Jazz rookie Paul Millsap leaned back in his EnergySolutions Arena locker stall chair, head cocked, eyes — presumably closed but covered by a jersey or warmup of some sort — pointed toward the ceiling.

He held that position not for mere moments but instead multiple minutes.

His team had just been booed off its own home floor, perhaps deservedly so, their pitiful showing in a 126-98 blowout loss to Phoenix last Saturday night one of its least-inspired of the season.

Utah was deep in the process of allowing home-court advantage in its 4-5 seed first-round Western Conference playoff series with Houston that starts this Saturday night slip away, and Millsap was pondering just how improbable to traverse the Jazz were making the already long road leading to an NBA championship ring.

Perhaps even more so than that, he was contemplating a grander issuer.

"When you lose games like that, you lose them by a lot of points," he said, "it makes you wonder about your team."

Many wonder — and some even doubt — the Jazz as they prepare to embark on their first postseason series since 2003.

Utah has won two straight and three of its last four games, but the truth is that the Jazz — seen as a series underdog by many among the national media — are limping into the playoffs.

A win at Dallas last Friday snapped a five-game losing streak but came against an NBA-leading Mavericks team that was prepping for the postseason by resting two lineup regulars. A victory over Portland on Monday was over a Trail Blazers club that had largely quit long ago and whose top two scorers — plus a few other regulars — were out with injuries. And Wednesday's win over Houston came in a regular-season finale for both teams that amounted to nothing more than a scrimmage, with the Jazz playing their subs more than their starters and the Rockets not even bothering to play resting All-Stars Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming.

"We had an opportunity, and it got away from us," veteran guard Derek Fisher said. "(But) I don't think you waste too much time worrying about the fact that we have to go on the road initially."

Fisher instead opts to dwell on the positives, and relish the fact that a 51-victory campaign that included a runaway Northwest Division championship win is the Jazz's best since 2000-01.