They've won five of their last six playoff games. Survived back-to-back elimination games to win a first-round series with the Houston Rockets. Just opened the second round by beating the team, Golden State, that destroyed Dallas, most everyone's NBA title favorite after the Mavericks rolled through the regular season.

The Jazz are hot heading into tonight's Western Conference semifinal series Game 2 against the Warriors at EnergySolutions Arena, and they seem to sense it.

Trying to get them to acknowledge it, however, is like asking Baron Davis, Jason Richardson and Stephen Jackson to mind the speed limit driving down Interstate 15.

Probably not going to happen, and even if it does it's only because traffic ahead has slowed everyone to a crawl.

"You know," forward Matt Harpring said in his best bid to divert attention away from the Jazz and place it squarely on the Warriors, "they're a hot team, too."

"I would say Golden State was hotter than us," point guard Deron Williams added the day after he scored a personal playoff-high 31 points to help Utah win its best-of-seven series opener 116-112. "They just took down the best team in basketball all year."

The Jazz?

Just happy to be here, Jerry Sloan proclaimed the morning of Game 1.

Fortunate to be allowed in the same gym as the Warriors, let alone the same league, the Jazz coach tried steering you to think afterward.

"I think they believe, if they work hard," Sloan said of his own players. "But they've also seen when we haven't (worked) we don't have much of a chance against anybody.

"And we certainly wouldn't have a chance against this team (Golden State) if we don't play hard," he added Tuesday. "I mean, they put so much pressure on you they're shooting layups like a layup drill. I mean, they beat us down the floor like a drum."

Sloan says it's a fine line between confidence and cockiness, and he hopes his club doesn't come close to crossing it.

"Over-confidence," he said, "is destructive sometimes."

"You know, about the time you think (you're pretty good) ... you have your ears boxed off the side of your head," the Jazz coach added. "That's the thing that always concerns me — when you think you're better than somebody else. There's nothing wrong with having confidence. But when you think you're better — I've never dealt with that very well."

Reality, however, is that the Jazz are standing rather upright these days.

After dropping their first two playoff games at Houston, they rallied to win four of their next five.

On just one full night's rest, they ran with the high-octane Warriors for a half — then slowed the pace after the break and took control down the stretch, when Williams got the best of Davis and Carlos Boozer yanked down one of the biggest boards of his Jazz career and promptly put up the game-winner in Monday's waning seconds.