Even a full day-and-a-half after their 96-92 Game 5 playoff loss Monday in Houston, the Jazz still were stinging.
"It's tough," forward Matt Harpring said after practice Wednesday in advance of tonight's Game 6 against the Rockets. "I mean, I'm still kind of recovering from it."
One Jazz player after another Wednesday looked, and spoke, like a fisherman who let the big one get away.
"It was definitely disheartening for us to come up short, especially when we actually had another good third quarter," said forward Carlos Boozer, lamenting the fact Utah blew a four-point lead it held heading into the fourth period. "We felt like we let Game 5 slip away."
The loss's impact has lingered, guard Deron Williams said, "Just because it seemed we had the game.
"We were up 10 points (early in the second quarter)," he added, "and we just couldn't find a way to put them away, and it's just frustrating."
Harpring suggested the pain of losing has hurt since Monday night.
"It's always in your face," he said. "I mean, if you're a competitor, you're always thinking about it."
And you should, said Jazz coach Jerry Sloan, who didn't mind that some players were downright mad about letting the Rockets off their hook: "When you lose a ballgame, I would hope you're angry. If you're running around, and it doesn't bother you, that's not a very good sign."
Yet the Jazz, Williams suggested, simply can't carry any negativity into tonight's potential elimination game in the best-of-seven first-round NBA series.
"You can't dwell on it," said Williams, who spent most of Tuesday's off-day sleeping and playing with his kids, "because ... the series is not over."