All but one.

Mehmet Okur entertained an enormous group of his countrymen who turned out to cheer him on, but he left the building far less satisfied after the Jazz once again took a sledgehammer to their up-and-down playoff hopes. Utah was pushed around in the second half by the pushover-no-more Clippers, succumbing 106-91 to fall into 10th place in the Western Conference.

"It's a hard one to swallow," said co-captain Matt Harpring. "It should never have happened."

Oh, but plenty more happened, too.

Every team the Jazz are theoretically chasing won Friday, pushing the Jazz closer to an early summer vacation. Division leader Denver cut its magic number to four for a Northwest title. The Lakers put 3 1/2 games between themselves and the Jazz, and the Kings upped their lead over Utah to 2 1/2 games with 10 to play. And the Hornets stopped their skid long enough to move back ahead of Utah, too.

Now that's a bad night. Right?

"I don't know if that's disappointing to those guys," Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said. "They've got more important things going on than basketball, I guess."

That was probably a veiled reference to Okur, who said he was humbled by the more than 800 Turks who bought tickets to the game, wore matching T-shirts with his picture on the front, and turned the normally laid-back Clipper atmosphere into a European League game, complete with whistling, singing and chanting for their hero.

"They've got my back, you know?" said Okur, who waded into the throng for pictures and autographs 15 minutes after the game. "It makes me feel really good to see them. They push me in a positive way. They bring me a lot of positive energy."

Well, if he says so. To Sloan, it looked like it had the opposite effect. Okur was terrible in the first quarter, missing three shots, committing a couple of turnovers, and even bricking a pair of free throws with the flag-waving Turks (and the corresponding booing by offended Clipper fans) creating a din.

"It looked like he had trouble running up and down the floor," Sloan said.

But he was hardly the only one. The Jazz started slowly, falling behind by 10 after a quarter. A 12-4 run to end the half brought Utah within one, and left Sloan unprepared for what happened next.

"Not in my wildest dreams" did the coach expect his team to slog through perhaps the worst half his new four-forwards lineup has experienced in its nine-game trial run. "That seems to be our M.O. the whole year - when we get into that situation, we can't seem to have the energy to compete."

The Clippers? Different story. They had history to motivate them - the victory clinched their first winning season in 15 years - and it showed. Elton Brand scored 10 of his 22 points in the quarter, including two straight short jumpers and a free throw to balloon the lead from eight to 13. When the Jazz allowed Los Angeles to score the first six points of the fourth quarter, they lost interest, allowing the Clippers to win the season series from Utah for the first time since 1985-86.

"It's very hard for me to understand," said Andrei Kirilenko, who scored 17 points. "We should have been able to stop them."

The Clippers didn't agree. All five starters reached double figures, with Sam Cassell matching Brand's 22.

Four of the Jazz's starters hit double-figures, too, but Carlos Boozer had a difficult night, missing 11 of 15 shots for nine points.

"When we executed, we had decent shots, decent opportunities," Sloan said. "When we didn't, they just ate us alive."

Okur led the Jazz with 18 points, rebounding from his difficult first period to provide the large contingent of his countrymen with what they had been waiting for in the second quarter. Okur, a member of the Turkish national team, went 5-for-8 in the quarter, and grabbed a couple of rebounds besides.

Story lines

IN SHORT - The Clippers made it clear which was the playoff team in the second half, turning a one-point game into a 20-point rout in the fourth quarter.

KEY STATS - The Clippers won the season series with the Jazz, 2-1, for the first time in Jerry Sloan's 18 seasons.

KEY MOMENT - The Jazz were hanging within one point midway through the third quarter, but managed only one basket in the next six minutes, allowing L.A. to roar ahead by 13.