Steve Kerr puts defensive pressure on John Stockton.

"They gave us a defensive lesson tonight, and that's maybe something we need to learn," Stockton said. "Hopefully we learned something from it, instead of just getting beat by it."

In case his teammates weren't taking notes, Stockton ran down exactly what the Bulls did so well.

"They beat us to cuts and showed out on screens and did all the little things that were important for us to do -- only they did them," he said.

"They were active and helping each other and getting back to their man. They did a super job."

Stockton's one turnover of the first three periods seemed to sum up the night for Utah.

After exchanging elbows with Ron Harper to get position for an inbounds pass, Stockton fired a pass underneath in the direction of forward Antoine Carr. Out of nowhere, Michael Jordan came flying over from the weakside to offer help. Jordan picked off the pass, quickly brought it the other way and found Scottie Pippen for a thunderous dunk.

It was that type of night for the Bulls, who seemed to be step quicker in their rotations.

"Every defense has a counter, and we're not countering at all," Utah forward Karl Malone said.

Added guard Jeff Hornacek, "I think we were too cautious early and just needed to be more aggressive and quicker earlier in the game."

Utah isn't alone. The Bulls were able to turn up their defense for stretches in their previous two series against Miami and Atlanta, leaving their opponents struggling to get a good shot for seemingly an entire quarter.

"Our defense has been strong against everybody," Chicago guard Steve Kerr said. "We've got some great individual defenders, good team defense, and we have done some things against (Utah) to stop their screen-and-roll."

The Jazz can only hope that a trip to the Great Salt Lake will help end its constant dry spells.