Lousy start spoils decent Jazz effort

With the exception of the first half of the first quarter — when the Jazz quickly fell behind by a dozen points to the Denver Nuggets — Jazz coach Jerry Sloan was pleased with much of what he saw from his team on Wednesday night.

Still, it wasn't enough for the Jazz to end their season-long losing streak. Denver's 115-106 victory was Utah's fifth loss in a row.

"I thought our guys finally played hard," said Sloan. "They played with a great deal of intensity after about the first five minutes of the ball game. They fought back. We made a couple of mistakes, but you've got to have a break or two here or there and we didn't come away with any."

Sloan was quick to point out that his team is young and not experienced in NBA playoff-like atmospheres. But the most postseason savvy Jazz player points his own way when asked what has been wrong with the team in recent weeks.

"We're just not getting it done right now, and I'll take a lot of that responsibility or accountability myself," said veteran guard Derek Fisher, who has played in 117 playoff games while a member of the Lakers. "I'm not performing up to par. I'm not making shots, not making plays I'm capable of making."

Fisher was just 2-for-10 from the field on Wednesday night.

"When you are part of a team you are expected to carry your weight and right now I'm not doing it," said Fisher. "One of the reasons I was brought in here was to help the team win key games, big games and to help the team by making plays in the fourth quarter and seconds halves and it's just not happening for me right now. I feel bad I'm not doing the job for my team and helping us win more games."

Sloan certainly didn't single out Fisher — or any other Jazz player — as a reason for the team's recent woes. He did, however, admit that the team's swoon is frustrating.

"The lessons learned the past two or three weeks have kind of destroyed a little bit of a great season," said Sloan. "Our goal was to make the playoffs, but look at where this team could have been if we would have had a little better effort on three or four more occasions. Where would we be?"

Houston, Utah's first-round playoff opponent, is now 1 1/2 games ahead of the Jazz in the race for homecourt advantage. The Jazz are hopeful, however, that they can get back on track before the playoffs with four regular season games remaining.

"We've established ourselves as a competitive basketball team," said Fisher. "We still believe that that team is still in there. It just hasn't been around lately. But I don't think anybody in this locker room will quit on this team. We are all here as a team and we are going to stand up and face this adversity."

Sloan thought he saw signs of that competitive team coming through on Wednesday night. Friday night at Dallas will be Utah's next chance to show if it is going to be competitive against playoff-caliber competition once again.

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E-mail: lojo@desnews.com