Utah Jazz Notes

You can’t take that shot, the 28-foot three-pointer Andrei Kirilenko launched off an inbounds play with 28.8 seconds left in Saturday’s game and the Jazz trailing by two.

You have to get a quality possession somehow, produce either a layup, an open jumper or a trip to the foul line. Not a prayer from well beyond the three-point arc with 22 seconds left on the shot clock as Kirilenko did.

“We had a couple different options, but they did a good job on us,” Carlos Boozer said. “So I came back and got it, got it to A.K. and if he hit it, we go up by one. If we missed it, we’re down by two.

“He made his own decision. It was a good shot because there was nobody on him. But then we had to foul and it was a free-throw game after that.”

There’s no way Kirilenko could have gotten the shot-clock situation confused because the clock reset after LeBron James’ three-point play. You can question from there whether Kirilenko thought the Jazz were down by three when it was really two.

He said the inbounds play is one the Jazz practice regularly and is designed to produce the kind of three-pointer he took. He described it as if he switched into autopilot and took the three-pointer like he has so many times in practice before.

Kirilenko, for the record, finished with 13 points, seven rebounds and five assists, though he did miss all four three-pointers he attempted. That shot brought back a lot of memories from last season’s Miami loss, though Kirilenko attacked the basket for a charge that game.

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You also can’t give up a three-point play like that to James, as the Jazz did with 28.8 seconds left, putting the Cavaliers ahead 103-101. James came off a pick and stormed down the lane. Boozer arrived late and reached in for a foul as James hit a layup.

Only seconds earlier, James had split two free throws. Putting him back at the line would have tested him again. Worst-case scenario, the Jazz are down by two. Best-case scenario, the Jazz send a message and James converts one or zero free throws.

Somebody should have put James on his rear on that drive. James ended up scoring 10 of his 21 points in the fourth quarter. He was anything but the Jazz-killer, however, from previous seasons.

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Other than that, the Jazz should be proud of the way they came back against the Cavaliers. They could have been blown out when they trailed by 16 only 2 1-2 minutes into the second quarter but rallied in the second game of a back-to-back.

There’s no guarantee the Jazz would have gone 2-2 on their trip even with Deron Williams. Without him, the Jazz should consider themselves fortunate. They went 1-4 on their first big trip last season, which included three of the same stops as this one.

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I didn’t get much chance to write about the potential tying three-pointer that went to Mehmet Okur in the final seconds. My question was how much of an option was undrafted rookie Wesley Matthews, who went 3-for-3 from beyond the arc.

In fact, subtract Matthews and the Jazz went 0-for-9 on three-pointers in the game. They set up for the inbounds, with Matthews coming from the back of a line of four players and cutting to the corner closest to the inbounder.

Instead, Kirilenko looked to Okur, who was covered by Anderson Varejao at the top of the floor. Varejao gave Okur little space and Okur appeared to stumble as he tried to get open. He ended up launching an off-balance three-pointer off the back rim.

Matthews and James exchanged greetings at the final horn. Turns out, Matthews worked at one of James’ basketball camps while he was in college at Marquette.

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Who would have guessed that rookie Eric Maynor would outscore James in Saturday’s loss? Maynor came in having scored 21 total points all season, but had 24 against the Cavaliers, compared with 21 for James.

Maynor was the Jazz’s best offensive threat for much of the game. He hit one nifty bank off a pick-and-roll in the second quarter as well as a jumper over Varejao. In the game’s final minute, Maynor drove for a layup that gave the Jazz a 101-100 lead.

We’ll see what happens when Ronnie Price comes back - - he’s hopeful he’ll be able to play Wednesday - - but Maynor definitely generated confidence these last two games and earned a little bit of trust from Sloan.

--Ross Siler