Jazz drop sixth straight, still searching for first victory

The Jazz — the only winless team remaining in the NBA this season — fall to 0-6.
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Chicago • The United Center will host Andrew Wiggins, Jabari Parker, Julius Randle and a host of other likely lottery picks Tuesday night when college basketball's Champions Classic comes to town.

On Friday night, it hosted a team that looked like it could use one of those guys.

The Utah Jazz floundered on both ends of the court as they dropped their sixth straight game to open the season, a 97-73 loss to the Chicago Bulls.

"We're struggling. We're in a bad spot right now," said coach Ty Corbin. "But we've got to continue to work, man. That's the only way we're going to get out of it. Stay together and keep working."

This East Coast trip has yet to produce many good memories for a young Jazz team. Utah was trounced in Brooklyn and let an early lead slip away in Boston.

Against Derrick Rose, Carlos Boozer and the rest of the Bulls on Friday, Utah's third game in four nights, the Jazz never mounted an attack.

Chicago converted better than 52 percent of its basket and led wire to wire.

Bulls forward Luol Deng scored seven of his game-high 19 points in the first quarter. He added 11 rebounds and fell just one assist shy of recording his first career triple-double.

The point guard Rose, returning to form after missing all of last season, slashed to the hoop with ease, creating layups for himself or chances to kick out to wide-open teammates.

Ex-Utah forward Boozer showed off the offensive moves that once helped the Jazz reach the Western Conference Finals, scoring at the rim and hitting jump shots for 18 points. He also grabbed 10 rebounds, helping the Bulls to a 48-40 advantage on the glass.

The Jazz? Couldn't buy a shot.

Utah clanked 60 of its 85 attempts from the floor.

"We shot like 20-something percent," said Jazz swingman Gordon Hayward, who led the team with 15 points. "You're going to have to be really, really, really good to win a basketball game shooting under 30 percent."

The Jazz were not on Friday night in the Windy City.

Only two other Jazz players scored in double figures. Guard Alec Burks scored 10 points on 3-of-13 shooting, and forward Derrick Favors had 10 point on 3-of-10 shooting.

Hayward pointed to Chicago's defense — but mostly a lack of execution by the Jazz on the offensive end as the reason for the struggles. The team took too many contested looks or jumpers forced at the end of shot clocks, said Hayward, who also had six rebounds and five assists.

"Our defense struggled because our offense is struggling," Corbin said. "Our offense is putting too much pressure on the defense."

The Jazz trailed by just 11 coming out of the locker room. Three early turnovers to start the second half quickly pushed Chicago's lead to 16. The Jazz trailed by as much as 26, the third straight game in which Utah faced a deficit of at least 24 points.

"We've got to do something, man," said point guard John Lucas III, who chipped in nine points of the Jazz bench. "We're out there playing hard, playing tough. We're staying together. It just … it just seems like we don't get none of the loose balls. You know what I mean? I don't know why. It's just tough right now."

The Jazz, now the league's only team without a win, wrap up their four-game trip Saturday night in Toronto.

"Until we actually fight back and get back to ourselves this is going to continue," center Enes Kanter said. "We have enough talent. We just have to fight through it."

afalk@sltrib.com —

Storylines

O Chicago shoots 53 percent from the floor while the Jazz fail to top 30 percent.

• Only three Jazz players reach double-digit scoring, led by Gordon Hayward's 15. —

Jazz at Raptors

O Saturday, 5 p.m.

TV • ROOT Sports Bulls 97, Jazz 73

FG FT Reb

Utah Min M-A M-A O-T A PF Pts

Jefferson 27:57 3-12 1-2 1-1 0 3 8

Favors 33:30 3-10 4-6 5-9 3 5 10

Kanter 27:25 4-11 0-0 2-4 1 4 8

Tinsley 12:22 1-3 0-0 1-2 4 0 2

Hayward 37:21 5-15 4-5 1-6 5 1 15

Lucas III 29:29 3-9 0-0 1-2 1 0 9

Gobert 15:38 1-2 2-6 4-12 0 1 4

Burks 28:58 3-13 3-4 1-1 1 2 10

Williams 10:48 1-5 0-0 0-1 1 3 3

Harris 8:39 1-3 2-2 1-2 1 2 4

Clark 7:53 0-2 0-0 0-0 1 0 0

Totals 240:00 25-85 16-25 17-40 18 21 73

Percentages: FG .294, FT .640. 3-Point Goals: 7-20, .350 (Lucas III 3-4, Hayward 1-2, Burks 1-3, Williams 1-3, Jefferson 1-4, Clark 0-1, Favors 0-1, Tinsley 0-2). Team Rebounds: 14. Team Turnovers: 17 (16 PTS). Blocked Shots: 4 (Favors, Gobert, Harris, Kanter). Turnovers: 17 (Favors 4, Burks 3, Williams 3, Hayward 2, Jefferson 2, Kanter, Lucas III, Tinsley). Steals: 13 (Burks 4, Lucas III 3, Gobert 2, Jefferson 2, Favors, Harris). Technical Fouls: Defensive three second, 4:52 second.

FG FT Reb

Chicago Min M-A M-A O-T A PF Pts

Deng 38:08 7-9 5-5 2-11 9 2 19

Boozer 23:59 7-11 4-6 2-10 2 3 18

Noah 24:57 6-9 2-4 4-8 1 3 14

Rose 27:04 3-8 5-5 0-2 5 1 12

Butler 27:15 2-5 0-0 0-4 3 1 5

Gibson 29:50 5-13 2-4 1-4 1 4 12

Dunleavy 21:58 4-7 0-0 0-2 1 3 9

Hinrich 22:22 1-2 0-0 0-1 2 2 2

Mhmmd 13:37 3-6 0-1 2-3 1 4 6

Snell 3:37 0-1 0-0 0-1 0 0 0

Murphy 3:37 0-1 0-0 0-2 0 1 0

Teague 2:11 0-0 0-0 0-0 1 0 0

James 1:25 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0

Totals 240:00 38-72 18-25 11-48 26 24 97

Percentages: FG .528, FT .720. 3-Point Goals: 3-8, .375 (Dunleavy 1-1, Rose 1-2, Butler 1-4, Hinrich 0-1). Team Rebounds: 8. Team Turnovers: 21 (13 PTS). Blocked Shots: 6 (Boozer, Gibson, Mohammed, Murphy, Noah, Rose). Turnovers: 20 (Deng 5, Rose 4, Noah 3, Boozer 2, Gibson 2, Butler, Mohammed, Murphy, Teague). Steals: 12 (Deng 5, Hinrich 3, Butler 2, Noah, Rose). Technical Fouls: Defensive three second, 2:59 second.

Utah 18 22 16 17 — 73

Chicago 30 21 27 19 — 97

Attendance • 21,946

Time • 2:12.

Officials • Mike Callahan, Eli Roe, Courtney Kirkland.