Last year, the Utah Jazz started two of their three playoff series with a pair of losses. From those 0-2 holes, they managed to fight back and win one round but then managed to pick up just one victory in the vacation-preceding match-up.

The Jazz are still confident they can claw back into this Western Conference semifinal against the Los Angeles Lakers, but they know winning four of the next five against the Hollywood hoopsters is a tough task.

In other words, the hole they're currently in feels a lot more like the one they were in against the eventual-NBA-champion San Antonio Spurs in the Western Conference Finals last spring than against the Houston Rockets in the first round in 2007. Utah lost to the Spurs 4-1 to miss out on the NBA Finals, but they fought out of the slow start in Houston to win the opening round in seven games.

To even have a shot at staying in this second-round series, Jazz players know they need to pick up one win before they can get to four. They'll get another crack at the Lakers in Game 3 on Friday night at EnergySolutions Arena. Game 4 is on Sunday, and they hope the rest of the series' schedule will be etched in stone soon, too.

"These are must-wins for us," said Deron Williams on Thursday morning at the Zions Bank Basketball Center where the Jazz were trying to regroup in time for their next two home games. "We're down 2-0, the odds are against us, and it's a good team we're playing, so we've just got to be able to protect (our) home court and try to go back out there and win one."

Williams is confident the Jazz will play better at home in front of their enthusiastic crowd as opposed to how off they were in front of the stars at the Staples Center.

"This is our home, No. 1, so we'll have energy, the crowd on our side by (us) this time," he said. "We just have to make a concept to get off to a better start. ... We've just got to come out with a lot more energy, intensity and be willing to defend them. We can't allow them to keep shooting 50, 60 percent."

---

E-mail: jody@desnews.com