"We've had more guys play together longer," Sloan said of a group including Okur, Kirilenko, Giricek, Matt Harpring and frequently finishing point Milt Palacio. "You know, it's the first time we've had this group of guys together — guys that can play, and kind of have an understanding of what we're doing.

"We played with a lot of younger guys (previously)," the Jazz coach added. "Little nuances of basketball, they don't quite pick up sometimes when you get in a tough situation."

Perhaps the biggest reason, though, is a simple matter of trust.

"We say it all the time," Harpring said, "but when we get away from (execution) and guys try to do too much outside of our offense we're not a very good team. When we stay within what we can do, trust our offense, come off screens, pass the ball and shoot the ball when we're open, we can beat anyone."

Over the past nine games, the Jazz have beaten Philadelphia and the Los Angeles Lakers (minus Kobe Bryant) twice each, and Memphis, Houston, NBA-leading Detroit and Washington one time apiece — with half of those victories over teams currently .500 or better.

Winning has bred more of the same.

"(We) believe we can win every game from now on like this, and I hope we can keep that confidence," Giricek said after the Jazz closed in Philly with a third consecutive convincing fourth quarter. "With wins, it gives us confidence to continue believing in ourselves and our offense — especially at the end of games."

Again, it all seems to come back to the offense.

Defense may win championships, but make no mistake: Success on the offensive end makes NBA players smile.

"Everybody knows they're going to get shots, and I think the best thing is Coach (Sloan) runs everything to your strength," Palacio said before referencing Okur, Kirilenko and Giricek. "He runs it to Memo's strength, runs it to AK's strength, to Giri's strength — and those are our big scorers."

"It's a pleasure to play when guys share the ball, and everybody is involved," Giricek added. "It's unbelievable how it's easy to play like that."

Not so when the Jazz were dealing with hard times.

"We tried it the other way," Sloan said.

"They tried to do crazy things," he added, "instead of executing what is there."

Now, the Jazz close with confidence — in what they're doing, and in each other. Twenty-nine assists against the 76ers, including Okur's career-high eight, attest.

"If we pass the ball to the open man, then somebody will get a better shot," Sloan said. "That's where we've probably helped ourselves more than anything."

Accordingly, the Jazz are convinced — even trust — they really can win playing Sloan's way.

"They were kind of playing not to lose a lot of times," the Jazz coach said. "But (lately), when we've gotten down, we've fought back — and that's been important.

"We've had a lot of games where we've gotten behind," Sloan added, "but we still stayed with what we did, and executed, and set screens, and helped somebody else."

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E-mail: tbuckley@desnews.com