What a great loss.
You had to see it to understand that there could be any such thing.
About the more distant Jazz future, nobody's exactly sure who will be around to face it - on account of more money that needs to be paid to certain Jazz players and more money that might lure one of them away. Regardless, based on what the Jazz put up in this playoff series against the Lakers, it's clear that they, if properly facilitated, can compete with the Lakers in postseasons to come.
First, though, the glorious, ridiculous here and now.
The Jazz went ahead and lost to the Lakers in Game 6, 108-105, dropping the affair, 4-2.
The Lakers clinched the series. The Jazz clenched a fist.
But they fought back in a proud way.
"They're an incredible team, a tough team to play," said a respectful Kobe Bryant. ". . . They play so hard."
From the beginning, the Lakers blistered out to a double-digit lead and never relinquished it. That margin grew to 16 in the first quarter and blew to 19 at the half. They were loose, and, yet, determined and driven, too.
The Jazz were tight. They shot 30 percent in the opening period, and 33 percent by the half. At the end, the number sat at 38. Through much of that first half, Carlos Boozer was the team's leading scorer.
How sad is that?
"We got lost in what we were doing," said Jerry Sloan.
"It's just tough," Deron Williams said.
Most of the Jazz players looked as though they were powerlifting microwaves and sofas into the back of a two-ton.
They could not shoot straight.
And the Lakers could.
L.A. hit 35 of 70 attempts, and the open looks it created in its triangle offense were gaping. Bryant had 34 points, Derek Fisher 16, and Pau Gasol 17.
Notable that the Lakers were the team with the MVP and the so-called supporting cast, but they played together, shared the ball, and won the game.
But the Jazz, for all their early troubles, roared back in the third and fourth quarters, initially denting the Lakers' lead, and, at last, truly threatening it.
Multiple shots in the final seconds could have tied the game, but none of them fell.
Six Jazz players scored in double figures, most of that coming in the frenzied latter going.
It was the second home loss in the playoffs for the Jazz, only their sixth defeat at ESA all season. Bryant called winning at EnergySolutions "a big step" for the Lakers.
As the support supplied by the Jazz's raucous fans swelled in the second half, the club fed off of it, executing better, shooting better, and rebounding harder. They darn near got the victory.
At the end, Jazz fans stood and applauded their defeated team.
And the Lakers celebrated their matriculation into the Western Conference finals, slapping one another's backs and singing one another's praises.
For the Jazz, it was a disappointing-and-encouraging punctuation to a season that was another step down an elongated path toward whatever it is for which they are headed.
They had highlights this season, such as the continued development of Williams, their impressive record at home, the improvement of their bench. But there were downsides, too. Their struggles on the road, Boozer's slump over the last two months - which continued Friday night, and questions about Andrei Kirilenko's future with the Jazz.
The season started with controversy surrounding the Jazz's max-money player, and it ended that way, with Kirilenko's dash for a vacation visa emerging a day before their final game.
Ironic that Williams and Boozer had complained last postseason about unnamed teammates "planning their vacations" before the playoffs were over. Boozer said the Jazz needed players with "a championship vision," not a fully fueled jet on the runway, heading for the Caribbean, or France.
That vision may have to be realized now with a slightly different cast and crew. Williams, who arose as a true star, will have to be paid accordingly. From where will that money under the cap come? Good question.
What will become of Kirilenko, who despite a couple of big three-pointers in the closing seconds Friday night is sorrily overpaid, and some of the team's role players?
How will the Jazz manage and maintain their still rising youthful team? Who's in, who's out?
Maybe those are questions for another day.
The Jazz can hope their future will eventually eclipse what the Lakers did to them in their present, which, of course, is now part of their past.
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* GORDON MONSON hosts "The Big Show" weekdays from 3-7 p.m. on 1280 AM The Zone. He can be reached at gmonson@sltrib.com.
