Extreme emotions

Sloan brushed away questions about the emotions of Wednesday having taken a toll and instead wanted to talk about how he liked the Jazz's 60-32 advantage on the boards in Game 2 — but was not at all pleased with the 23 turnovers Utah committed.

"We can't go out on the road and do that," he said.

The Jazz coach, in fact, tried to make a case that Monday's Game 1 victory was just as exhausting as Wednesday's wild twists-and-turns affair.

"I think our guys were emotionally involved in that," he said of the series opener.

Whether that's indeed the case or not, this much is certain: Sloan wasn't about to concede that getting up for tonight should be any more of a challenge compared to other postseason games.

"If you like to play basketball," he said, "you can't wait to play the next game."

His advice on preparing properly for tonight: Act as if the last game was lost, and focus on what can be done to overcome whatever shortcomings may have caused the fictional defeat.

Forget about the past, in other words, and focus on the future.

"If you're gonna live off of what happened yesterday," Sloan said, "then we won't be able to get back to where we're supposed to be."

All of which leaves unanswered the question of how to simply shake off seeing one teammate sustain a potentially life-altering injury, and another maintain hope as his little girl fights a life-threatening monster — then play a game less than 48 hours later.

For that, point Williams had perhaps the best suggestion.

"How do you come down?" he asked, repeating a question as it was posed to him.

"You sleep," Williams said. "Wake up in the morning, and it's back to reality."

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E-mail: tbuckley@desnews.com