Utah Jazz 'embarrassed' but look to move on from worst-ever home loss

SALT LAKE CITY — As humiliating and horrible as it was, Jazz coach Tyrone Corbin forced himself to re-watch his team's 45-point loss to the Houston Rockets multiple times between the time the historical dud ended Monday night and practice began Tuesday morning.

"You don't want to know," Corbin repeated when asked how many times he viewed game tape. "It wasn't good the second time or the third time, either. We just didn't play a good game."

To say the least.

The massive clunker was the worst home loss and the fifth-biggest setback in Jazz franchise history.

Fans were so hot about the listless showing, water coolers around Jazzland might have melted from heated discussions in their vicinity.

"Last night was a tough night, man," Jazz forward Marvin Williams said. "I'm sure everybody's really disappointed in the way that we played and the effort we put forth out there."

Williams admitted his mom even asked him which was worse — a one-point heartbreaker or a 45-point blowout.

"The big blowouts are embarrassing, but when you lose by one you look at the little things that you could've done just to win the game," he said. "I've lost by 50 before once or twice in my career. The biggest thing is you just have to put forth the effort to bounce back."

That's the point the Jazz were trying to convince themselves of in the aftermath of the annihilation.

Corbin didn't break out into an Annie impersonation, but he was relieved that the sun indeed came up Tuesday morning.

"We've got to learn a lesson from it. It was one game. It's a bad loss for us. We were really disappointed about it," he said. "We can't do anything about that one, but we've got a game (Wednesday) and we can't let that affect the game (Wednesday) night in a bad way."

That lesson learned? "How we have to play and that nobody's going to feel sorry for us," Corbin said. "When teams get runs going, they're not going to pull back because they have a big lead. They want a bigger lead.

"That's the lesson on it," he added. "You've got to fight your way through every situation."

"You can't just completely forget it. You (Jazz) got embarrassed last night, so I think everybody wants to remember that, especially with a good team coming in here tomorrow," Williams added. "You just want to remember what happened last night, put for the effort (Tuesday's practice) and get ready for (Wednesday's game)."

Backup point guard Earl Watson hopes the team comes out with a vengeance tonight against the New Orleans Pelicans-to-be.

"Losing is always tough," the point guard admitted. "Losing by a deficit such as that is even worse for me."

Watson's suggestion? "If it's up to me, I would bottle it up. All that energy, whether it's frustration or disappointment, I would bottle that up and the next game we play, the first quarter would be like the last 12 minutes of my life of basketball," Watson said.

"You just play so hard that the next team that comes in should feel the intensity of the team. They should feel the edge. It should be so obvious that the emotion in the gym is just explosive. That's what I would do."

Jazz fans who attend EnergySolutions Arena tonight — not knowing whether to expect Monday's apathetic squad or the one that had won all six previous January games in the arena — can only hope his teammates follow that suggestion.