Rick Carlisle, was much more brief with his answers tonight than usual.

We didn't play well.  They played very well.  Us not playing well probably had something to do with how they played. You have to give them credit.

Did you sense a lack of energy or life?

We struggled.  Yeah.  But I'm not going to make excuses about the travel or any of that. Everybody gets put in this position at some point, and you've got to be able to come out and play. Give Utah credit.  They're undermanned, they played a great game, they had some guys really step up.  They deserved it.

Thoughts on the Dirk ejection?

It appeared to me to be accidental.  They said his fist was closed so it was an automatic flagrant 2.  They looked at the video and I said " I don't think it was intentional", but they said it didn't matter if it's a closed fist type of thing. I don't think there was intent to strike Harpring in the face.  Dirk doesn't have any kind of pattern of that stuff.  It was a microcosm of the night really.

It this a team [Utah] that can get under peoples skin?

They're a persistent team.  They've been like this for the last 24.5 years that I've been in this league.  We knew this coming in, loud building and all of that.  We just didn't defend well enough.  That's what it really came down to.  They had 30 transition points.  They were 9 for 9 in transition in the first half.  Our undoing was the first half, how poor we were defensively, and the fact that they were nine for nine on the fast break.

The Utah centers had good nights, two guys who normally don't see a lot of action?

They were the recipients of other activity.  They were involved in some primary actions too, so...  With good players around them they can make good plays, and they did.  They did a good job.