Houston » The chance for an improbable victory slipped away from the Utah Jazz in agonizing fashion Saturday night at the Toyota Center.

Trailing all the way and down by 12 with less than 10 minutes, the shorthanded Jazz rallied to force double overtime, where Ron Artest, Yao Ming and the Houston Rockets finally prevailed, 120-115.

Improbable victory?

The Jazz played without Carlos Boozer, Memo Okur and Paul Millsap only 24 hours after an emotional win at home over Dallas.

Agonizing fashion?

Houston went only 7-for-31 from the field in the final 22 minutes, but the Rockets also took 23 of the game's final 28 free throws, which left the Jazz muttering to themselves.

"There were a lot of emotions in that [game] -- mixed and everything else," coach Jerry Sloan said. "It was a winnable ballgame. ... Pretty tough to swallow."

Jazz point guard Deron Williams played 44 minutes and did not shoot a free throw.

"Go figure," he said.

The Jazz trailed most of the way, but Williams tied the game with 12.8 seconds left in regulation.

After Artest missed a long three-pointer, Utah had a half-second to try and win the game.

Inbounding from the sideline, Andrei Kirilenko tried to lob the ball to Ronnie Brewer at the rim. But the horn sounded with the ball still in the air, apparently because the pass was tipped coming out of Kirilenko's hands.

"I don't think so," he said.

In the first overtime, the Jazz also had a final chance at victory. But after Kyrylo Fesenko missed two free throws moments earlier, Brewer missed one with 8.5 seconds left that would have given the Jazz a 102-101 lead.

"That's just that part of basketball," Sloan said. "... I was proud of the fact that our guys played [and] tried to win the game."

Utah's chances ended in the second overtime, when Houston owned an 11-1 edge in free-throw attempts before the Jazz started fouling intentionally.

Artest was 8 for 8 from the line in the final 4:43.

"Coming down the stretch," Sloan said, "we had a difficult time with our rotations and trying to get the ball out of his hands. ... That's what happens with younger guys, trying to figure out where they're supposed to be and what they're supposed to do. But you have to live with that."

Yao finished with 26 points, but Fesenko did a good job against him while playing 33 minutes -- only 14 less than he played in the previous 31 games.

"I just tried to push him out of there and make his life a little tougher," Fesenko said.

luhm@sltrib.com