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SLIDESHOW: Utah Jazz vs Oklahoma City Thunder
SALT LAKE CITY -- Put it down as a look-back game.
Look-back, as in, when the 2009-10 season finally draws to a conclusion, members of the Utah Jazz will look back on this one, shake their heads and say, "It never should have happened."
Despite coming in full of confidence and riding a three-game winning streak, the Jazz looked awful on Tuesday, committing 24 turnovers and playing shaky defense on the way to a 104-94 loss to Oklahoma City at EnergySolutions Arena.
Not only did the loss end Utah's best winning streak so far this season, it turned out to be the Jazz's third home loss this month.
The last time Utah lost three home games in a month? Look back to April 2007.
"We've just got to get that fire back, get that confidence back," Jazz point guard Deron Williams said. "We used to think when people came in here in was an automatic loss (for them). We've got to get that back."
Oklahoma City (8-7) got 28 points from forward Kevin Durant, who also added eight assists, five rebounds and a blocked shot.
Power forward Jeff Green turned out to be a major matchup problem for the Jazz (7-7) as he hit three 3-point shots and finished with 19 points, six rebounds and five assists.
The Thunder blew the game open after halftime, outscoring the Jazz 31-16 in the third quarter.
After falling behind by 19 points, Utah fought back in the fourth quarter and got within eight. However, the Jazz never did get any closer and Oklahoma City pulled away easily in the final two minutes.
Of the 24 turnovers the Jazz committed, 16 came in the second half.
Carlos Boozer led Utah with 26 points and seven rebounds, and Paul Millsap came off the bench for 19 points and seven boards.
Williams finished with 10 points, nine assists and seven rebounds, but he also was credited with a season-high seven turnovers.
"Tonight I played like crap," Williams said.
Despite shooting 49 percent from the field and outrebounding the Thunder 37-31, Utah's struggles were a team effort all the way, and most of them came in the third quarter.
Oklahoma City shot 57 percent during the period, hit three 3-pointers and made only one turnovers.
Defensively, the Thunder held the Jazz to just 39 percent from the field and forced six turnovers.
"They really made it tough for us to run our offense," Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said. "We just started taking shots (in the third quarter) and got into casual mode. I thought they did a terrific job defensively, they got up and really made it tough on us in almost everything we did."
Credit Thunder guard Thabo Sefolosha for causing the most trouble.
Assigned to Williams much of the night, the fourth-year player from Switzerland used a four-inch height advantage to frustrate Utah's star point guard.
"He's just a bigger guard, he took a lot of things away from me," Williams said.
"That's my role, playing defense and trying to be that spark on the defensive end," Sefolosha said.
The Jazz fell to 4-3 on their home floor this season. They still have four more home games between now and December 4.
Their next game is Thursday against the Chicago Bulls.
"We've just got to do a better job of protecting home court," Williams said.
