Utah Jazz: Sloan takes advantage of a practice opportunity

Jazz coach Jerry Sloan knew that, even before Russian forward Andrei Kirilenko — who isn't even a football fan — encouraged him to get things started Sunday with a playful, "C'mon, Coach: Giants-Eagles."

Sloan, though, couldn't care less about the NFL playoffs or Sunday snoozing.

He instead treasured the opportunity — at the tail end of a four-game homestand that concludes with tonight's game against Indiana — to get in one more workout before the Jazz head out for a three-games-in-four-nights trip later this week that includes stops in Oklahoma City, Memphis and Dallas.

Even if only 11 healthy players were available for the short session.

"If I thought we could win every game without practicing,"

Sloan said, "I wouldn't have a problem with that.

"But," he hastened to add, "the team I had before that was pretty good — they practiced harder than anybody I've ever had."

His reference, of course, was to the John Stockton- and Karl Malone-clubs that made back-to-back trips to the NBA Finals in 1997 and '98.

HOME SWEET HOME: Even when the Jazz went through a late-November-through-mid-December stretch in which they lost four of eight games at EnergySolutions Arena, Sloan wasn't overly worried about his team losing what is typically an overwhelming homecourt advantage.

"Obviously some of it had to do with our personnel," he said reference to his injury-battered team, which tonight is expected to go over the century mark in man-games lost due to injury. "I have to be honest about it."

Sloan also was quite candid about a couple of related topics Sunday.

One is that he remains "disappointed" with the Jazz's 7-11 road record. The other is that he doesn't read too much into Utah's current hot streak at home, which features five straight victories.

"When you look at the whole package," Sloan said, "we've caught teams that probably have been a little bit tired."

The Jazz's last two victims, Detroit and New Orleans, both came to Utah on the back end of back-to-back sets, and Indiana, which played Sunday night at Golden State, does the same this evening.

MEDICAL UPDATES: Point guard Deron Williams skipped practice Sunday and stayed home instead due to the head cold/sinus infection he has been battling.

But he is fully expected to play tonight.

Williams also did not practice Friday, but he played Saturday against Detroit.

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