Wolves 89, Jazz 84MINNEAPOLIS -- One night, Monday, they beat the defending NBA-champion San Antonio Spurs. Two nights later, they knock off the New York Knicks.
And then there are evenings like Friday, when the Jazz looked like a mere shadow of their old self in an 89-84 loss to the host Minnesota Timberwolves.
Jerry Sloan still can't figure out his finicky team, and it's starting to frustrate him.
Big time.
So much so that he is starting to point fingers -- including one directed squarely at himself.
"We were so confused on what we were doing we didn't even guard the pick-and-roll," Sloan said. "When you have that, either I've lost this team, or I have guys that don't care. Maybe they're trying to tell me they don't care."
They're not, veteran leaders of the 5-4 Jazz say.
But it was tough to tell by their Friday play, which can be described as somewhere on the line between lackadaisical and lousy.
If you don't believe it, check out these they-don't-lie numbers:
The Jazz shot 5-of-22 (22.7 percent) from the field in the first quarter and 6-of-17 (35.3 percent) in the second quarter for a season-low opening half shooting effort of just 28.2-percent.
Karl Malone shot 0-for-6 in the in the first quarter, a period in which the Jazz turned over the ball seven times.
Despite all this, the Jazz only trailed by 5 points (34-29) at the half -- yet they still would not come any closer to the Timberwolves than three points in the final two quarters.
"When you're not thinking about playing, you shoot poorly," Sloan said.
"The way we were playing, I didn't think we were ever going to score 30 points," he added. "They came out and outplayed us, and wanted to win more than we did. They out-rebounded us (40-38), they had more assists (21-18), they had more blocked shots than us (7-3) and they had more offensive rebounds (13-12). That, to me, is an indication that you're ready to play."
And for that, Sloan -- was ejected from the game in the third quarter for arguing with referee Luis Grillo -- blamed himself.
"Obviously, we can't outscore teams if we don't defend," he said. "We had our chances to win the ballgame, but there was no . . . we had nothing. I did a terrible job of getting them ready to play. When you can't get your team ready to defend the pick-and-roll, that's my responsibility. And if we can't do that, then somebody else will have to do it."
Vets Malone, John Stockton and Jeff Hornacek, however, did not want to let Sloan fall on the sword all by himself.
"Every guy . . . before you get help -- me included -- needs to take that responsibility," Malone, who wound up with a team-high 19 points, said with reference to the Jazz's poor defensive play. "You have to be able to play your guy. And I didn't do that, and we as a team didn't do that."
"Defense is largely attitude, but it's also technique, trust and effort," Stockton said. "(The absence of) one of those factors can make the others look non-existent, and it can start with (any of the three)."
On Friday, the Jazz showed little of anything that Stockton reference.
The troubles in their own end allowed the Timberwolves, who were shooting poorly themselves at 37.2-percent clip from the field in the opening half, to take an early lead they would never relinquish.
"It seemed like neither team could anything going in the first half," said Hornacek, who hit just 3-of-7 in the first quarter and finished with 15 points. "There were open outside shots for both teams, but no one was making any. The second half was a little different. We had some chances. Those are the situations - when you get a team on their floor, and they have a bad first half. We've got to take advantage of it, and we didn't."
Five times in the final quarter, the Jazz got to within three points of the Timberwolves.
But each time the Wolves had an answer, including a game-ending slam dunk NBA rebounding-leader and second-leading scorer Kevin Garnett, who did not hurt his 27.8-point scoring average by finishing with a game-high 29.
The end result left Sloan seething.
"When you can't handle a pick-and-roll situation and know how you're going to play it, then you can't play with anybody. You look like an expansion team that has never been around each other before," said Sloan, whose clubs' bread-and-butter play has traditionally been the pick-and-roll. "So give them credit. They won, and they certainly deserved to win."
As to the reason why -- players who don't care, or the possibility that Sloan has "lost" his team -- none of the big three were biting.
Stockton would not comment on that particular question, and Malone said: "It's one of those things I'd rather not even touch. In games like this -- you lose, and don't play well -- I think one of the last things you want to do as a player is give opinions on stuff like that."
Hornacek took a nibble, but that's about it.
"I don't think he cares if we lose -- but it's if we don't lay it all out, and lose," said Hornacek, who knows the Jazz go right back at it tonight in Milwaukee. "It just doesn't get him when it's that. It gets the whole team . . . But I don't think it's a case of we don't care."
And there's also no question that all three vets defend their longtime coach.
"We've been through a lot," said Malone. "We'll come out of this okay."