Sloan not happy with focus

Last time the Chicago Bulls got off to an 0-9 start, the year was 1967.

It was the second season in franchise history, Johnny "Red" Kerr was the coach and Bob Boozer was the Bulls' leading scorer.

The team photo of a club that finished 29-53 but went to the playoffs anyway shows just 10 players, one of whom happens to be a certain guard wearing No. 4 as he stood in the second row, Jim Washington to his left, Flynn Robinson and Dave Schellhase both seated in front of him.

This season, coach Scott Skiles' Bulls again are 0-9 and one of Chicago's top scorers, big man Eddy Curry, calls the streak of ineptitude "embarrassing."

Back at the beginning of that '67-68 season, the Bulls went to Spokane, Wash., — John Stockton was just a little guy there then — to beat Seattle and avoid opening 0-10.

Tonight, the Bulls are in Utah, hoping to again avoid the first 0-10 start in franchise history.

Jerry Sloan, now in his 17th season coaching the Jazz, can only hope he is not the one feeling embarrassed after tonight. Because he sure wasn't proud of what happened Monday evening.

With Spokane native Stockton on hand to watch his old No. 12 retired to the rafters of the Delta Center, Utah fell 76-75 to New Orleans.

At 0-8, the Hornets came in without a win but left with one.

It wasn't that fact that sapped the pride from Sloan so much as it was the fact his 7-4 club left him wondering what is on its collective mind.

"I don't know what their ambition is," Sloan said Tuesday. "If their ambition is just to play — you know, there's a difference between 'playing' and 'playing to win.'

"It's difficult to play this game," he added, "if you don't have your head into it."

Sloan watched videotape early Tuesday morning, and easily could have had a headache after seeing what he did.

On offense — "If you can call it an offense," he said — Sloan saw sloppiness and silliness. Utah shot just 38.2 percent from the field. The Jazz's season scoring leader — Carlos Boozer, not Bob — had just eight points on 2-of-8 shooting. The Jazz had a mere five assists at halftime, and — also telling — just one deflection during second-quarter play.

"There were so many times that we had one guy, almost every possession, that wasn't in the right spot," Sloan said. "It just takes one."

Other times, one is not nearly enough.

"Andrei (Kirilenko, the Jazz's lone All-Star) tried to pick us up and get us going," Sloan said. "When that happens, somebody else has to step in — instead of just folding your tent a little bit, and backing off and saying, 'Oh well, he's going to carry us through.'