Jazz face Clippers in L.A. matinee

LOS ANGELES — It went down as a defeat.

But ultimately a 100-94 loss to Shaquille O'Neal, Dwyane Wade and the Miami Heat on Saturday night at the Delta Center might be looked upon as a win.

A victory, that is, for coach Jerry Sloan in finally getting the Jazz to understand the importance of playing each possession as if it really does matter.

The caveat: IF they actually listen to what he had to say afterward.

"I told them, 'If we're going to try to play this way, where every possession is not important to us, then we're going to have a difficult time winning,' " said Sloan, whose Jazz face the Los Angeles Clippers this afternoon at Staples Center. "I told them, 'You have to decide who you want to be.' I said, 'You can play against anybody in this league.'

"And I've believed that from Day 1 — provided we do some things we have to do as a team."

High on that laundry list is making every single trip down the floor count.

On Sunday morning Sloan still seemed particularly miffed by a couple of glaringly bad shots from the Jazz, one an unsuccessful 3-point try by forward Andrei Kirilenko early in the second quarter and the other a well-off-the-mark 17-foot jumper by center Greg Ostertag that came a few possessions later with eight seconds still left on the 24-second clock and Utah up by six.

At the time, the two miscues seemed fairly harmless — to very nearly everyone in the building except for a foot-stomping, at-wit's-end Sloan.

"Our guys don't really totally understand possessions," the Jazz coach said. "We took 5 bad shots — 5 and they're right back in the ballgame.

"They (Jazz players) go, 'We're six up, it doesn't matter if I miss this or not.' That was the mentality. And you can't have that mentality."

Especially not against an opponent like the Heat, a 23-15 team that appears to be one of the best the NBA's Eastern Conference has to offer.

"This team is better, they're stronger, they're tougher," Sloan said.

"We played a very good team that executed," he added. "They got the ball where they wanted it to go. They knew what they were doing on every possession. They didn't take crazy shots. They didn't just come out and say, 'Well, I'm firing one up there,' for the most part."

The Jazz?

"We executed when we executed," Sloan said, "but when we didn't execute we were in trouble."

Still, all is not lost in the minds of some of those who strayed and left Sloan dismayed.

"We made some mistakes (Saturday) night," Ostertag said Sunday morning, "but I thought for the most part we competed."

For perspective's sake, Utah still is above .500 (19-18), still leads the Northwest Division, still has won three of its last four and eight of its last 10.

"I think we'll be fine," big man Mehmet Okur said.

"Sports is like that," guard Gordan Giricek added. "One day you're great, another day you lose — you're not good anymore. I think as long as we believe in ourselves as a team, we'll be fine."

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E-mail: tbuckley@desnews.com