The Utah Jazz underwent a title change Wednesday night.
No longer are they "the first-place Utah Jazz." Today, and for some time to come - unless they put things back together quickly - they shall be known as "the second-place Utah Jazz."Not quite the same ring, eh?
The Jazz made the switch via a 91-85 loss to the Charlotte Hornets, at Charlotte Coliseum. That dropped them a half game behind San Antonio in the Midwest Division race. It's not much of a standings deficit now, but Utah still has three games remaining on this road trip, while the Spurs' next three games are at home.
Which is not to say the Jazz can't get themselves back on course. With just a few corrections Wednesday, they would have downed a Hornets team that did its best to choke this game away.
The most obvious - and necessary - correction, is in the flight of John Stockton's shots. After a seven-game stretch in which he averaged 22.3 points per game while making 64.6 percent of his shots (45 percent from the three-point line), he's averaged 5.7 points on this trip, while making six of 29 shots (20.7 percent).
Stockton insists that there's nothing physically wrong with him, but then, you could rip his arm off and he'd look you in the eye and swear it didn't hurt. His explanation for the mini-slump? "A few haven't rolled in for me, but I don't expect that to continue."
You have to give Stockton credit for guts, though. With 22 seconds left to play and the Hornets up by three, the Jazz talked about taking a three during a timeout, and Stockton came out and shot it. He missed, and the Jazz had to start fouling, but it was a sign that Stockton's confidence hasn't slumped.
Here's how it came down to that point: The Jazz played another miserable first half, getting outscored in both quarters, and they were only in the game because the Hornets aren't as good as the Hawks (Tuesday night's foe). Charlotte didn't play any defense early in the game, but the Jazz missed several wide-open jumpers.
In the third quarter the Jazz fell behind by 13, then started picking it up. Karl Malone hit a couple shots, then David Benoit knocked down a three and a 20-footer. By quarter's end Utah trailed by a mere nine.
And the Jazz still trailed by nine at the 7:37 mark of the fourth, but then the Hornets started gagging. Over the next three-plus minutes the home team committed a couple turnovers and an offensive foul and missed some foul shots, allowing the Jazz to reel off 10-straight points and take a one-point lead.
Ex-Jazzman Dell Curry then nailed a hanging jumper in the lane, and the Hornets never trailed again. Over the next couple of minutes, Malone missed a jumper and a pair of foul shots, Stockton lost the ball out of bounds while driving the lane, Hornacek missed a jumper, and Antoine Carr caught a pass and came down on Pete Myers, earning a charging call.
But was it charging? The Jazz disagreed, and the replay seemed to indicate they had a case.
"I do know two things about the rules," Malone said. "If a guy goes up he has to have room to come down, and the other is you can't take a charge underneath the basket."
Sloan agreed the call was questionable, but he didn't want to use that as an excuse. He put more blame on missed shots and errant free throws.
Anyway, after the Carr call Curry and Hornacek swapped threes, and Myers made one free throw, setting up Stockton's aforementioned miss.
Malone led the Jazz with 20 points and 12 rebounds, and Hornacek had another strong outing, 18 points. That duo got a little more help this game - 10 rebounds from Benoit, 10 points from Felton Spencer, but the bench was off again. Most "off" is Chris Morris, who is four for 21 on this trip.
The Jazz next play Indiana on Friday night in Indianapolis.