Jazz have scary visit to Seattle
Though lauded by coach Jerry Sloan for playing harder than they did in a Saturday-night loss to the Memphis Grizzlies, poor defense and a lack of self-esteem got the best of Utah in the cap to a back-to-back weekend set.
The Seattle Sonics beat Utah 122-105 Sunday night at Key Arena, hitting 13-of-22 from 3-point range before the Jazz were sent scurrying due to a postgame bomb threat.
The arena was cleared by police shortly after the game's conclusion, sending the Jazz off to the airport much quicker than they normally would leave after a game.
Sonics officials, though, believed the threat to be a hoax.
Sloan, meanwhile, was not amused by the way his now 14-28 Jazz played in the 42nd game of an 82-game season.
"Our defense," he said, "is still miles and miles away from what we'd like it be. But at least we played hard.
"I thought we played harder," the Jazz coach added, "than what we played in the last game."
The Jazz seemed doomed from early on, when they fell behind by 10, 33-23, after just one quarter.
Throughout, the Jazz would complain, gripe and wrestle with the Sonics time and time again — with Mehmet Okur, Howard Eisley and Sloan himself all picking up technical fouls before all was said and done.
Afterward, Sloan said he never before has had a team with more players who hang their heads, especially after experiencing frustration on the offensive end of the floor.
"They have a tendency," he said, "to think the world's against them."
In this instance, things did seem a bit out of balance.
Sloan was quick to point out that the Jazz outscored the Sonics 54-30 in the paint, yet outside-shooting Seattle had a season-high 45 free-throw attempts compared to 36 for Utah.
That, he said, is "the thing that amazes me." But, he hastened to add, "it's not why we lost."
For that, the Jazz can look to the fact they allowed the Sonics to shoot 59.4 percent (38-of-64) from the field and 59.1 percent from 3-point range, including 70 percent (7-of-10) from behind the line in the opening half alone.
"If you don't get to them out on the perimeter," Sloan said of the sharpshooting Sonics, now 28-11 and off to one of their best seasons in years, "they're going to make shots."
Because they did, the Sonics were up 15, 62-47, by halftime.
The Jazz did get back to within as few as four at 84-80 in the final minute of the third quarter, after All-Star forward Andrei Kirilenko literally stole the ball out of Nick Collison's hands, sparking an amazing sequence.
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