"They beat us every quarter," he said after Utah fell to 29-23 and -- combined with Phoenix's victory Sunday at Detroit -- dropped out of the NBA Western Conference's eighth and final playoff position.

"They just went out and annihilated us. Every time we tried to do something, they got after us. We couldn't handle the Basketball," the Jazz coach added. "Eighteen turnovers (leading to) 34 points -- you play a team, I don't care who they are, and they're that quick to the Basketball, and we're that slow trying to make a decision, you're not going to have a chance to win."

Sloan sensed trouble from the start, and it continued as too many Utah outside shots led to too many Golden State transition opportunities.

The 17-35 Warriors -- who had seven scorers in double figures, including all five starters and a team-high 24 off the bench from Corey Maggette -- beat Utah 32-18 on transition points.

"We never tried to get the ball inside, right from the beginning," Sloan said.

But it really did hurt most in the third, when the Warriors broke open a 58-58 game with a 18-2 burst that featured 11 Jamal Crawford points -- including two 3-pointers and five free throws, three of which came when C.J. Miles fouled Crawford behind the long-distance line.

"He gets one of them every game, man," Miles said. "He finds a way to throw his arms out and finds a way to get you to hit him.

"I was going to run by him, and he held the ball a little bit and then kind of flared his arms. So, I hit him -- but it was because he changed the way he shoots the ball. But I wouldn't have hit him if he had shot it regular."

Just as costly during the killer run was when point guard Deron Williams fouled Maggette with five-and-a-half minutes left in the quarter.

Golden State was up just 64-58 at the time.

It was only Williams' third foul, but Sloan subbed in Ronnie Price anyway.

"I just thought I'd see if we could keep (Williams) from getting his fourth foul, so he could play (later)," Sloan said. "But a lot of guys couldn't do anything. I probably should have gone ahead and substituted everybody."

Said Williams: "I thought it was three fouls -- if I get a fourth, then sit me. But Coach decided to take me out. That's his decision. I have no problem with that. I just wish it hadn't happened like it did. You know, I went out and when I got back in we were down 14."

More than that Williams seemed most upset with the Jazz's defense -- and, despite scoring a game-high 31 points and putting up 30-plus for a fourth straight time, with himself.

"The way I've been taking care of the ball doesn't help, either," he said after a six-turnover night. "The last four games have been pretty disgusting to me. The thing I look at first is turnovers, and I've got to do a better job being aggressive -- but, at the same time, I get myself in some bad positions when I get in the air and have nowhere to go.

"So," Williams added, "I've got to do a better job of taking care of the ball. And as a team we do too. But the defense wasn't there."

Not even from the get-go.

"Give them credit," Sloan said. "They were the alive team ... Our guys just were making an appearance."

Williams conceded as much.

"We kind of laid down," he said.

"We didn't have any defensive principles. We had no game plan," the Jazz point added. "They went small, and were switching a lot of things and making it hard for us on the offensive end. Of course we want to exploit the matchups -- but then we get away from running our offense, which is tough. And that's the ballgame." E-mail: tbuckley@desnews.com