The Jazz will get right to that task, maybe when their break is actually over.

Playing like they spent the day at the beach under a hot sun sipping frosty drinks, just like many of the players said they spent their holiday, Utah was thumped 103-83 by Boston Tuesday.

Or, maybe instead of thinking they were still on vacation, the Jazz merely thought they were all All-Stars. At least their defense was up to All-Star caliber, which was almost nil.

Utah allowed Boston to shoot 36-for-62 for the game, led by Paul Pierce's 30-point effort.

Pierce scored 11 points in the opening minutes of the second half, leading the Celtics on a 17-8 run that erased a 47-43 halftime Jazz lead.

Boston's comeback actually started before the break when guard Delonte West coaxed Jazz rookie Deron Williams into some 1-on-1 situations. At the time, the Jazz were up by 14 points with 2:42 left in the half. When West was done with Williams, making two three-pointers and a jumper,

Utah's lead was down to four. It was all a sign of things to come.

"Everybody started going 1-on-1, and you can't beat a team going 1-on-1," guard Milt Palacio said. "They beat us playing as a team."

Boozer, in his first game back in the Delta Center since Feb. 11, 2005, was greeted with applause and a mix of boos and calls of "Boozer." He logged the most minutes of his four appearances, finishing with six points and 10 rebounds in almost 26 minutes. If his presence back in the lineup was supposed to revitalize the Jazz, it didn't. Instead, Utah continued a slide it started before the All-Star break, and enters tonight's game against New Orleans/Oklahoma on a three-game losing streak and seven losses in 11 games.

Utah says it wants to be in the playoff race, but the Jazz aren't playing like it.

"Talking doesn't do anything," Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said. "The bigger problem is how much you bring. John Stockton wasn't much of a talker, but he put it out there on the floor every night, and this team doesn't understand that. Part of the problem is youth, but I don't know if that explains it. The difference is what is right and what is wrong."

Sloan said he spent the All-Star break on his farm in Illinois, dwelling on the losses to Houston and Los Angeles. Add this one to the pile, and Utah alarmingly looks like the team of last year, when it didn't even bother to go through the motions en route to that dismal 26-win season.

"We're starting off good, then we are losing our concentration," Andrei Kirilenko said. "It happens in the last three games. We're playing not bad, then we go on long stretches and give up 18, 20 points in a row and it kills us. How do you play the fourth quarter when you are 20 points down? You try, but it is practically impossible to win."

The killer for the Jazz on Tuesday was the third quarter, when Pierce scored 17 of Boston's 37 points. The forward, who shot 6-for-6 from the field in the stretch, matched what the Jazz had as a team with much better production. Utah was just 5-for-19.

"We got it going, I was feeling good," Pierce said. "Guys seemed to be feeding off what I was doing offensively. We were able to get layups and get to the free-throw line. We mixed it up and took good shots."

Kirilenko's eyes started to tear in the locker room as he talked in a shaky voice about his frustrations and inability to stop Pierce. He played just four minutes in the final quarter because of his inept defense, but his small consolation was that none of his teammates could do any better.

"There were a couple of times he would get screens right in front of our bench, and we'd look over like 'What are we supposed to do now?' " Sloan said. "You have to fight through those screens and you can't keep making defensive mistakes."

Funny, and almost a bit sad that Sloan should mention the word 'fight,' for that is one element the Jazz can't seem to muster.

IN SHORT - The Jazz lose their third game in a row, this one to Boston, a team that had won just four previous road games.

KEY STAT - Utah was just 10-for-35 in the second half, while the Celtics missed only seven of their 27 attempts.

KEY MOMENT - Paul Pierce scored 11 as Boston opened the second half on a 17-8 run.