corbin said. "But you've got to win games on the road to end up having a chance to be in the mix in the end of the season for the playoff run. We've got to get it figured out."

Especially the tendency for opposing pick-and-rolls to so effectively dissect Utah's pick-and-roll defense.

Not only did Lowry score a lot of points — a la Russell Westbrook, Darren Collison, Jeremy Lin, etc. — but the speedy six-footer also dished out nine assists.

"We haven't figured out pick-and-roll coverage yet," a ticked-off Watson said. "It's to a point where I'm fed up with point guards having 20-plus points every night."

While Lowry did most of his damage from afar, Scola also lit up the Jazz for 26 points and nine rebounds to help the Rockets improve to 18-14.