[SLT] Inside KURT KRAGTHORPE: Half-hearted efforts can add up for Jazz

Forty-eight minutes.
That's what coach Jerry Sloan keeps saying, that the Jazz need to play well for 48 minutes to have any chance of beating Houston in this playoff series.
Well, they've done it. They've played 48 good minutes. Too bad it has taken them two games to do it.
Counting Saturday's opening 24 minutes and Monday's first half, they have led the Rockets by a total of 11 points. Obviously, there's a reason these games last as long as they do.
And in the end, the Jazz have lost them both - including a 98-90 decision in Game 2 that sent everybody away from the Toyota Center with Houston in command of the series.
Not that the Rockets are dominating this thing. Not at all. They're playing just well enough to win; the Jazz are playing just well enough to lose.
The Jazz keep having chances to win these games, and that should be mildly encouraging as they come home to EnergySolutions Arena.
But you also get the feeling that this series could be over by the weekend - or next Monday, at the latest - and everybody will still be saying the Jazz could or should have won any of the games, and what good will it be doing them at that point?
Forty-eight minutes.
The Rockets are not a great team. Certainly, they're not playing like one in this series. But the Jazz
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are not taking advantage of their opportunities, either.
"It felt closer than last game," forward Matt Harpring said.
Which ultimately made it even more discouraging.
Watching from the bench in his traditional role, Harpring was not impressed with his teammates' "lackadaisical" work early in the third quarter. "You can't do that in the playoffs," he said.
If you ask me, the Jazz really lost Monday's game at the end of the first half. As well as they played in the early stages and as poorly as the Rockets were shooting - again - from three-point range, the Jazz might have led by 10 points at the half. It should have happened, actually.
When Harpring took a pass from Carlos Boozer, scored and was fouled, the Jazz held a 39-32 lead with 3:24 remaining. Houston center Yao Ming was on the bench with three fouls. But Harpring missed the free throw, then the Jazz added only Derek Fisher's layup the rest of the half and settled for a 41-39 edge.
They slowly faded away in the third quarter, by which time some pretty goofy stuff was developing.
How about Boozer scoring 29 points before fellow All-Star Mehmet Okur was even on the board, eventually finishing with 41 in a terrific performance?
How about Yao, bothered by Okur's unusually good defense, and Tracy McGrady shooting a combined 18-for-53 and the Rockets making going 4-for-24 from three-point range, yet winning by eight points?
How about the Jazz consciously trying to involve Andrei Kirilenko in the offense, apparently for morale-boosting purposes, and still getting basically nothing out of him?
It's weird, wild stuff, and it's all making the Jazz wonder what they have to do to win a game in this series.
Forty-eight minutes.
Clearly, playing a full game is the answer. "All we have to do is play the same level for 48 minutes, not up and down," Okur said.
They fought back Monday, coming within four points in the last four minutes after trailing by 12 early in the fourth quarter. They just could not sustain anything, as all those Houston free throws and all those Rockets' offensive rebounds wore down the Jazz.
"There was a point there where it could have gone either way . . . and we had some unfortunate calls or whatever," Harpring said.
Yes, these are the kind of NBA games that a home team wins. That factor will be in the Jazz's favor Thursday. It's still not too late for them to make this series interesting. It's just too late for them to come back and win it, because 48 minutes is a long, long time. kkragthorpe@sltrib.com