Sloan still believes Jazz capable of competing

His Jazz have lost five straight and are missing their top two scorers from a season ago, injured Carlos Boozer and Andrei Kirilenko.

Coach Jerry Sloan, though, is not nearly as down on his 4-7 club as one might suspect.

"The last couple of games we've relied on each other a lot more," he said after losing Friday at Phoenix and Saturday vs. Memphis. "We realized we have to help each other, and if we can do that we can compete."

The Jazz, in other words, are not exhibiting the same selfishness they did during a 26-win season in 2004-05. Not that Sloan, whose hurting team is back at it tonight at the Delta Center vs. Milwaukee, would have it any other way.

"Now, I don't think everybody's totally on that page yet," he said. "We still have guys (who think) anything's a shot."

That's an apparent reference to second-season forward Kris Humphries and, to a lesser degree, rookie second-round draft choice Robert Whaley.

Those two get chastised as much as anyone for frequently shooting whenever they touch the ball, something Sloan said must stop.

"That will eventually weed itself out," he said. "I hope they understand I'm giving them a little bit of rope. If they're going to continue to hang themselves, I'm not going to be able to do anything but put somebody else out there.

"I don't care who it is or whatever the situation is, because I have to try to figure out some way to try to win — and we've already proven we cannot win playing 'me.' "

Humphries and Whaley are two youngsters who, because of injuries, are playing more than they might otherwise.

Another: rookie point Deron Williams.

"We're throwing him out there a lot quicker than I'd hoped," Sloan said of Williams, who has started three straight games because Keith McLeod has missed the past four with an avulsion fracture in his lower back. "But he's got some things he can do, and hopefully he can improve as he goes along without being satisfied."

It's not just those three who are relatively inexperienced.

Along with 18-year-old C.J. Miles and undrafted Andre Owens, the Jazz have four rookies on their 12-man active roster.