Losses not tied to Kirilenko

Make no mistake, they're happy he's back.

But just how much has Andrei Kirilenko's return impacted the Jazz, who after winning all five games in which he was out with a sprained ankle — and the first after he returned — have now lost two straight?

Jazz coach Jerry Sloan, for one, doesn't connect dots.

"It's not just Andrei. ... It's our whole team," he said Tuesday, the morning after NBA-leading Utah lost to Eastern Conference-leading Orlando and the day before the 12-3 Jazz face the West's second-best so far in 11-4 San Antonio.

"I'm not concerned about that," Sloan added, "so much as what we're doing as far as running our offense."

Kirilenko is, however, one of the cogs who can make it click — and reintegration of the man known as AK-47 has not come without the need for a dash of WD-40.

"That could be part of it," veteran guard Derek Fisher said. "Anytime you lose players that are part of your rotation for any period of time ... it takes an adjustment on their part, as well as the other guys that were playing the minutes that were there while those guys were out.

"In some ways, he's ... probably still trying to find 'Where is my part in this?"' Fisher added. "I mean, (with) the emergence of Deron (Williams), and Carlos (Boozer) playing phenomenal, and Memo (Okur) has been playing great for us, I'm sure Andrei's trying to find where he fits in."

Kirilenko acknowledges that's the case.

"I'm trying to look positive at it," he said, "because we have lots of negative things because we're losing."

In his first game back, though, all Kirilenko did was on the ledger's plus side.

Rather than try to take shots and points from Boozer, Okur and Williams, Kirilenko made defense his focus in a win over Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers. He blocked five shots, dished four assists and frustrated Bryant in the late going — all while taking just one shot of his own.

Afterward, he spoke of intentionally playing not to disrupt the success on offense the Jazz's trio of top scorers exhibited during his absence — and even expressed regret over calling for more ball earlier in the season.

Sloan, a day later, lauded Kirilenko for setting the tone and simply blending in.

"He didn't really go search out shots," the Jazz coach said then. "He just took kind of what was there."