In a hallway at EnergySolutions Arena Wednesday night, he talked once again -- for the first time in weeks -- about body language after his team played the Utah Jazz tough for the first half on the second night of difficult back-to-back games and then went meekly into the good night in the third quarter.

"The thing we did for the first time in awhile was we succumbed, put our heads down and felt sorry for ourselves," Wittman said. "We hadn't done that lately. Would it have made a difference tonight? No, but some nights it will make a difference. We can't just stop playing. I told them afterward, 'We have two weeks left in the season and we can't do that anymore.'"

The Wolves' starting five was responsible for a five-minute collapse when a three-point deficit quickly became 19 points.

"Man, he hit like four 3's in a row," Wolves forward Al Jefferson said, referring to Mehmet Okur's third-quarter shooting flurry. "It was just tough. We should have kept playing and kept fighting. We showed our emotions too much."

Somebody told Wolves forward Kirk Snyder his coach thought the team had stopped playing in the third quarter.

"It's a tough situation," Snyder said. "Do you run the plays or do you take threes and try to come back? I'm a gambler. It's unfortunate that it seemed that way to coach. Guys were just trying to make a comeback. That's the American way."

JAZZ 117, WOLVES 100: The Wolves beat Utah on Sunday at home for the second time in five weeks. On Wednesday in Salt Lake City, Wolves coach Randy Wittman worried the Jazz -- nearly unbeatable at home and suspect on the road -- might knock his team out early on its second half of back-to-back games that included Tuesday's fizzled loss to Detroit.

Afterward, he said he was "proud" his team held tough through halftime, when Utah led by just three points.

The debilitating uppercuts arrived early in the third quarter, when a 59-56 Utah lead quickly became a 79-61 bulge in a five-minute span. The Wolves never climbed up off the canvas until the fourth quarter and by then, it was far too late.

Utah big men Mehmet Okur and Andrei Kirilenko both returned Wednesday night against the Wolves So, too, did the Jazz' shooting eye. All three were missing on Sunday.

Kirilenko sat out that game because of injured calf muscles, Okur stayed home with the stomach flu and the Jazz made one of 12 three-point shots. On Wednesday, they went 12-for-22 (54.5 percent) and busted free a close game when Okur hit three threes in a game-turning 20-5 third-quarter run.