"The first half, again," he said, "we get into that situation where we think in order to play we've got to get some shots off — and everybody gets their shots off."

Once the Jazz got to pounding the ball inside, eventually finishing with a 72-36 points-in-the-paint edge over the Kings, their rally was on.

"At the end," Sloan said, "we come down and execute our offense, and we get decent shots, and we get to the free-throw line."

All of which had the coach who is now five wins away from No. 1,000 — go figure — seeing the turkey half nothing but half-empty, even as his comeback kids licked the last of the apple pie from their forks.

Thrive with adversity?

Phooey, Sloan suggested.

All he cares about is how the Jazz got so down to begin with, now that they pulled off crawling back out to pull off their best 12-game start in franchise history.

"The first half," Sloan said in Sacramento, "was just atrocious."

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E-mail: tbuckley@desnews.com