This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2010, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Some late quotes from the Jazz after their 93-81 loss to Dallas:Jerry Sloan, on Dallas' zone defense: "We had some trouble. When they started zoning us, we lost our position on the floor a few times and looked confused. We knew they would probably try and zone us, but we didn't have as good a spacing as we should have. ... Those things happen."—-Sloan, on the loss: "They came out and beat us in the second half. They really pushed the ball up the floor and we had a tough time getting back to try and cover them. We also missed some free throws, and their bench ... was kind of a problem for us. They bring a lot of good, veteran players [off the bench] who would start on a lot of teams."—-Deron Williams, on losing to the Mavericks: "We ran into a good team, playing as good as us — better tonight. ... We had some good looks at the basket but missed some easy ones. Their zone stifled us a little bit. Then they went back to a man and we never got back to executing. If I could point to a couple of things, it would be they had 19 points off turnovers and then the free-throw shooting. If you shoot under 70 percent, it's hard to win a game."—-Williams, on how the loss impacts the Jazz in the Western Conference: "We're still one of the best teams. But we still have some ups and downs. This is one of those nights. Things just didn't go our way. The Mavericks played better than us. Simple as that."—-Andrei Kirilenko, on why the Mavericks outscored the Jazz, 54-38, in the second half: "I think we [had] a little lack of energy. ... In the first half, we were running. We were active. We were pressing them. In the second half, it was just a different team."— Steve Luhm