
The Jazz made it official with Sunday's loss to Orlando: They came East for three five-game trips this season and went home with a losing record on all three, leaving them a disappointing 5-10 against Eastern Conference teams on the road this season.
After beating Toronto and Indiana to stretch their winning streak to 12 games at the start of this trip, the Jazz were left with a three-game losing streak that dropped them to seventh in the tightly bunched Western Conference standings. The Jazz were unable to bounce back from Saturday's triple-overtime loss to Miami -- a crushing defeat in which they gave away leads at the end of regulation and the first overtime -- and were blown out by the Magic, who led from start to finish.
"It went from a good trip to a bad one," Deron Williams said. "The first two games were good for us and then we kind of blew it against Atlanta, then we really blew it against Miami, and now we come out and we don't even really show up."
The Jazz will have the chance to snap their skid when they host Washington on Tuesday, but their road woes were only magnified on this trip. They are now 13-20 overall on the road, with their next loss officially clinching a losing record on the road.
There are still eight remaining road games for the Jazz, including seven against teams with winning records. The Jazz have played 33 road games, but beaten only two teams (Philadelphia and Detroit) that currently have winning records.
As much as they struggled last season, the Jazz did go 7-8 on the road against the Eastern Conference. The only teams from the East that they beat on the road this season were Philadelphia, New Jersey, Detroit, Toronto and Indiana.
MAGIC 105, JAZZ 87: The Magic led 13-2 not even three minutes into the game and were barely threatened by the Jazz. They led from start to finish and never saw that lead dip below double digits in the second half. Dwight Howard finished with 28 points and 20 rebounds for his seventh 20-20 game of the season. Howard could've had an even bigger night had he not missed nine free throws and committed seven turnovers.