The 18-17 Jazz head into tonight's game against Indiana having lost four of their last seven outings, and 12 of their last 17.

They fell last Saturday night in Portland, marking their third loss to the Trail Blazers in a four-game, 25-night span.

They are in danger, with the potential of losses tonight to Indiana and Thursday night to Phoenix, of dropping below .500 for the first time since late in the 2005-06 season.

With all that in mind, Jazz coach Jerry Sloan engaged prior to practice Monday in a rather lengthy query session about the current state of last season's NBA Western Conference finalists.

What follows are Sloan's answers, and the questions that prompted them:

Q.: Is this team playing with more of a nonchalant attitude than they ought to be?

A.: "I think you'd have to ask them. I can't read that. I mean, you don't know what their feelings are and what their thoughts are. Only they can tell you.

"I think they'd like to move up and get in the playoffs. I hope it's not just (a feeling of) ... come and finish the season out.' Because there still is a lot of basketball to be played. We haven't reached the halfway mark, and there's always gonna be a lot of ups and downs in an 82-game schedule.

"It's a matter of how you fight out of it. And we have not fought back in the some of the games, I think, we've been in. Things go a little bit sideways with us, we kind of have a tendency to let that fester a little bit, and it seems to cause us some problems."

Q.: Do you sense your guys are playing with a playoff-like intensity like you said Portland was in last Saturday's loss?

A.: "I don't think we're playing with a great deal of intensity. I went back and watched the film of the game, and I didn't see a great deal of intensity on the defensive end of the floor. And when things go against you on the defensive end of the floor, we have a tendency to think we have to do it alone. (But) it's still a five-man game, and that's when you have to stick together and fight through.

"There will be times that you have two or three possessions and you don't get anything out of it, and then you say ... Well, I've got to do this on my own,' and you take another bad shot. It's tough to fight out. That's why you have to depend on each other — and if you can't depend on each other, then it is difficult."

Q.: Is there anything more that can be done to light a fire under them?