Magic cast a losing spell on Jazz News Orlando Magic

ORLANDO ? They lost their composure and their common sense in the final minute, and eventually lost a game in triple-overtime, Saturday at Miami. On Sunday they lost their coach in the first three minutes, their point guard briefly later in the first half and yet another game, this one 105-87 to Dwight Howard and the Orlando Magic at sold-out Amway Arena, because, it seems safe to suggest, they didn't give themselves a chance to win. The price for that: a third straight loss, a five-game Eastern Conference road trip that ends 2-3, an overall record that drops to 41-26 and another failed effort to move forward in the NBA's super-tight Northwest Division and Western Conference races.

"We never really showed up in this game," point guard Deron Williams said. "I don't know if we thought we spent all our energy (Saturday), but this (Orlando) is a good team we played against. A real good team. And the energy we came out with wasn't enough to get a win." "What I watched of it," coach Jerry Sloan added, "our energy was so far down the line. We had a really difficult time." The Jazz, in fact, were already down by six when ? just two minutes and 12 seconds into the game ? Sloan was tossed on two quick technical fouls called by referee Monty McCutchen. He evidently was complaining specifically about a foul called on center Mehmet Okur, but perhaps hacked even more about the late-game blunders made a day earlier in Miami. "I think we can," Sloan said when asked about beating winning teams on the road, which the Jazz ? with all of their road games against teams from the East now complete at 5-10 ? have done only twice this season. "I think these guys believe that they can," he added. "But I think when you have a tough game like we had (Saturday) that takes a lot of out of you. I think that takes a little bit more out of you mentally than people realize." So, too, does going against a Southeast Division-leading club like the 49-17 Magic, who got a 28-point, 20-rebound double-double from Howard. Howard had a 12-point, 11-board double-double in the first quarter alone, a period in which Orlando was up by as many as 15. He added 14 more points in the third quarter as the Magic led by double-digits throughout the second half. "He's a monster," said Jazz power forward Carlos Boozer, who finished with a team-high 23 points and 13 rebounds. Okur was on Howard early, albeit with little success. Hobbled for a second straight game by a sprained right ankle, the admittedly energy-sapped Jazz center played just 13 minutes and ? after playing 54 in Miami ? missed each of his seven shots from the field in Orlando. Boozer and backup Paul Millsap, meanwhile, were on Howard much of the rest of the way. "I think he's one of the dudes that people don't appreciate as much," Boozer said. "He should be in the MVP talk too (along with Cleveland's LeBron James, Miami's Dwyane Wade and Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers). He's playing fantastic." And the Jazz were playing anything but Sunday. Utah was down by 53-35, and seemingly out of it already, when Williams exited with a muscle bruise below his left knee. He ran into a Howard screen while chasing Magic point Rafer Alston, and ? though he returned after the break ? sat out the final five minutes of the opening half. "It did to me," Sloan, who declined to field questions about the game's officiating, said when asked if the pick looked hard but clean. "I couldn't tell for sure," added Sloan, who when that play occurred was still cooling down in the Jazz coach's room. "At that particular time I wasn't watching a lot of it. I was still trying to get over my own problems." E-MAIL: tbuckley@desnews.com