DALLAS — Andrei Kirilenko's back. Jerry Sloan's patience. The Jazz's already flickering postseason hopes.
All gave out early on what turned out to be Elimination Sunday for Sloan and his 40-40 club, as MVP candidate Dirk Nowitzki and the Dallas Mavericks rolled to a 111-95 victory at American Airlines Center that officially dismissed Utah from playoff contention.
The Jazz's desperate attempt to return to the land only John Stockton and Karl Malone have taken the franchise over the last two decades came to a close in their third-to-last game of the season.
It also marked the third straight time since the two future hall-of-famers exited Utah — Stockton retiring, and Malone leaving to join the Los Angeles Lakers for his final NBA season — that Sloan's team has failed to make the playoffs.
"I'm not sure that we have enough guys that are hungry enough to want to be in the playoffs," the Jazz coach said, "and want to play with the toughness (needed) to be able to get there sometimes."
For that, Sloan — whose team was still alive Sunday only because of a late-season run that included five straight victories and eight in their 10 games prior to coming to Dallas — accepted responsibility.
"That's my job," he said, "to make them tougher — or whatever it takes for them to be able to play."
Unable to play the whole way Sunday was Kirilenko, who exited with two minutes and 39 seconds remaining in the third quarter due to back spasms. It was the same injury that caused him to miss three straight games in late December, and another last month — all Jazz losses.
By the time he left on this occasion, the damage was mostly done.
Dallas, which was eliminated itself earlier Sunday from having a chance to catch San Antonio for best record in the NBA, led in the second quarter by as many as 13 points and went into halftime up eight at 56-48.
The 60-21 Mavericks, who got 22 points from Nowitzki and another 20 off the bench from Jerry Stackhouse, set the tone early by drawing one foul after another.
By the time they were done, the Mavs had taken 55 free throws in all — 18 more than the Jazz.
"I know we've got to overcome that, but it shouldn't make any difference who you are," said Sloan, whose stack finally blew early in the fourth quarter — leading to his 11th technical foul of the season (but first since mid-March). "That was the thing that upset me as time went on, because, yeah, we made some mistakes — but we also had situations were I think we could have hung a little bit better if we had had a couple things go our way.
"But every time they (the Mavericks) got in that position . . . they're shooting free throws. I mean, 55 free throws for this team? They're good. I'm not gonna take anything away from them. They're a great team. But, it's unbelievable."
By the time Kirilenko went to the lockerroom, Dallas was up 84-69 — and the Jazz, who did get a team-high 21 points from Carlos Boozer, had to believe the inevitable was upon them.
The Lakers, after all, had beaten shorthanded Phoenix earlier on Sunday — MVP-candidate point guard Steve Nash and ex-Jazz guard Raja Bell of the Suns both sat out to nurse injuries — to erase themselves from oh-so-short list of teams Utah could still catch.
That sent the Jazz into Sunday night's game with only Sacramento still within reach, and presented Utah with this situation: One more loss, or one Kings win in its final two games, and Sloan's club was done.
As it turned out, Sacramento ended up beating Portland after the Jazz's game Sunday concluded. That means they would have been out of the playoffs even if they had beaten the Mavs — not that that was of much consolation.
"It's tough," rookie point guard Deron Williams said after Utah closed as poorly as it started Sunday, never getting any closer than within 12 points in the fourth quarter. "It was a must-win for us, and we go out and don't really perform well. It's tough, frustrating — especially knowing we can't make the playoffs right now."
"It hurts," forward Matt Harpring added. "You play this game for a reason: to get to the playoffs, and give yourself a chance to win a championship. If you're out of the playoffs, you can't win a championship."
Not that the Jazz would have been contending for one of those anyway.
Instead, their goals were more modest.
Sloan just wanted his team to get to playoffs, and use that as a building block for seasons to come. Now, they can only hope to win avoid a second straight losing season — and have next season prove more productive than this one.
It's with that in mind that Kirilenko looks forward to 2006-07, knowing that 2005-06 has already resulted in 14 more wins that 2004-05.
"If you look at last season, we were terrible," Kirilenko said. "Twenty-six wins. This season, we improved a lot . . . We were playing almost every night for a win. That's important."
E-mail: tbuckley@desnews.com