Phil Jackson squeezed out a tortured smile and dropped into that disapproving tone of his, the one he saves for these occasions when the opponent has ruffled his purist sensibilities, the referees have been unhelpful and his Lakers have just stunned him with a sudden burst of ineptitude.

There are but a handful of games each season when Jackson will use his postgame pulpit to bash officiating or someone else's brand of basketball. But the Lakers, who Tuesday night finally reached first place again, had just dropped themselves back into the pack Wednesday, and so Jackson was in no mood to check himself.

Amid a flurry of fouls and turnovers and Kobe Bryant misfires, the Lakers lost to the Utah Jazz 92-84 at the Delta Center and fell a half-game behind Sacramento for the NBA's best record.

The Lakers turned over the ball a season-high 24 times, which the Jazz converted into 32 points. Utah garnered another 32 points at the foul line, setting a season high for a Lakers opponent.

So Jackson vented.

"The officials got caught up in the b.s. that the Jazz do in the third quarter and just sent them to the line all the time," Jackson grumbled. "It was one of those kind of situations where it was a no-win situation at all. We couldn't play defense because everything turned into a foul, and at the other end of the court we weren't handling the ball very well."