It might have been over before that when Jazz center Mehmet Okur started launching aimless jumpers. It might have been over before that when the Jazz took the court with an injured Deron Williams and without the steadying hand of Derek Fisher at all.

Or it might have been over even before the opening tip when the Jazz splintered into two camps: Those who were playing to save their season and those who knew they had little chance of overcoming a 3-1 deficit against the Spurs

"It was pretty disappointing the way we came out,'' Williams said. "We came out with not much energy from the start, not much fight. That's something that shouldn't happen in a game like this, a game this magnitude in front of the whole world."

Williams didn't pull any punches, saying, "I like to win. Some guys, it seems like they don't play to win sometimes." He was pressed on the subject, asked if he was talking about just Game 5 or the entire series against San Antonio.

"Series, this year, last year,'' Williams said. "I'm not saying they don't play to win. I don't know if they care if they win or lose when it's all said and done."

The Jazz played three horrendous quarters in this series and lost three one-sided games at AT&T Center as a result. They lost the second quarters of Games 1 and 2 by a combined 63-33 but the first quarter Wednesday was orders of magnitude worse.

The Spurs made 13 of 20 shots (65 percent) in the quarter while the Jazz went just 7 of 22. Of those 22 shots, 16 were jumpers as the Jazz settled for the outside shot with their season slipping away.

Williams was hobbled by a foot strain while Fisher was in transit from New York after his 11-month-old daughter underwent a second round of treatment for eye cancer. That left Gordan Giricek starting in Fisher's place and Tony Parker driving for layups against Williams.

Giricek played 8:28 in the quarter and was credited for just a single turnover during the time he spent on the floor. No points, rebounds, assists or shots.

The Jazz's demise started with Okur bricking two three-pointers and a 17-footer in short succession. Okur never was able to get going and shot just 28.3 percent in the conference finals, hardly the way he wanted to finish what was an All-Star season.

On the other end, Okur struggled to contain Spurs forward Tim Duncan, who faced him up and tossed in one of his patented bank shots. Duncan was a perfect 3-for-3 in the quarter and made 3 of 4 free throws.

The Jazz also were powerless to stop the Spurs' 14-0 run in the quarter, which left them trailing 30-11 with 2:43 left. After a quiet series, Spurs forward Robert Horry pressured Williams in the backcourt and forced two turnovers.

He stripped Williams of the ball after the Jazz guard received an inbounds pass following a basket and later forced Williams into a traveling violation on a similar play. Parker ran wild, scoring 11 points in the quarter, and even found Duncan for an alley-oop dunk.

"They got off to a great start,'' Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said. "They came at us really hard and we lost faith in anything we wanted to do as far as the team was concerned. They destroyed our will to want to play. To me, that was the whole thing to start the ballgame off."

rsiler@sltrib.com