Free-throw shooting, tough call doom Jazz News Utah Jazz

PHOENIX ? There was the lousy count in the second game of back-to-back sets, 3-13 before getting started this time. There was the dubious overall road record, 14-20 coming into the evening. And there was the most-stunning mark of them all, 0-8 away from home against the NBA Western Conference's other eight playoff contenders.

Each only got worse late Wednesday night, when the Jazz fell 118-114 to Phoenix ? which has now won six straight ? in a sold-out, ESPN-televised game at US Airways Center. The loss ended Utah's modest win streak at three, and dropped the Jazz ? still sixth in the West, and second in the Northwest Division ? to 44-27 overall. But it wasn't before going down to the wire, and what the Jazz saw as a couple doubtful calls, before Utah got hung up yet again. After Ronnie Brewer used a baseline jumper to tie the game at 114 with 49 seconds remaining, 26-point game-high scorer Grant Hill hit Phoenix's final go-ahead basket on a nine-foot fadeway from the lane that came 17.5 seconds later. The Jazz had a chance to tie it again, but Mehmet Okur's off-balance jumper coming out of a timeout that was called with 27.3 seconds to go missed the mark. The Jazz thought Okur was hindered by defender Matt Barnes on the play, but no call was made and the 40-31 Suns ? who are closing in on Dallas for the eighth and final playoff spot in the West ? sealed their win at the end of a four-game homestand with two free throws from Barnes. "I thought he (Okur) got fouled on that. I thought Paul Millsap was fouled (on an earlier) under-the-basket play," Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said. "But those are officials. "You know, the free throws we shot were 16-for-27," added Sloan, who wasn't blaming the non-calls alone on the loss. "When you shoot free throws like that in a game like this, that's the ballgame. It makes it very difficult. Plus, we gave them too many points in the paint (68). ... I don't know when a team has scored that many points ? and so many were layups, hustle plays, going after the Basketball, tipping the ball in the basket." Elephant in the postgame Jazz lockerroom, though, clearly was the Barnes-on-Okur play. "I don't like to talk about officiating," point guard Deron Williams ? who led Utah with a 25-point, 10-rebound double-double ? said when asked about it. "It leads to fines." Williams also was struck by Phoenix's 54.9 percent field-goal shooting, which came one night after Utah beat Houston at home while holding the Rockets to 34.8 percent from the field. "We didn't get stops the whole game," he said. The Suns led 32-31 after one quarter, but a late 7-0 burst ? an Andrei Kirilenko 3-pointer, Williams' drive past Steve Nash for a layup and a Millsap-fed Carlos Boozer dunk ? helped the Jazz head into halftime up six at 58-52. Williams had 13 points at the break, and after one half Boozer was just one rebound shy of his 13th double-double of the season. Utah pushed it advantage to as many as eight early in the third quarter, and was up by seven at 78-71 with five-and-a-half minutes left in the period when Phoenix rallied to eventually take an 89-83 lead into the fourth. There were four lead chances in that final quarter, but the Jazz never led by more by more than two after the third. NOTES: In the crowd Wednesday: Legendary Green Bay Packers quarterback Bart Starr, MVP of the NFL's first two Super Bowls, and ex-Jazz center Greg Ostertag, who makes his home now in the Phoenix area. ... Utah is now 6-1 on nationally televised games this season, including 2-1 on ESPN and 4-0 on TNT. E-mail: tbuckley@desnews.com